Story by Justin Brouillard | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
It’s day two at stop two of the 2024 NPFL season the beautiful Lake Hartwell. Hosted by Anderson County, the anglers launch at the Green Pond Landing this morning, hoping to build off of day one. As expected, the fishing was tough, and bigger fish were hard to come by. Three bass over 5 pounds were weighed in on Thursday and all three anglers are within the top five.
Kyle Welcher leads the charge with 16 pounds, 11 ounces, a slim lead over Will Harkins. Welcher is bouncing around between shallow and deeper areas and made a quick change yesterday morning that changed his entire day. Welcher is planning to fish on the fly on day two as well.
Behind him, Will Harkins planned on trying to survive day one but exceeded his target weight with 16 pounds, 4 ounces. He mixed up both shallow and deeper fish, as well, and moved around Hartwell all day long searching for active bass.
Buddy Gross, who mainly targeted offshore targets “lucked” into a ground of largemouth on a place he was not able to get on first thing. He was patient in his approach and settled into the “deal” later in the day, and put together a 15-pound, 14-ounce bag, of all largemouth, to get his event off strong.
In fourth, Jason Burroughs dealt with mechanical issues with his hotfoot and was unable to feather his throttle all day. He ran “wide open” around Hartwell on day one and put together 15 pounds, 9 ounces to start his tournament. Despite “wasting the first part of the morning,” Burroughs is looking forward to the overcast conditions and plans to be more efficient on day two. He is targeting mostly offshore fish and is bouncing around to several different areas.
Rounding out the top five, Matt Mollohan rounded up 14 pounds, 12 ounces of shallow fish on Lake Hartwell. Mollohan made several key decisions to end his official practice period on Tuesday and throughout day one to put himself in a solid position in the tournament.
Overall, 93 anglers weighed in five fish limits on day one. Matt Mollohan is the highest-finishing Bass Cat Boats angler after day one, putting him great position to earn additional rewards through the Bass Cat Quest Program, and an additional $5,000 for being the highest-finishing Bass Cat Boats angler.
How to Watch
Tune in daily from May 16 through 18 to watch daily action from Lake Hartwell with Live Coverage here and on the FREE PHYX TV App beginning on Thursday.
Follow along and watch the daily LIVE Leaderboard, LIVE Blog, and on-the-water photo galleries and blogs of the anglers on Lake Hartwell.
Under the Go Live Tab, choose LIVE Broadcast or check out the real-time leaderboard on the Weigh Live Tracker with estimated weights entered by the anglers on the water and join us for the LIVE Weigh-ins, here!
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NPFL Stop #2 on Lake Hartwell is hosted by Anderson County. For more event Information, here.
