Morgan and Folbrecht beat the summer heat for the win on Lake Okeechobee.
CLEWISTON, FL - Saturday was your typical summer day in Southeast Florida with light to moderate winds, heat index over 100 and hurricane threats approaching from the south. Everything was pointing to the dog days of summer on Lake Okeechobee for qualifier #2 of the 2020 season of the Roland Martin Marine Center Series presented by HUK. Apparently, the bass didn’t get that memo. They came to play.
Over 65% of the 149 teams filled their livewells with 5 bass limits. The top 20 of those limits weighed in over 18 pounds. And when they were all weighed, the team of Justin Morgan and Garrett Folbrecht cashed the big check with a winning weight of 27.32 pounds.
“Every move we made today seemed to work,” Morgan said. “We caught a couple nice ones early, moved and added another 5 pounder and Garrett added a 6.5 pounder later in the day.”
“I practiced earlier in the week and found a few bites but nothing solid so I just decided to throw a Hail Mary today and see what happens,” Morgan explained. “We went North and I was mainly throwing a Bass Assassin Tapout and a Spro poppin’ frog all day.”
As the reigning 2019 Roland Martin Marine Center Series Champion and 2020 qualifier champion, Morgan has collected over $31,000 in the series in the last 9 months. Does he have any plans for his winnings?
“I just bought a house and we have a baby boy on the way,” Morgan said. With the $6,000 first place check and another $250 in Mercury Contingency rewards, that’ll buy a lot of diapers.
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The second place team of Roger Crafton and John Ochs spent the day flipping and weighed in 5 bass for 24.86 pounds and collected $3,000. The team of Joe Hobson and Jeremy Hobson rounded out the top three and weighed in 23.7 pounds that netted them $2,000.
As the highest paying team tournament trail in Florida, the payouts continued with Bob Stevens collecting the $500 U.S. Sugar Big Bass award with his 8.93 pound Okeechobee monster. Buck Durrance collected $1,000 as the highest finishing Ranger Cup compliant angler. Gambler Baits awarded $100 to the 2nd Big Bass of 8.14 pounds to Kim Summerfield. The top HUK Gear award of $250 added to Roger Crafton’s 2nd place winnings. The highest finishing Gilbert Family of Cars award of $250 added even more to the Buck Durrance payday. Amber Bass received a check for $100 as the top finishing Female Angler from Mary Ann Martin. The Bruiser Baits bonus check of $125 added to our Champions’ payday. Brice Prowant collected $100 with the Mercury Youth top finisher award. And the team of Tavano and Caldwell may have brought the smallest limit of 5.72 pounds to the stage but it was worth $300 with the AV Inspection smallest limit award.
We want to thank our anglers for enduring the summer heat and for doing their part to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by wearing masks to stage. We appreciate it and we look forward to seeing you next month on September 19, 2020 for Qualifier #3. Keep in mind, teams must fish 3 or the 4 qualifiers to compete in the Championship in December. Register now and we’ll see you next month.