If Lee Livesay had a say in where Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments are held, there’s zero question which lake he’d pick first — and second, third and so on.
“I’m not gonna beat around the bush,” Livesay said. “I want to fish at Lake Fork any day, every day and any time of the year. I’ll take it over anyplace else. That’s never gonna change.”
Well, well, well.
As if Livesay drew up the schedule himself (note: he didn’t), the second stop of this year’s tour will be Feb. 29-March 3 with the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork, less than an hour from Livesay’s hometown of Longview, Texas. In all, 103 Elites are scheduled to compete in the derby, with a $100,000 first-place prize at stake and thousands more in cash prizes for top competitors, as well as all-important points in the Progressive Insurance Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.
The field will include many of the world’s best bass anglers, including Livesay, the four-time B.A.S.S. winner who has, to put it mildly, feasted at Fork the past few times he’s competed here.
How dominant has the 38-year-old Texan been on his home water?
Consider this: Livesay cracked the ballyhooed Century Club in Elite Series tournaments here in 2021 and 2022, each resulting in runaway wins. He caught an incredible 112 pounds, 5 ounces over four days in 2021 (a full 10 pounds better than second-place finisher Patrick Walters) and came back a year later with a winning total of 113-11 (a full 11-9 better than the second-place angler for that derby, two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year Brandon Palaniuk).
Though both were double-digit victories, competitors were pounding Fork as well, with six total Century Club performances across those two tournaments. The 2022 derby was especially productive, with each of the Top 10 anglers catching more than 90 pounds of bass over four days.
Livesay is confident he can three-peat at Lake Fork but knows any Elite finding a consistent big bite could hoist a blue trophy when the fishing is done.
“I know a lot about the lake, but there are going to be many guys who will find fish out there,” he said. “I think we could see huge weights again. It’s the right time frame. There will be fish in the timber, in the grass. You can fish deep or you can fish shallow. People will have their pick.”
Livesay wasn’t pointing to the wealth of possibilities to disguise his own game plan. Matter of fact, he hasn’t actually fished the lake since last spring.
“It was last May or June,” he said. “I drove around about a quarter of the lake recently, before it went off-limits, and it was full pool. We’ve had a lot of rain and I saw some things that make me believe we’ll have good fishing. I like to fish shallow and that’s probably my best chance there. But that could change.
“I really don’t want any preconceived notion of what to expect,” he continued. “It’s all affected by temperature, fishing pressure. Forward-facing sonar is a real factor now. I know what to look for, so I’ll show up, practice hard, look shallow, look deep and everywhere in between.’
Livesay said he had a “bad day” in both of his Elite Series wins on Lake Fork. The key for him, and likely every other competitor, is to be “open-minded.”
“Lake Fork is more of a mental game for me because a million variables go through my head,” he said. “When the schedule came out, I thought I might spend all winter there. But where the giants are in December and January is not where they’ll be in February. So, I just backed off. I know how to get around and I know what’s there. When we start, it’s just about reading the conditions and finding the bigger bites.
“I just have to get into a flow.”
The AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork will have a full field for Day 1 and Day 2. The group will be cut to the Top 50 for Day 3 and the Top 10 will compete for the tournament title on Championship Sunday.
Bassmaster LIVE will be streaming on Bassmaster.com all four days, and coverage will also be available on FS1 on Saturday and Sunday.
Before the start of the Gamakatsu Bassmaster Elite at Toledo Bend, Kyoya Fujita’s personal-best bag of largemouth weighed around 24 pounds.
But after anchoring his bag with an 8 1/2-pounder Thursday, the Japanese pro shattered that mark and claimed the Day 1 lead at Toledo Bend with a 31-pound, 3-ounce bag of largemouth.
Known as the “Prince of Japanese Angling,” Fujita holds a 2-3 advantage over Elite Series rookie Robert Gee of Tennessee and nearly a 4-pound advantage over Wisconsin pro Pat Schlapper.
Fujita had never been to Toledo Bend before he pre-fished here in January. He said the lake has changed a lot since then, particularly the water levels, which are much higher now.
