2 Teams Advance at Challenge Cup Tournament on Chautauqua Lake

ERIE, Pa. (Aug. 29, 2024) – It was a runaway second match of the Knockout Round on Chautauqua Lake, Thursday at the Challenge Cup tournament on Chautauqua lake. Two teams – the B&W Trailer Hitches duo of Matt Becker and Spencer Shuffield , and the Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches pair of Luke Clausen and John Hunter – had great days on the water, catching more than double the amount of fish that teams competing in the first Knockout Round match caught on Wednesday, while the Team Coign duo of Drew Gill and Matt Stefan struggled and never really found the quality of bass that they were looking for. Team B&W Trailer Hitches caught 44 bass weighing 99 pounds, 6 ounces to advance in the top spot, while Team Smokey Mountain weighed in 32 scorable bass totaling 74-11 to finish the round in second.

Chautauqua Lake was the big X-factor on the day, as the lake seemed to turn on Thursday after a tough day of fishing on Wednesday. The three teams boated 86 bass weighing 191-5 today – a stark contrast to the 36 bass weighing 70-9 caught on Wednesday.

“We wacked them today - that was such a fun day of fishing,” said Becker, who caught 17 bass for 35-14. “We got to go on a tour of Lake Chautauqua. We fished the north end, the south end and everywhere in between. We caught some on topwater, caught some under boat docks, caught some flipping – it was a hodge podge. Crackin’ 5-pound smallmouth on topwater… Man, what an awesome day.”

“Anytime you can catch smallmouth on topwater, it’s incredible. And we had an absolute blast today,” said Shuffield, who led the team with 27 bass weighing 63-8. “I didn’t expect to catch as many 3½- to 4-pounders, and I was really impressed with the caliber of fish here. I’d definitely take what we had today tomorrow and feel pretty good about it.”

Becker was one of the only anglers in the field with experience on Chautauqua Lake, and that experience paid off in a big way. The team did the majority of its damage fishing a single grass flat on the north end of the lake.

“We caught a lot of fish in the morning – nearly half of our weight came off of that one flat,” Shuffield said. “We caught three or four smallmouth over 4 pounds, and that got us off to a really good start.”

Shuffield’s topwater of choice was a Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil in sexy shad color, thrown on an Ark 7-foot, 3-inch medium-heavy Reinforcer rod with an Ark Gravity G8 7:1 gear ratio reel, spooled with 40-pound Yo-Zuri Super Braid line.

“I feel like the clouds really helped us out with the smallmouth in the morning,” Becker added.

“We’ve got some momentum rolling, and I like our chances heading into the Championship Round, tomorrow,” Becker went on to say. “I don’t know where we’re going – probably somewhere completely new – but we are excited and looking forward to hopefully breaking down a new fishery.

A 48-pound second period propelled the Team Smokey Mountain duo of Luke Clausen and John Hunter into the Championship Round. They caught a few scorable bass on a topwater bait and on bladed jigs, but most of their bass came on stick worms. Hunter threw a weedless Texas rig with no weight, while Clausen threw his worm on a wacky rig. At one point during the second period, they Power-Poled down and caught more than 30 pounds off of one area with their soft plastics.

The top two teams advancing from Knockout Round Match 2 to the Championship Round at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota are:

1st:        Team B&W Trailer Hitches, 44 bass, 99-6
                Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 17 bass, 35-14
                Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 27 bass, 63-8
2nd:       Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches, 32 bass, 74-11
                Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., seven bass, 34-1
                John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., four bass, 40-10

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team Coign, 10 bass, 17-4
                Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., six bass, 11-11
                Matthew Stefan, Junction City, Wis., four bass, 5-9

Overall, there were 86 bass weighing 191 pounds, 5 ounces caught by the three teams Thursday in Match 2 of the Knockout Round on Chautauqua Lake. In addition to the most weight and most fish caught, Shuffield also caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a chunky 4-pound, 15-ounce smallmouth that crushed a walking topwater bait in the first period.