Cabela’s/GEICO For Your Boat Angler Mike McClelland Overcomes the Odds to Advance

GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (April 10) — Cabela’s/GEICO For Your Boat angler Mike McClelland pulled off the ultimate tournament comeback on Friday at Lake Guntersville, moving from the bottom of the Bassmaster Elite leaderboard on day one to survive the first cut on day two.

After catching only 12 pounds, 13 ounces on day one, McClelland brought in almost twice that amount on day two with a 23-pound bag and now sits 41st overall with 35 pounds, 13 ounces.

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” McClelland said. “All I can say is that I am 100 percent blessed. It was one of those days again when things didn’t start off well. I didn’t catch my first keeper until about 11 a.m., so I had to stay extremely focused.

“What’s crazy is I tried different stuff this morning that I thought I had missed yesterday but I didn’t catch them again. Then I went back to what I did yesterday when I only caught 12 pounds, and the first five fish I caught today had to be over 17 pounds. It’s one of those things where you think, ‘Should I just keep doing this?’ The answer to that was no. I needed to gamble.

“I struggle this time of the year because the fish really scatter. I’m good when fish concentrate. I made the decision to move to the bank and start fishing. I was blessed with a 6-15 fish at probably around 1:30 p.m., and I knew that was a game changer. I just kept fishing after that, culled one more time, and it all came together.”

Hoping to continue to move his way up the leaderboard and make the final cut, McClelland will launch at 6:15 a.m. CT on Saturday and return for weigh-in at 3:15 p.m. at Guntersville City Harbor.

“This may be one of the best lakes in the country right now,” McClelland said. “I’ve had 30-pound bags here before in the past. When you know that that’s possible, you can kind of go out and gamble.

“The best days that I have ever had here is when I run around and fish a lot of different spots. The one thing that I did better today is fish more water. Tomorrow I’m going to try to fish twice as much water as I did today.”

Cabela’s/GEICO For Your Boat angler Mike McClelland moved from the bottom of the Bassmaster Elite leaderboard on day one to survive the first cut on day two at Lake Guntersville.