Using Garmin LiveScope, Fujita targeted prespawn bass located in 30 feet of water around standing timber in a popular area of Toledo Bend. Two baits caught the majority of his bass in one specific spot he found the last day of practice.
It only took about three hours for Fujita to reach his total for the day, as he landed the 8-pounder around 8 o’clock. During one particular flurry, he threw back a 4-pounder and then a 5-pounder. While the day was warm and sunny, the wind kicked up across the lake, making things more difficult.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher,” Fujita said through a translator. “In the morning, it was easy fishing. Afternoon, no bites. I don’t like rough water.”
Fujita said 30 pounds is the goal for tomorrow, and believes there are the bass in the area to repeat that performance.
“I will go to same area and same spot. (I’ll do) the same fishing,” he said. “I’ll try for 20 pounds. But if tough conditions, I’ll go to the next area with 3-pounders and 4-pounders and change tactics.”
Gee fished the St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by SEVIIN in 2023 and suffered his worst finish of the season at Toledo Bend. But he took the lessons he learned from that event and applied them this week to catch 29-0 Thursday.
“I beat the bank the whole time [in 2023] and from that moment on it changed my outlook on the way I needed to be fishing,” Gee said. “I dedicated myself to working on my offshore game ever since that tournament and it paid off today.”
He caught plenty of bass on Day 1, including a stop that produced two 5-pounders and several more quality bass to increase his total to 20 pounds around midday.
But a late-day stop produced the bulk of his weight.
“I made a move to a ditch and every fish I saw was over 5 pounds,” he said. “I culled everything I had out, including a 5-pounder, in 30 minutes. It was unbelievable. This is my biggest bag ever by myself.”
The majority of the bass he is catching are relating to standing timber. The shallowest bass came from 10 feet of water while his big bass late in the day were in 40 feet. One bait produced the bulk of his weight.
Gee knows there are plenty of bass left in his afternoon area and is hoping it will produce just as well on Day 2.
“Honestly, I didn’t think it held bass that size,” he said. “I went over there to catch 3- and 4-pounders. But every fish I saw was 5-plus. It was the perfect storm when I rolled in there and I think they are coming to it. I think I know where they are going to if they aren’t in the same spot.”
Schlapper brought 27-4 to the scales to land in third. A three-time qualifier for the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, he settled into the same popular area as Fujita and caught the bulk of his bag in about an hour and a half.
“I got into an area later in the day where I figured it would be right, and it was right,” Schlapper said. “I caught my biggest one earlier in the day, but everything else came in that one area. There’s a group of us that are all in the same area. That one little stretch I had, people overlooked and it’s a little different than what the main thing is that is going on.”
The majority of the bass Schlapper caught are individuals just roaming around in 12 to 40 feet of water. He will be heading to the same area Friday, although he isn’t sure the day will follow the same script.
“What I think is happening is later in the day with the sun, they start coming up. I don’t know if it is to warm up or what,” he said. “I’m in a good area. There’s a lot of big bass and they are moving around. I just have to get it in front of five of the right ones and get them in the boat.”
Leesville, S.C., pro Bryan New landed the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Day, a 9-8 largemouth that bested several other 9-pounders.
The full field will take off from Cypress Bend Park beginning at 7 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in at 3 p.m. The Top 50 anglers after the Day 2 weigh-in will advance to Semifinal Saturday before the Top 10 compete for the blue trophy and $100,000 top prize on Championship Sunday. All anglers are earning points towards Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year.
Bassmaster LIVE will be streaming on Bassmaster.com all four days beginning at 8 a.m. ET, and coverage will also be available on FS1 on Saturday and Sunday.
Those wanting to attend will be able to enjoy the “B.A.S.S. on the ’Bend” festival on Saturday and Sunday at Cypress Bend Park before weigh-in. The festival will feature live music and many local vendors.
The event is being hosted by Toledo Bend Lake Country and the Louisiana Office and Tourism.
Jeremiah Kindy has bass fished on Lake Ouachita since he could walk. In fact, he caught his first jig bass as a toddler around a set of islands 2 miles from Brady Mountain Recreation Area fishing with his dad and brother.
