In today’s Throwback Thursday historical photo, more western recognition, and a slide back some two decades ago to Brent Ehrler’s first major tour victory. That occurred in November 2004 at the Toyota Series Championship held on Lake Cumberland, where Brent edged local HC Sumpter for the title and roughly $85,000 in total winnings.
FLW coverage reported that “Ehrler adopted a run-and-gun approach to Lake Cumberland that involved running dozens of cuts and pockets on the main lake each day, fishing any piece of wood he could find.
“He used a D&L jig in 3/8- and 5/16-ounce sizes with a Reaction Innovations Smally Beaver trailer. Both jigs were a brown and green color combination.
“He fished the jigs on 12- and 16-pound-test Sunline Fluorocarbon.
“’The key was to cast up as shallow as possible on the wood,’ he said. ‘Many of my bites today came out of 6 inches to 3 feet of water.
“I would pull into a little cut or pocket, make a couple of casts to any piece of wood on the bank and then run to the next pocket. If the area looked really good, I might stay and grind around in there a while, but if it didn’t feel right, I’d bounce over to the next place.”
After the victory, news stories quoted him as stating, “I just can’t believe it. I’ve never won a major tournament before, and this has just been huge.”
According to reports, “Since Ehrler (was) the original owner of a Ranger boat, he was awarded a Ranger 519VS rigged with a Yamaha Outboard and $25,000 cash for his win. In addition, he received $10,000 from Ranger in contingency money and another $10,000 from Ranger for being Ranger Cup qualified. In all, Ehrler hauled in some $80,000 in cash and merchandise for his win.”
And while this win was big, it was only a small taste of what was to come over the next decade for Brent. For example, just two years later (2006), he would win $500,000 by capturing the FLW Tour Championship. Add in his Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit and Championships over that 10-year span (2004-2014), along with the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Western Series winnings, and Brent would top the $2 million mark.
