By MLF Communications Staff
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – Major League Fishing returns to Osage Beach, Mo. this week (today through Saturday) for an MLF Invitational at Lake of the Ozarks. The Invitationals feature a roster of 150 professional anglers competing for a top prize of up to $115,000 and an invitation to compete at REDCREST 2024 – the Bass Pro Tour championship – for the chance to win up to $300,000.
The Top 8 pros in the Invitational Angler of the Year (AOY) standings at the end of the season will receive an invitation to compete on the Bass Pro Tour in 2024.
Lake of the Ozarks is a very familiar destination for MLF and the majority of pro anglers in this tournament, as the fishery has played host to numerous MLF tournaments over the years, across all levels of competition. In the last professional MLF tournament to take place on the fishery, a Bass Pro Tour event in 2022, Jesse Wiggins targeted the plentiful boat docks with a homemade shaky-head rig to take home the top payout of $100,000. James Watson of Lampe, Mo., made it to the Knockout Round of that event and said that he expects next week’s event to be very similar.
“It’s going to be a really good tournament – you’re going to need to catch at least 20 pounds a day to compete,” Watson said. “There should be mostly spawning and postspawn fish – there might still be a few straggler prespawn fish coming up – but there is going to be a lot of sight-fishing, a good topwater bite and lots of wacky rigs and shaky-head-type deals going on.”
Watson said that the lake is so good that it makes it hard to predict just how the winner will be fishing.
“I think the key to doing well is probably going to be sight-fishing,” Watson said. “If a guy can find three or four exceptional fish on the bed during practice and have them marked for when the tournament starts, that is going to be important. Another X-Factor might be a giant glide bait or a big swimbait.
“Forward-facing sonar isn’t my style, but it will play,” Watson continued. “The lake is so wide open right now. From dam to dam, any water color, pitching a jig, throwing a spinnerbait or a squarebill up the river, the fish live from dam to dam. It’s one of the reasons why it’s such a great fishery.”
Although he will not be competing in this event, Watson said he’d be throwing numerous different baits each day.
“I’d be sight-fishing some sort of tube, and I’d have a floating worm tied on,” Watson said. “Definitely a (River2Sea) Whopper Plopper, a (River2Sea) Worldwide Buzzbait, and a Zara Spook will catch them. And if I was going up the river, I’d be throwing a 1/2-ounce Strike King spinnerbait with double-willow blades, and a (Strike King) Thunder Cricket.
“Like I said before, you’re going to need to catch at least 20 pounds a day to have a chance at this one,” Watson went on to say. “I predict the winner has 60 to 62 pounds over the three days.”
The full field of 150 anglers compete in the two-day opening round in a five-fish, weigh-in format. Only the Top 50 pros, based on their two-day cumulative weight, will advance to the final round on Saturday, where they will compete for the grand prize of up to $115,000.
Anglers will launch each day at 6:30 a.m. CT from the Grand Glaize Beach Boat Ramp (Public Beach No. 2) at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, located at 711 Public Beach Road in Osage Beach. Weigh-ins will also be held at the boat ramp daily beginning at 2:30 p.m.