This week, he claimed the most impactful victory of his life by winning the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita presented by SEVIIN with a three-day total of 52 pounds, 3 ounces, earning the top prize of $44,295.
It was the Benton, Ark., native’s first Bassmaster Open appearance since the 2002 Central Open, which was also held at Ouachita.
“This is definitely the most important tournament I’ve ever won,” Kindy said. “It means the world. Just being able to compete and have so many family and friends here. Even if I wouldn’t have won, it would have been awesome. But to get this win is freaking amazing. For three days, I was the best angler on this lake. That’s pretty important.”
With bags of 19-7, 16-5 and 16-7, Kindy outlasted fellow Arkansan Matt Baker, who finished second with 46-13 and third-place Andy Newcomb who finished with 45-12. Although he isn’t currently signed up for the next two Opens in Division II, Kindy plans on fishing both of them, which will make him eligible for the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, scheduled for March 21-23 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Since he began fishing tournaments as a teenager, Kindy has earned a reputation from fellow anglers as one of the best anglers on Lake Ouachita. With nearly 200 of the best anglers in the country coming to his home lake, many of whom planned on LiveScoping out deep, he knew he would have to do it his way if he wanted a shot at the win.
“The only way I thought I could win this tournament was to fish to my strengths, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t compete with the guys out in the middle of the lake. It set up right. The way we had them two warm days, some females moved up and I got fortunate enough to catch enough of them.”
Kindy’s success revolved around early prespawn staging areas on the main lake where big bass have historically pulled up first. The majority of his bites came up the lake in dirtier water on isolated stretches of bank.
“I ended up catching more than half of my fish up the lake,” Kindy said. “It was just key spots that I know they pull up on first. The places I caught them on, I will catch them in those same places in a month. It lasts a lot longer than people think.”
When the wind kicked up, Kindy moved down lake to clearer water and fished around hydrilla beds. The deep edge of the grass was located in 25 feet of water, but Kindy said the majority of the bass were between the bank and 14 feet of water. Mixed in with the grass were some black rocks, and the bass seemed to hover close to that warmth.
Temperatures rose to 65 degrees on Day 1 and Kindy opened the tournament by catching just under 20 pounds to land in fourth. While warm still, clouds and wind spread over the lake Day 2 and Kindy struggled most of the day, but rallied in the afternoon to take over the lead heading into Championship Saturday.
Air temperatures dropped close to freezing the final morning, which caused some misfortune for Kindy to start the day.
“I picked up my rod with my last Booyah XR75 and I guess my hand quit working. That rod went in the lake,” he explained. “I had my other Trap tied on, so I guess the Lord was telling me to throw that one. That is what I kept in my hands all day today, that Duo Realis one.”
From there, Kindy warmed up and was able to fill his limit by mid-morning around his grass related bass.
“Today was my favorite kind of day, windy and sunny,” he said. “You don’t get a better recipe.”
“It was all main-lake related,” Kindy continued. “I figured out something late yesterday that really helped me out. We had them two warm days and I had been catching them out over the grass. Well, with the cold front, a lot of the big ones stayed up shallow on the rocks.”
After hitting some key stuff early in the morning up the lake and not getting a bite, he returned later in the day and was able to catch three bass in a row to make a couple of key culls. He ended the day close to check-in and sealed the deal with a 3 1/2-pounder.
Entering the day in second place, Baker added 12-3 to his bags of 17-11 and 16-15 the first two days to claim second place.
“I definitely wasn’t fishing this one for second place, but I’m thankful and thankful for (Kindy),” Baker said. “He deserves it. He has 20 more years of knowledge on this place than I do. I’m thankful to be able to stand up on stage with him. That was special.”
The Glenwood, Ark., angler did a little bit of everything this week. Up the lake, he got bites throwing a War Eagle football jig and a spinnerbait. Baker also mixed in a Damiki rig and a jerkbait for bass he saw suspended on cover in the dirty water.
In clear water, he fished hydrilla beds and caught several kicker fish the first two days around that grass. A Booyah One Knocker and Hard Knocker were his best baits around the grass.
