By MLF Communications Staff

ERIE, Pa. – Although anglers had to contend with rainy, overcast conditions for the first half of the competition day, even water from the sky couldn’t dampen the second day of competition at the season-opening event of the 2024 MLF Team Series.

Teams took off and began their 30-minute ride-around under sunny conditions, with no rain in the forecast. However, a storm rolled in right after takeoff, lingering over the fishery most of the morning as four new teams launched at Erie’s Presque Isle Bay for the Challenge Cup.

Team U.S. Air Force, made up of Stephen Browning and Anthony Gagliardi, quickly rose to the top of the leaderboard Monday, catching 76 largemouth bass weighing 110 pounds, 11 ounces. The duo will now advance to the Knockout Round along with second-place finishing Team B&W Trailer Hitches – Matt Becker and Spencer Shuffield – who caught 50 bass weighing 88 pounds even.

The entire field spent the day trying to duplicate what Team U.S. Air Force accomplished in the opening period alone. With only 23 scorable bass caught by the entire field during the opening period on the first day of competition, Team U.S. Air Force blew that out of the water, catching 27 scorable bass weighing 40-6 in the opening period on Monday, often weighing them in two at a time throughout the day.

Although Browning and Gagliardi each caught more than 20 pounds in the first period, the duo said they fished a quarter of a mile after Lines In before catching their first fish.

“We had a few bites and caught one scorable bass, but we were still looking for them,” said Browning. “Then we got to an area and caught two back-to-back, so we settled in there. We started off throwing the little Z-Man Chatterbait MiniMax. We had some clouds, some rain and a little bit of wind this morning, and that bait really showed out in those conditions. We pretty much just let the ChatterBait and the weather conditions dictate the first period.

“I think with the clouds and everything this morning, the fish were probably a little bit more active on moving baits,” Browning continued. “We were able to catch quite a few during the rain, and that got us clued in on an area, which was really key for us.”

Gagliardi said when they caught the third bass in the same spot, he knew they were onto something.

“I knew if they were biting that ChatterBait, they’d bite a worm,” said Gagliardi. “So I picked up a worm and started throwing it, hoping I could get bites on the worm while Browning was throwing the ChatterBait, and we’d have two different things going on.”

And it worked, for a bit. As the day went on, the ChatterBait bite died out, so Browning ditched the moving bait and picked up a worm as well.

“We threw that worm every which way – wacky worm, put it on a jighead, shaky-style – it really didn’t matter how we rigged it, it was just a matter of getting it around them today,” said Browning. “There are a couple thousand acres out there to try to cover, and thankfully we guessed right in the beginning and got in an area that we felt like might have some water moving through it.”

That area was a big grass mat in about 8 to 12 foot of water, right in the middle of Presque Isle Bay.

“What we found was a giant grass clump, but the water’s deep on either side of it,” Browning said. “It’s got some cover and a little bit of current – evidently it has a ton of bait – and if you can get all three of those in one area, that’s a good indicator that there’s going to be some good fish there.”

And there were.

“We were really just fishing slow around the edges of a big grass mat, not really covering much water,” said Gagliardi. “But it seemed like every 50 to 100 yards, we’d run into another fresh group of fish and get some bites. Those fresh fish helped us maintain the lead that we had over second all day long.”

It's no secret there’s a lot of grass in Presque Isle Bay, and although there have been fish caught in eel grass over the past two days, the teams that punched their ticket to the next round seem to have dialed in on the big schools of largemouth camped out in the milfoil.

“The trick for us was to just keep the bait clean,” said Browning. “There’s a lot of milfoil and eel grass in here, so whatever we could throw in this dense grass, and keep it clean, seemed to be the deal. The grass is really the ticket out there right now.

“The rock walls with grass lines are definitely holding some bass, but they must have been hit hard yesterday. Out on these big, expansive areas of grass, there’s a lot of real estate – not only for the bass, but for the bluegill and gobies and other baitfish that these bass are feeding on.”

The U.S. Air force team said they spent the day fishing along those grass lines until they caught one, then hunkered down in that area and waited for more.

“That was the key,” Browning said. “They really came in flurries throughout the day, so once you caught one, you could almost count on catching at least three or four more with it. Sometimes we’d catch seven or eight with it. I found a few with the [Lowrance] Active Target, but the majority of the ones we caught were pretty much just from casting blind.

“The fish seemed like they were high in the water column and aggressive this morning, but once the sun poked out later on in the day, the brighter conditions moved them down to the bottom and that’s where the worm really shone,” Browning continued. “It was just kind of a one-two punch and it worked out for us.”

Becker and Shuffield settled into the second-place spot early Monday morning and were able to maintain that position throughout the competition day. Becker is no stranger to Lake Erie – he grew up fishing on the famed bass factory and is one of the only anglers with extensive experience on the fishery. That experience paid off for him and his teammate.

“We had a lot of bites, a lot of catches and only lost one fish each, so we can’t complain,” said Becker. “We’re moving on to the Knockout Round, so it will be a new day, with possibly a new body of water, and we’re ready.”

Becker spent most of the day pitching a tube around the rock walls and grass, while Shuffield threw a vibrating jig.

“Man, today was fun,” said Shuffield. “Jacking on them with a big line, flipping a tube, flipping a jig, throwing a ChatterBait. We even caught a couple on a dropshot rig. It was a great day of fishing and we’re really looking forward to the Knockout Round.”

Here are the results from the the Day 2 Elimination Round:

1st: Team U.S. Air Force, 76 bass, 110-11
Stephen Browning, Hot Springs, Ark., 40 bass, 60-3
Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, N.C., 36 bass, 50-8

2nd: Team B&W Trailer Hitches, 50 bass, 88-0
Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 27 bass, 48-10
Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 23 bass, 39-6

Eliminated

3rd: Team Builders FirstSource, 38 bass, 58-1
Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 21 bass, 30-4
Dean Rojas, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 17 bass, 27-13

4th: Team 7 Brew Coffee, 27 bass, 42-6
Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., 12 bass, 18-10
Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 15 bass, 23-12

The Challenge Cup features 12 two-man teams divided into three groups for the one-day Elimination Rounds. Each of the three Elimination Rounds will feature four new teams, with the top two teams from each of the Elimination Rounds advancing to the Knockout Rounds on Days 4 and 5.

In the Knockout Rounds, three teams will compete each day, with the top two teams from each moving on to the Championship Round on Day 6. In Friday’s Championship Round, the final four teams will compete in a one-day shootout to determine the winner.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney break down the extended action live every day of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.