By MLF Communications Staff

Major League Fishing is set to return to Upstate New York this week for the sixth event of the 2022 MLF Bass Pro Tour regular season at Cayuga Lake. The six-day event, hosted by the Village of Union Springs, will showcase 80 of the best professional anglers in the world competing for a purse of more than $805,000, including a top payout of $100,000.

While Cayuga has seen plenty of bass tournaments over the years, the majority of MLF experience is limited to a handful of BFL tournaments and the 2020 MLF Heritage Cup, which featured the anglers competing on three different lakes, with the final-day Championship Round anglers competing on Cayuga.

“Cayuga is a really unique lake,” said Kevin VanDam. “It has a northern shallow end with a lot of grass and a big population of largemouth. During the summer, you can head back to the main lake and fish deeper rocky areas, and there is still grass. Zebra mussels cleared it up a lot, and now it has gobies, and a lot of 5-plus-pounders in the lake. It didn’t have fish that big previously. You can add 2 pounds to the average weight of a big fish from 10 years ago.

“The last time I fished there, I won an event. There were a ridiculous number of 5-pounders caught.”

VanDam said he believes that anglers can win with either largemouth or smallmouth bass.

“With the shallow grass fishing in the north end, a lot of anglers will focus on largemouth bass,” VanDam said. “The other big player for largemouth are shallow boat docks. Fishing deep rockpiles for smallmouth can also be extremely productive. Find the right one, and they concentrate there. They’re big, plentiful, and aggressive.

“The tournament could be won deep or dirt shallow. Whether Ish (Monroe) wants to throw a frog shallow, or (Justin) Lucas or (Josh) Bertrand fish their offshore strengths, they can all fish how they’d like to fish. It will definitely be a special week.”

After five events, reigning Angler of the Year (AOY) Jacob Wheeler again sits in first place with 379 points, while 2020 AOY Jordan Lee is right behind Wheeler in second place with 341 points. Andy Morgan sits in third with 315 points, while VanDam is fourth 302.5 points. Randall Tharp rounds out the Top 5 with 302 points.

Anglers will launch each day at 7:30 a.m. ET from Frontenac Park, located at 15 Creamery Road in Union Springs. Each day’s takeout will be held at the park beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW! livestream and ScoreTracker coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

As part of the event, on Saturday and Sunday noon to 5 p.m., fans are invited to the Major League Fishing Festival at Frontenac Park. Hosted by the Village of Union Springs, the event will feature fans meeting and getting autographs from their favorite BPT anglers. Children are welcome to visit the Kids Zone to meet Skye & Marshall from PAW Patrol, fish for live fish in the Kids Fishing Pond, show off their artistic skills at the coloring stations, and more. There will be vendor booths from MLF sponsors, food, prizes and giveaways, including a free Abu Garcia rod and reel combo for the first 50 youth in attendance both days. One lucky attendee will play for a brand-new Toro 42-inch TimeCutter Zero Turn Mower in the Toro Pick ‘Til You Win game, with runner-up prizes of a new 70-inch LED 4K Smart TV or a $500 VISA gift card.

The tournament will feature anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

The 40 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day qualifying round on Saturday and Monday, with the 40 anglers in Group B fishing on Sunday and Tuesday. After each two-day qualifying round is complete, the anglers who finish in 2nd through 20th place from both groups advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round, while the winner of each group advances directly to Thursday’s Championship Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 38 anglers compete to finish in the Top 8 to advance to the Championship Round. In the final-day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

The MLF NOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action on all six days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLF NOW! will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.