While he could see the bass on his forward-facing sonar, Baker struggled early on Day 3.
“They would come out of the structure to look at my jerkbait and it was like they were in slow motion today,” Baker said. “They were not fired up at all. I finally got one giant to eat it and I had him for a few seconds and broke him off. It was one of the right ones.”
After that, he moved into an area where the wind was blowing, began throwing his Booyah One Knocker and proceeded to fill his limit.
“This type of weather is reaction-bite weather,” he explained. “You have to be burning something. I knew it was a Trap day and I picked up the 1/2-ounce Booyah One Knocker. I weighed in my three best fish on it.”
After landing 18-0 and 14-10 the first two days, Newcomb caught four bass weighing 16-7 on the final day. He anchored his Day 3 bag with a 6-3 largemouth he caught with less than an hour left to go.
“Today was terrible,” Newcomb said. “I knew the cold was going to hurt what I was doing, but I didn’t know it was going to hurt it that bad. The bank I started on, I got a number of bites and got three of them to actually commit. I missed the majority of them. From there, it was done. I tried to force that shallow thing.”
The Camdenton, Mo., pro threw a Z-Man Evergreen JackHammer and a wacky-rigged Bait Cave Customs Slim Stick around shallow cover most of the week. The banks he targeted were “the ugliest” he could find. He said they tended to be flatter banks with isolated pieces of wood.
New York pro Zach Goutremout earned $750 for catching the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament, a 10-14 lunker largemouth he landed Day 2 using a Damiki rig. Canadian pro Evan Kung earned $500 in Garmin rewards.
By notching his second-straight Top 10 finish, Georgia’s Paul Marks leads the Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifier points race with 390 points. Minnesota’s Easton Fothergill is second with 384 points, followed by Newcomb in third with 380, Kung in fourth with 376 and Missouri’s Joe Wieberg in fifth with 371. Alabama’s Tucker Smith (367), Georgia’s Emil Wagner (366), California’s Ish Monroe (360) and Texas’ Dakota Ebare (358) round out the Top 9 in points.
Jeremiah Kindy hasn’t caught many bass this week during the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita presented by SEVIIN. But so far, he has caught the right 10 to be leading the event with a two-day total of 35 pounds, 12 ounces.
Adding 16-5 Friday to the 19-7 he caught during Thursday’s opening round, the Benton, Ark., native is just over a pound ahead of fellow Arkansan Matt Baker while Andrew Hargrove remains in the Top 3 with a two-day total of 34-4.
“It feels great to be leading. These guys are killers. I’m proud to fish with them,” Kindy said.
Kindy has fished Lake Ouachita most of his life. But so far, he has been relatively surprised how the lake has fished the last two days.
He figured the Day 2 conditions, cloudy and windy, would create a better bite across the lake than the calm and sunny conditions on the first day. That was not the case as he and many other anglers struggled to find a consistent bite.
“I thought they were going to smash them today,” he said. “This is the exact weather you want on Lake Ouachita.”
Throughout the week, Kindy has caught bass using a crankbait and a Rat-L-Trap around rocky areas that have hydrilla close by. He has caught bass from 2 to 14 feet of water.
With so much knowledge on the lake, Kindy has tried to fish fresh water every day. His most productive spot Friday was a place he didn’t even fish on Day 1. He will likely mix in new water Saturday as well as some of his best spots from Day 1.
“All day, I’m confident that the next stop I make, I’m going to catch one,” he said.
The day did not start well for Kindy, who did not have a bass in the livewell at noon. He changed areas and managed to catch a limit weighing about 9 pounds before returning and culling all but one of those bass with his final tally in the last two hours.
His biggest bass weighed over 4 pounds.
“It is always an adventure on this lake. It is tough,” he said.
Unlike the first two days when temperatures reached the upper 60s, the high temperatures on the final day are only expected to reach the high 40s with winds out of the north Saturday. Kindy isn’t exactly sure how that will affect his bite.
