In a second-round Milford Regional matchup between crappie and smallmouth bass, the No. 2 seed smallies knocked off the No. 1 seed crappie after beating the 3 seed wiper in the first round. The smallmouth bass moved on to a third-round rivalry matchup perhaps on par with the Sunflower Showdown — smallmouth bass vs. largemouth bass.
Largemouths, the top seed in the Perry Regional, defeated the longnose gar in the first round and the striped bass in the second round for the big semifinals matchup.
On the other side of the bracket, the flathead catfish swept the Tuttle Creek Regional — including a second-round matchup with its cousin, the blue catfish — and will face the top seed out of the Banner Creek Regional, the walleye, in the semifinal. Walleye knocked out the 4-seed bluegill in the opening round before taking out the potential future state fish of Kansas, the channel catfish, in the second round.
Readers will be able to vote for the winners of each round via the “Bracket” tab on the Topeka Capital-Journal Outdoors Facebook page (https://tinyurl.com/yc88jzmw) or at http://woobox.com/vfmp69/. Round 3 voting will be from 12:01 p.m. March 24 to noon March 28 and voting for the championship round will take place from 12:01 p.m. March 28 to noon March 31.