Rookie Vance Surges To 5 1/2-Pound Lead

Group A Gets Under Way At Eufaula

April 30, 2024

By MLF Communications Staff

EUFAULA, Okla. – If anglers thought they knew what to expect when Lake Eufaula made its MLF Bass Pro Tour debut, Mother Nature made sure to rewrite the script.

In the days prior to Group A’s first day of the Qualifying Round, a series of spring thunderstorms – which included three separate tornado warnings – dumped rain on the Oklahoma impoundment. As a result, the lake level rose nearly 4 feet from the start of practice to the start of competition; the influx flooding a new swath of shallow cover and muddying large stretches of water.

The seismic shift produced a challenging bite for many of the 39 anglers who took to the water Tuesday. But rookie Jason Vance of Battle Ground, Ind. managed to boat 13 scorable bass totaling 28 pounds, 1 ounce. He was one of three anglers to top 20 pounds amid the changing conditions, leading second-place angler Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pa. by 5-10.

Aside from losing his cell phone to the waters of Eufaula shortly after lines out, Tuesday unfolded better than Vance expected. He’d sought out clean water during the third and final practice day and found a stretch where he got several bites in a row, but struggled to hook up with the fish. When competition began, he figured out how to get those bass to commit.

“I got into some cleaner water, and that’s where I started getting bit, and that was on the last day of practice,” Vance said. “Was I expecting to catch (that total)? No, I wasn’t. But I just got bit really good there.”

One of a handful of anglers in the field with tournament experience on Eufaula, Vance first found his area during last year’s MLF Invitational event on the fishery. He had to fish around some floating debris, but the water clarity generally held up well amid the lake’s rapid rise – not something that could be said for many areas.

“The water color varied where I was at,” he said. “There were areas that were dirty and some that were cleaner. But it had a lot of sticks and twigs and stuff that had been blown into the area that I was in.”

Vance centered his strategy on finding the largest population of bass, targeting numbers rather than size. The 13 scorable bass he stacked on ScoreTracker were three more than the next-highest total. With bites not easy to come by – only 13 of 39 anglers caught at least five scorable fish – that strategy paid off.

“I’ve been trying to adapt from the five-fish limit to as many as you can catch, so I was just going for as many scorable as I could get,” he said. “That was my whole thought process – I just have to catch keepers.”

With more storms in the forecast, the conditions are sure to continue to change. But Vance is optimistic that his program can continue to produce. Not only did his water stay fairly stable, but he was also able to catch fish behind other anglers Tuesday.

Plus, Vance should have the luxury of getting some in-tournament practice time when Group A returns to the water on Thursday. Seeking his first Knockout Round appearance since joining the BPT, Vance hopes to catch about 15 pounds in the morning then use the rest of the day to explore new water.

“I’m going to power-fish in the morning, and then once I feel like I’ve got probably at least 15 pounds, I’m going to lay off of them and go looking for some new areas,” he said. “That’s the strategy. Hopefully it works.”

Jonathon VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich. earned Tuesday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award after a 6-8 largemouth bit his dropshot rig in Period 2. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day and another $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.

The 39 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day Qualifying Round on Tuesday and Thursday, with the 40 anglers in Group B on Wednesday and Friday. After each two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers who finish first through 10th from each group advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round, where weights are again zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers launch at 7:30 a.m. CT each day from the Peter’s Point-Nichols Point Boat Ramp, located on Dabbs Road in Eufaula. Each day’s takeout is held at the boat ramp beginning at 4 p.m.

The tournament features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the ScoreTracker leaderboard. Anglers are competing with a 1-8 minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

Qualifying Group A – Day 1

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler’s heaviest fish for the day)

1. Jason Vance -- 28-01 (13) -- 4-01

2. Dave Lefebre -- 22-07 (10) -- 5-05

3. Dean Rojas -- 20-08 (7) -- 4-14

4. Anthony Gagliardi -- 18-14 (9) -- 3-01

5. Alton Jones Jr. -- 17-10 (6) -- 4-11

6. Bradley Roy -- 14-15 (5) -- 3-12

7. Marshall Robinson -- 13-10 (5) -- 5-11

8. Bryan Thrift -- 13-10 (6) -- 3-08

9. Andy Morgan -- 13-05 (4) -- 4-08

10. Dustin Connell -- 12-05 (5) -- 3-07