“I thought today was going to be easy and it was hard,” he said. “I thought yesterday was going to be hard and it was easy. I still believe once they start staging, they don’t leave. They may fade back and forth, but I’m going to be throwing around them.”
With bags of 17-11 on Day 1 and 16-16 on Day 2, Baker has done a little bit of everything to achieve his two-day total of 34-10.
“I don’t feel like I’m dialed in, but I’m thankful to be where I’m at,” Baker said.
While this isn’t his home lake, Baker has fished plenty of tournaments on Ouachita. This week, he has bounced back and forth between several different areas with varying degrees of water clarity. He caught his limit using five different baits on Thursday and four different baits on Friday.
“They are around the grass in the clearer water and are in the 11- to 20-foot range,” Baker said. “In the dirtier water, I’m catching them in 2 to 8 feet. I’m seeing fish deeper in dirtier water, but I can’t catch them.”
After bouncing around a couple of spots, Baker found an area where the wind was hitting and caught his first bass, a 5-pound kicker which anchored his bag. He caught another keeper before moving to an area with dirty water and filled his limit.
“I got a limit quick,” Baker said. “It’s a place where I got a lot of my weight yesterday. I caught one of them good ones too, a 4 3/4. It doesn’t seem like there’s a bunch of bass up there. I had two big ones at that point and had all day to catch two more big ones.”
Unfortunately for Baker, he scrambled around most of the afternoon and could not locate another kicker largemouth.
“I really thought I had a chance at a big bag today coming back down here and fishing in the wind,” he said. “I finally culled about 20 or 30 minutes (before check-in), but I had a lot of down time where I wasn’t helping myself. I had to cover tons of water and junk fish and tried to find something for tomorrow.”
Entering the day in second, Hargrove added 14-5 to his 19-15 Day 1 tally. Using his forward-facing sonar, Hargrove has roamed a deep flat that features grass and brushpiles. The bass, however, aren’t relating to the cover and are instead cruising the bottom in anywhere from 20 to 40 feet of water.
“Most of the bass are just swimming on the bottom. Those are mostly singles and I try to throw to them and get them to eat,” Hargrove said. “Yesterday, a few of my bigger ones came out of brushpiles.”
New York’s Zach Goutremout caught a 10-14 largemouth that anchored his 22-0 Day 2 bag, taking control of the race for Phoenix Boats Big Bass.
Robert Jacuzzi from Mount Ida, Ark., won the co-angler competition with a two-day total of 13-11. Jacuzzi landed in eighth after Day 1 with a limit weighing 6-3 before catching 7-8 on the second day. Georgia’s Chad Stahl finished second with a total of 12-2 and Alex Allen was third with 12-1.
Jimmy O’Brien from Southampton, N.Y., earned $250 for catching the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament on the co-angler side, a 6-1 largemouth he landed on Day 1.
The Top 10 pros will launch from Brady Mountain Recreation Area at 6:45 a.m. CT Saturday and return for weigh-in at 2:45 p.m. The winner will punch his ticket to the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, given they have fished all three tournaments in Division II.
The final day of competition will be broadcast live on FS1 Saturday morning beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT, with streaming available on Bassmaster.com, as well as FS2 and the FOX Sports digital platforms.
The tournament is being hosted by Visit Hot Springs.
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Scott Martin’s no weatherman, but his spot-on prediction described a scenario that enabled him to sack up a 31-pound, 7-ounce limit Saturday and lock up a record-setting wire-to-wire victory at the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Okeechobee presented by SEVIIN.
Martin amassed a three-day winning total of 90-6.
“Whoo! I’ve had to hold it in all week,” said a clearly emotional Martin, who notched his first B.A.S.S. victory. “To win here in front of my mom, in this parking lot where my dad (nine-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year, Roland Martin) won (the 1991 Bassmaster Florida Invitational) it’s just a blessing.
“To have that come full circle and to stand on this stage in front of my family and friends is just so amazing. I’m beyond appreciative of the sport, beyond appreciative of B.A.S.S. This is just special.”
