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The last time the Bassmaster Elite Series visited the St. Lawrence River in August 2018, a record 36,200 fans showed up to cheer on their favorite Elite Series pros. The Elite Series will visit the St. Lawrence River again Aug. 15-18.<\/em> Aug. 8, 2019<\/p>\n Bassmaster Elite Series Event At St. Lawrence River Should Be Another Smallmouth Slugfest<\/strong><\/p>\n WADDINGTON, N.Y.<\/strong> \u2014 Chris Johnston understands the sentiment.<\/p>\n He\u2019s a successful Canadian angler with vast experience on northern fisheries that are known for producing big smallmouth bass. So, it\u2019s only natural that many consider him one of the favorites in next week\u2019s Berkley Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River presented by Black Velvet.<\/p>\n The same is true of his brother, Cory.<\/p>\n But for anyone who thinks the Johnston boys are going to run away with the seventh Elite Series event of the season, Chris says \u201cNot so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone thinks we\u2019re gonna go dominate the St. Lawrence, and that kind of makes me nervous,\u201d said Chris, who makes his home in Peterborough, Canada, about three hours from Waddington. \u201cWe don\u2019t fish the river very often. I\u2019m actually closer to Lake Ontario, and when there\u2019s a tournament out of the St. Lawrence, I go into the lake every time to fish.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a little knowledge of the river, but not like everyone thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n Competition days will be Aug. 15-18, with daily takeoffs at 9 a.m. ET from Whittaker Park Boat Launch. Weigh-ins are scheduled for Whittaker Park each day at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n Much to the Johnstons\u2019 dismay, the waters of Lake Ontario will be off-limits. But the river has proven in past years that it has more than enough smallmouth to produce heavy weights. In last year\u2019s event, the Top 5 anglers had four-day weights in the 90- to 95-pound range.<\/p>\n Historically, anglers have used a collection of finesse tactics on the St. Lawrence \u2014 primarily drop-shot rigs, spybaits and small swimbaits \u2014 to catch bass in deep water. But Johnston said he hopes to avoid that route.<\/p>\n \u201cMy best odds to win will be if the fish are shallow, which could be the case since there\u2019s been a colder spring this year,\u201d he said. \u201cThe deep drift is something anyone could get on and catch 25 pounds. They\u2019re not hard to catch if you get on the right area. You just have to start doing drifts \u2014 and I think that makes it hard for anyone to gain a real advantage doing that.<\/p>\n \u201cMy best-case scenario would be fishing shallow water for bass I can actually see.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides battling for the tournament\u2019s $100,000 first-place prize and the coveted blue trophy that comes with every Elite Series win, anglers will earn valuable points in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. With only four tournaments left, the race for one of the most prestigious titles in professional fishing is heating up.<\/p>\n Florida rookie Drew Cook leads the AOY race with 502 points, followed by Alabama pro Scott Canterbury (491), Cory Johnston (490), Indiana pro Bill Lowen (482) and South Carolina\u2019s Brandon Cobb (480).<\/p>\n Cook has no experience on the St. Lawrence \u2014 and he thinks that could be a good thing.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like whenever you fish somewhere new for the first time, you really fish the moment instead of doing what worked in the past,\u201d Cook said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any pre-conceived notions. I\u2019m starting completely fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he said AOY buzz has been hard to escape, Cook said he\u2019s not going to put any extra pressure on himself just because he\u2019s in first place.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to put it out of my mind, but it gets brought up so often that it\u2019s kind of hard to,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna fish any differently. I\u2019m not going on cruise control or anything like that. I\u2019m gonna fish to win just like I always do.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he honed his craft fishing for big largemouth in Florida, Cook said he\u2019s excited about the idea of fishing one of the nation\u2019s best smallmouth fisheries.<\/p>\n \u201cI love fishing for big smallmouth \u2014 even though I know there\u2019s some really good untapped largemouth fishing there,\u201d he said. \u201cI may end up mixing up the two a little bit, but I\u2019m gonna focus mainly on the smallmouth.<\/p>\n \u201cCatching a 25-pound limit of smallmouth is one box I\u2019d definitely like to check.\u201d<\/p>\n A full field of 75 anglers will compete Thursday and Friday before cutting to the Top 35 for Saturday\u2019s semifinal round. Only the Top 10 will advance to Championship Sunday.<\/p>\n On Saturday and Sunday, the Outdoors Expo will open at 11 a.m. at Whittaker Park, giving fans a chance to take demo rides in a Skeeter\/Yamaha boat and to see the latest products from the likes of Toyota, Carhartt and Berkley\/Abu Garcia.<\/p>\n The Expo will also feature children\u2019s activities, games and prizes, food vendors, live music and a chance for fans to meet their favorite pros at Angler Alley from 1-3 p.m. Saturday. Anglers will also conduct clinics from 1-3 p.m. Saturday about the latest tips, techniques and gear.<\/p>\n 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor:<\/strong> Toyota<\/p>\n 2019 Bassmaster Elite at Lake Guntersville Sponsor:<\/strong> Academy Sports + Outdoors 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors:<\/strong> Bass Pro Shops, Carhartt, Lowrance, Mossy Oak Fishing, T-H Marine, Academy Sports + Outdoors<\/p>\n About B.A.S.S.<\/strong> The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, BassPro.com Bassmaster Opens Series, TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Series, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors, Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK\u2019S Sporting Goods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last time the Bassmaster Elite Series visited the St. Lawrence River in August 2018, a record 36,200 fans showed up to cheer on their favorite Elite Series pros. The Elite Series will visit the St. Lawrence River again Aug. 15-18. Photo by Andy Crawford\/B.A.S.S. Aug. 8, 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series Event At St. Lawrence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11658,"featured_media":74418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-tournament","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"youtube_video":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74419,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74417\/revisions\/74419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPhoto by Andy Crawford\/B.A.S.S.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n2019 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors:<\/strong> Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Skeeter Boats, Talon, Triton Boats, Yamaha, Abu Garcia, Berkley<\/p>\n
\nB.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 510,000-member organization\u2019s fully integrated media platforms include the industry\u2019s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For more than 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.<\/p>\n