By MLF Communications Staff

ERIE, Pa. – Anglers competing in the first of the two Knockout Round matches at the MLF Team Series in Erie, Pa. were thrown a curveball Wednesday.

After the three matches of the Elimination Round took place on Erie’s Presque Isle Bay, Wednesday featured a new venue – Chautauqua Lake in Chautauqua County, Team REDCON1 (Cole Floyd/Andy Morgan), Team Star Tron (Bobby Lane/Jacob Wall) and Team U.S. Air Force (Stephen Browning/Anthony Gagliardi) took to the water, with only the top two teams advancing to Friday’s final-day Championship Round.

As time expired at the end of the third period and the final bass had been tallied, Team Star Tron showed that they will be a force to reckon with in the Championship Round. Lane and Wall caught 15 bass weighing 26 pounds, 14 ounces to lead the way. Also advancing is the Team U.S. Air Force duo of Browning and Gagliardi, who finished second with 11 bass weighing 23-12.

“It was a grinder of a day, but it was so much fun,” Wall said in his post-match interview. “It was a challenging fishery, and these are the type of days that really show who can put their head down and work the hardest. Confidence is so key on days like today, and I felt really good and confident all day. Bobby and I were vibing.”

“We’ve done it twice now. Yesterday (Tuesday) we had the lead for a while and then lost it, and we had to fight just to get into the Knockout Round,” said Lane. “Then we had to scramble again today. The decisions we made as a team to come back today … wow.”

Team Star Tron used a two-pronged approach in the morning. They started on a shallow rocky shoal, with Lane throwing a topwater popper and a Berkley Choppo, while Wall threw various soft plastic worms. Lane caught four scorable keepers over the first two periods, then they made a move to a marina-style area with a lot of boat docks, lots of shade, surrounded with grass. They started skipping under boat docks, and Wall boated five keepers while Lane added another scorable to earn the win by a 3-2 margin.

Wall ended up weighing the most bass and catching the most total weight of the day.

“The 5-inch stickbait was the key today,” Wall said. “It was green pumpkin (colored). Nothing fancy by any means, but the weedless hook that I was throwing really helped me keep away from hanging up on those docks and those cables. I used 10-pound fluorocarbon, and we had a few mishaps – we broke some fish off. There were a lot of mussels around the docks, ut I was able to pull most of them out of there with my Wheeler Select Series Duckett rod.”

“In the third, Jacob just put it on ‘em, and it was unbelievable,” Lane added. “With the pressure from ScoreTracker and this format, to beat those guys today and the guys we beat yesterday, this has just been an incredible week. We’re ready to go again for the Championship Round on Friday.”

After boating only two scorable bass as a team through the first two periods of competition, Browning and Gagliardi caught fire in the third period, adding nine fish that combined to weigh 21-7 to advance in the second spot.

The duo targeted the outside edge of grass lines in 8 to 10 feet on the extreme north end of the lake. They used finesse tactics and found a wad of fish in the third period – catching bass every few casts at one point – that they stayed on for the remainder of the day.

Here are the results from the first match of the Knockout Round:

1st: Team Star Tron, 15 bass, 26-14
Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., seven bass, 10-9
Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., eight bass, 16-5

2nd: Team U.S. Air Force, 11 bass, 23-12
Stephen Browning, Hot Springs, Ark., seven bass, 13-11
Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., four bass, 10-1

Eliminated

3rd: Team REDCON1, 10 bass, 19-15
Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, two bass, 3-12
Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., eight bass, 16-3

Gagliardi caught a 3-7 largemouth in Period 3 that was the Berkley Big Bass of the day.

The second match of the Knockout Round will take place Thursday, featuring Team B&W Trailer Hitches (Matt Becker/Spencer Shuffield), Team Coign (Drew Gill/Matt Stefan) and Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches (Luke Clausen/John Hunter). Anglers depart the host hotel in Erie each morning at 4:30 a.m. and are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 7:45 a.m.

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.