Taking the early lead with a Day 1 limit of 33-2 — the event’s largest — Martin added a second-round bag that went 25-13 and held on to the top spot. After the Day 2 weigh-in, the hometown favorite said he believed the week’s increasingly stable, warming trend could deliver the opportunity he needed to seal the deal.
With Championship Saturday bringing more calm, sunny conditions and slightly warmer water, Martin slammed the door shut with a Day 3 catch that included a pair of 9-pounders he caught about an hour apart.
“This was just an epic day,” Martin said during the Bassmaster LIVE broadcast. “It was a blessing. Thank you, Jesus.”
With his victory, Martin set the record for the all-time heaviest winning total in a three-day Bassmaster event. Former Elite Series pro Byron Velvick set the previous record in 2000 by catching 83-5 at California’s Clear Lake.
Also, Martin’s Day 1 limit broke the record for the heaviest one-day catch in a Bassmaster Open — a mark previously set by Whitney Stephens’ 32-12 at the 2019 Open on the Harris Chain of Lakes.
“I couldn’t have scripted this any better,” Martin said of his accomplishments. “I just wanted to win a tournament here in front of the hometown crowd at some point in my career. But the records — I had no idea. To win here in front of my mom and dad and to break records, it was just God’s perfect timing.”
Martin edged Tucker Smith of Birmingham, Ala., by a margin of 22-11 and collected the top prize of $50,360. He also qualified for the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, assuming he fishes the final two Opens in Division 1.
Martin spent his week in the Harney Pond area on the lake’s west side. Fishing in 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet of water, he targeted the submerged remnants of cattail clumps.
“I was looking for these clumps on my Garmin Panoptix,” Martin said. “They were like brushpiles. I knew it was going to be a tough tournament, so I knew I had to fish as slow and methodically as I could.
“A lot of tournaments, you run around and you try to do this and that to try and keep your energy level up, but I was the opposite today. I was just covering water and fishing slow.”
“The key was keeping my bait clean,” Martin said. “There’s a lot of muck on the bottom, but I could feel when my bait came into a clean spot, so I would make repeated casts to that spot.”
Martin enhanced his plastics with Bait Pop, a scented paste with visibility-boosting glitter. Also, the additive gave his baits a more well-defined sonar signature, which helped him monitor the presentation and make any necessary adjustments.
Smith finished second with 68-11. Keeping himself in the hunt, he took second place on Day 1 with 27-6, remained there with a second-round total of 23-12 and concluded with a Day 3 effort of 17-9.
Smith did all of his work in the Rim Canal, where he worked a 7-mile stretch and caught fish in about 8 to 12 feet.
“I side-scanned a lot and found rocks at the mouths of canals and that’s where I caught my fish,” he said.
“It seemed like it got tougher and tougher, so I had to fish harder and harder every single day,” Smith said.
Randall Tharp of Port St. Joe, Fla., finished third with 68-8. Tharp turned in daily weights of 22-5, 22-9 and 23-10.
Fishing the lake’s west side, Tharp sacked up all of his weight with his favorite reaction bait — a bladed jig.
“I really like to catch them punching here, but the lake just didn’t set up (for that),” Tharp said. “I figured the tournament was going to be caught winding and that’s what I did.
“I caught every fish on a 1/2-ounce gold ChatterBait JackHammer. The key to it, for me, was a new Zoom trailer called a Shimmer Shad. It looks like a golden shiner. They smoked that thing.”
Tharp won the $750 Big Bass award for the 10-3 he caught on Day 1.
The Division 1 season opener included 175 competitors who have committed to all nine Opens events in the Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifiers division, which will award Bassmaster Elite Series invitations to the top nine finishers in Angler of the Year points standings.
The tournament was hosted by the City of Clewiston.
Slowing down and methodically fishing his areas, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Scott Martin maintained his lead on Day 2 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Okeechobee presented by SEVIIN with a catch of 25 pounds, 13 ounces.
Added to his massive Day 1 catch of 33-2, Martin has a two-day total of 58-15 — good for a lead of 7-13 over Tucker Smith of Birmingham, Ala., who is holding down second place with 51-2.
