DECATUR,
Ala., June 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/
-- Cliff Prince has suffered
several difficult defeats in his 12-year career on the Bassmaster
Elite Series, but this week he made sure he wasn't going to beat
himself.
By catching 15 pounds, 2 ounces on Championship Sunday, Prince
collected his first Elite Series victory at the Whataburger
Bassmaster Elite at Wheeler Lake with a four-day total of 80-15. He
survived a hard charge from Ray Hanselman
Jr. on the final day to hoist the blue trophy and earn a
$100,000 payday.
"I've been close several times and I let it slip through my
fingers," Prince said. "I told myself, 'I'm not going to beat
myself this week. If I'm going to get beat, it is going to be by
somebody else, not me.' I think I did that. I accomplished what I
set out to do once I saw that I had a chance to win."
Throughout his career, Prince admittedly does not have a great
track record on the Tennessee River, including a 105th-place finish
on this particular lake when the Elites last visited in 2016. With
that in mind, Prince wanted to come into this event with a clean
slate and did not study for Wheeler before arriving.
"I was hoping to survive," Prince said. "I know how to ledge
fish, and this time of year I do well at home. But this is way
different than at home. I don't have all the secret hidey
holes.
"To beat these guys outside of your own state that means you got
it done."
All week, Prince maximized one main-lake sweet spot on the
Decatur Flats. That spot featured two prominent hard spots
surrounded by submergent grass. While a 4-pound smallmouth on
Day 1 came specifically out of the
grass, the rest of his bites came from those hard spots.
To get to those bass, Prince needed to incorporate his
Florida flair. He tossed a
white/chartreuse Z-Man Evergreen JackHammer with a snow
storm-colored Bass Assassin Little Boss trailer and reeled it
slowly through the grass and over the hard spots.
His casting setup was a 7-foot-3 medium Fitzgerald baitcasting
rod, a 7:4 gear ratio Shimano reel and 17-pound Seagaur Tatsu
fluorocarbon.
"That's kind of what we do at home. It was right up my alley,"
he said. "The slower you could fish it the better. If you could
keep it on the bottom with a slight wobble, that is when they would
eat it. Sometimes they would eat it on the fall for whatever
reason. If you threw it and started cranking, they would not eat
it. You had to let it hit the bottom."
He also mixed in a 7-inch green pumpkin Bass Assassin Tapout
worm on a 1/8-ounce Texas Rig from time to time, landing several
key bass with it. He fished that bait on a 6-10 Fitzgerald
medium-heavy spinning rod with 20-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid and
a 15-pound Tatsu fluorocarbon leader.
The first three days, Prince caught early limits of 19-4, 20-7
and then a remarkable 26-2, which stood as the Rapala CrushCity
Monster Bag of the Tournament. Championship Sunday was no
different, as Prince landed his biggest bass of Day 4, a 4-pounder, just seven minutes after
leaving takeoff at Ingalls Harbor at 6
a.m.
He filled his limit at 6:32 a.m.
and 20 minutes later, he capitalized on another flurry and culled
twice. Prince added a 2 1/2-pounder close to 8:30, but the
following hours were agonizing, as he did not hook another bass
before 2 p.m.
"Obviously they didn't bite as well as they did the days
before," he said. "For whatever reason they didn't bite when the
wind was blowing. It blew pretty much all day. Yesterday when I
really crushed them, it was slick calm."
The wait was well worth it, as the "Prince of Palatka" landed a 4-pounder as his family
watched from a pontoon boat.
"That fish was obviously a pound upgrade, and a pound in this
tournament is a lot," Prince said. "They were all whooping and
hollering. That bass right there, I went from 13 1/2 to 15."
Catching bags of 15-8, 17-12 and 20-7 the first three days and
entering the final day with a 12-pound deficit, Hanselman made a
heroic comeback in the final round by landing 23-5 Sunday.
During the first hour of the day, the veteran pro from
Del Rio, Texas, landed two bass
over 5 pounds and filled his limit by 7
a.m. A half hour later, he caught another 5-pounder and
added several more key bass by 9:30
a.m. to secure his best finish as an Elite Series
angler.
"I had a feeling they were going to be there," Hanselman said.
"I just started out catching them. I wanted them to get going fast
and furious with a moving bait like a big squarebill, but the first
one that nipped it, I reeled it in reel fast and picked up a worm
and hammered on them."
Most of Hanselman's bass were caught off a shellbar he stumbled
on during Day 1 as he was
targeting isolated stumps. He started on that spot the final three
days of the tournament, catching numerous quality bass using
several 6th Sense presentations including a Crush 50X squarebill, a
prototype crankbait, a 6th Sense Flock Hair Jig and a 6th Sense
Boosa ribbontail worm on a 3/8-ounce Texas rig.
"I was radio silent all week. No forward-facing sonar, just my
map and a big worm," Hanselman said.
As part of the Yamaha Power Pay program, Hanselman earned an
additional $4,000.
With bags of 22-2, 12-11, 17-12 and 17-15, Florida's John
Cox finished third with a total of 70-8. It is the first Top
10 of the season for an angler known for always plying the
shallows. He also earned $2,000 for
being the second-highest placing entrant in the Toyota Bonus Bucks
program.
"We made the most of it," he said. "I was super fortunate with
the weather and how the bass were really holding tight to the
milfoil. It helped tremendously. I don't know how it would have
played out if the weather would have been different."
Cox spent most of his tournament inside a backwater pond on
Wheeler Lake that featured a big milfoil mat. A shad-colored
Berkley Swamp Lord frog was his
weapon of choice.
"I couldn't move the trolling motor because it seemed like
anytime I did, it seemed to throw the whole area off," he
explained. "I would just drift in and Power Pole down."
Prince and Louisiana pro
Greg Hackney tied for Phoenix Boats
Big Bass of the Tournament honors after both anglers landed 7-9
largemouth, Hackney on Day 1 and
Prince on Day 3. Prince also
earned a $3,000 bonus for being the
highest-finishing angler in the Toyota Bonus Bucks program.
Hawaiian pro Matty Wong earned
the $1,000 BassTrakk contingency
prize for accurate reporting during the first two days of the
tournament.
Carbondale, Ill., rookie
Trey McKinney continues to lead the
Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings with 560
points. Alabama's Justin Hamner is second with 501 points,
followed by Missouri's
Cody Huff in third with 474,
Tennessee's Jacob Foutz in fourth with 473 and Canadian pro
Chris Johnston in fifth with
470.
McKinney also leads the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the
Year standings, followed by Tennessee's John
Garrett in second with 460 points and Alabama's Wesley
Gore in third, also with 460 points. South Carolina's JT Thompkins is fourth with
451 points and Maine's
Tyler Williams is fifth with
415.
The tournament was hosted by Decatur Morgan County Tourism.
Contact:
Chad Gay
cgay@bassmaster.com
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