La Crosse, Wis. - The team of Cordell Beckmann and Dru Johnson along with Ricky Huge and Cale Jausel left on Tuesday, Aug. 18, unknown of what to be expected of fishing a tournament with many new regulations. Upon arrival, the practice period showed how easy it was gong to be to stay safe and keep a safe distance from others. This gave the team members a lot of confidence going into tournament day even though the fishing was a lot tougher than what is expected of the Mississippi River.

Tournament day on Friday finally came and the takeoff process went even smoother than any tournament. Both teams found great success early, each catching their five fish limit in the first two hours. As Ricky and Cale's day of fishing gradually got slower throughout the day and could not upgrade anymore, team members Cordell and Dru ran into a major problem. The cable to deploy and pick their trolling motor back up snapped at the base, leaving them to believe their fishing day was going to be done at 10 a.m. After about 20 minutes of frustration, they figured out a temporary solution to get them through the day.

After moving around a little bit and upgrading by a few ounces, they finally made their way to a grass flat on a bend of the main river channel in the last hour of fishing. Cordell was able to connect with their biggest fish of the day, which secured them with a sixth place finish overall with 12 pounds five ounces and a berth into the FLW national Championship in 2021.

Ricky and Cale brought in a limit worth 10 pounds, eight ounces which put them in 21st place, only one pound and two ounces from also qualifying.

Overall, this helped the team move into second for the FLW School of the Year race for the central division with just two events left along with giving Cordell and Dru great momentum into the following week for the BASS regional on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, S.C.