Martin, who grew up in Clewiston and guided out of his family’s marina, which is hosting the event, raved about the opportunity to shine in front of so many familiar faces.
“It’s a blessing to be standing here in front of my hometown crowd, my whole family and friends,” Martin said. “I grew up right here and watched my dad (nine-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year Roland Martin) win a Bassmaster tournament here and that was kind of the defining moment for me. I practiced with him and he gave me credit onstage for helping him. That’s when I thought to myself, ‘I might be able to do this.’
“To be able to win this thing, I have a lot of work ahead of me. But this lake has been good to me.”
Martin returned to the general area that produced his Day 1 mega bag, but he worked several different spots. Throwing a mix of reaction baits and pitching-style baits, Martin said a measured pace was essential for producing his bites.
“Like I said yesterday, patience was the key,” he said. “I was just taking it one fish at a time.
“Some of my fish were on beds, but some of them were coming and going. I was just casting around different spots within my area.”
Martin’s day was unfolding less productively than the first until a late-afternoon stop yielded an 8-pound kicker. He’s hopeful he can locate more of the big bites that fueled his first two days’ success, but he said he may need to integrate new water into his game plan.
“I’m not sure where I’m going to fish tomorrow,” Martin said. “The Lord blessed me this week, so I’m just gonna let Him take the reins and just go with it.”
Martin said he’s optimistic that Championship Saturday may bring the week’s most favorable weather. Stable, warming conditions in South Florida could deliver fireworks, but even with a smaller field of Top 10 finalists, Martin knows he’ll need to step on the gas.
“I’m going to have to catch everything I can catch tomorrow,” Martin said. “I’ll have to catch 25 pounds tomorrow, because somebody could catch 30. With those warming conditions, it could be really good.”
After catching 27-6 on Day 1, Smith backed that up with 23-12 to reach his second-place total of 51-2.
“I just found multiple places where they were staging,” Smith said. “Basically, those fish were prespawn and postspawn. So, I think I’m getting the best of both worlds.”
Making the same long run he made on Day 1, Smith found his opportunities more dispersed.
“I had 14 pounds until the last hour and caught most of my weight in that last hour,” he said. “I pulled up on a place and caught three big ones — a 6- and two 4 1/2-pounders — on back-to-back-to-back casts.
“I’m hoping this area will produce tomorrow. There’s good fish in there, but I have to fish as hard as I can and run off gut instinct. That’s what I did today and ended up landing on them.”
Paul Marks of Cumming, Ga., placed third with 46-5. Marks caught a first-round limit of 26-7 and added 19-4 on Day 2.
“It was pretty slow until lunchtime and then I caught a couple big ones on my last stop,” Marks said. “I think maybe the pressure got to them today.”
Marks caught his bass mostly on reaction baits, which seemed to produce best in the stained water he was fishing.
Randall Tharp of Port St. Joe, Fla., is in the lead for Big Bass honors with the 10-3 largemouth he caught on Day 1. Tharp placed fourth with 44-14.
California pro Ish Monroe had the Big Bass on Day 2 with a 9-11.
John Goul of Philadelphia, Miss., won the co-angler division with a two-day total of 24-5. Goul, who also won the co-angler title at the 2020 Open at Neely Henry, caught 16-15 on Day 1 and added 7-6 to edge Jason Shapiro or Concord, N.C., by 11 ounces.
“I was dragging it really slow and I guess it made those big girls mad,” Goul said. “It was just random casting and pray for a bite.”
Sean Neifert of Lantana, Fla., won the $250 Big Bass award among co-anglers with his 8-10.
The Division 1 season opener includes 175 competitors who have committed to all nine Opens events in the Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifiers division, which will award Bassmaster Elite Series invitations to the top nine finishers in Angler of the Year points standings.
In addition to the top prize of $49,860, the winning pro angler will qualify for 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic, assuming he fishes all three Division 1 events.
The Top 10 will take off Saturday at 7 a.m. ET from Roland Martin Marina. The weigh-in will be held at the marina at 3 p.m.
All coverage from the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Okeechobee presented by SEVIIN will be available on Bassmaster.com.
The final day of competition will be broadcast live on FS1 Saturday morning beginning at 8 a.m. ET, with streaming available on Bassmaster.com, as well as FS2 and the FOX Sports digital platforms.
The tournament is being hosted by the City of Clewiston.
Local knowledge certainly helped, but Bassmaster Elite Series pro Scott Martin said patience was the key to his massive limit of 33 pounds, 2 ounces, which leads Day 1 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Okeechobee presented by SEVIIN.
Martin, who grew up fishing Florida’s largest lake, heads into Day 2 with a lead of 5-12 over Tucker Smith of Birmingham, Ala.
“When you fish in Florida, you have to be slow and methodical and make accurate casts and pitches,” Martin said. “That’s the only reason I caught ’em — I stayed very patient.”
Noting that he did not fish the same places he targeted during the 2023 Elite Series opener on his home lake, Martin said he dialed in his main area late Wednesday afternoon. Knowing how to exploit what he found was the difference maker.
“I got very fortunate yesterday, in the last 20 minutes of practice, I found where I wanted to start and we just rolled with it,” Martin said. “It wasn’t a secret bait, it wasn’t a secret deal. I was around a bunch of people.”
Starting with a big bite at 7:45 a.m., Martin’s action lasted through the afternoon. Anchoring his bag with a 9-12 that bit around 12:30 p.m., Martin said he caught bass on a mix of presentations that included a ChatterBait, a swimming worm and Texas-rigged pitching baits.
Locating a strategic area in about 3 to 5 feet of water, Martin put himself in position to catch bass in multiple stages of the spawn.
“It was an area that has some spawning fish, some prespawn fish and some postspawn fish, so there was a lot going on in there,” he said. “When you find the right water, when you find the right clarity and when you find some areas that these fish are starting to pull into, that’s how you do well on Okeechobee.
“When you find where they’re pulling into, you can catch them coming and going.”
Sizing up his second-round potential, Martin said he suspects he’ll need to move around and fish other spots within his main area.
“You usually don’t sit in areas, but this is a little different deal,” Martin said. “I found some stuff late in the day where I think I can catch a few fish, so that’s probably where we’ll start and we’ll take it from there.”
Placing second with 27-6, Smith’s day required mobility and patience. Diligently working through his options was tedious, but a late-day cull gave him the surge he needed.
“I bounced around and hit three main areas,” Smith said. “Some set up the same, but others were a little bit different. I was fishing groups that I had found off the bank. There was a mix of prespawn and post. I think the fish were just moving back and forth.”
Using reaction and slower-moving baits, Smith had a solid limit by 9:30, but his best bites came during the midday period.
“I caught most of my fish when that sun popped out and warmed the water,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, I caught a 6 that culled out a 3.”
Matt Adams of Oxford, Ala., is in third place with 27-4. His day started quickly, with BassTrakk showing an unofficial limit of 23 pounds by 8:49.
“I had some missed opportunities, but all in all, it was a good day,” Adams said. “I caught all but one keeper in the first 45 minutes.”
Adams said the key to his success was solitude. He managed to avoid the crowds and, while that’s no easy feat on a legendary fishery like Okeechobee, his seclusion was the result of practice disappointment.
“I think these fish are unpressured,” he said. “The way these fish are eating, I don’t think they’ve seen a bait. A tough practice will make you do things that are outside your norm. It makes you look outside the box.
“When practice is a struggle, you really start trying to figure out something that no one else is doing. I think I found that, but whether there’s enough fish in there for three days, I don’t know that.”
Noting that he caught his fish on a mix of reaction baits and bottom-contact baits, Adams said he worked a large area that he believes has sufficient potential for a solid Day 2 effort.
“I saw the right bites in practice,” he said. “I just didn’t see a lot of numbers. Also, I left some stuff untouched, so I don’t really even know what I’ve got.”
Randall Tharp of Port St. Joe, Fla., is in the lead for Big Bass honors with his giant 10-3 largemouth.
John Soul of Philadelphia, Miss., leads the co-angler division with 16-15.
Jason Shapiro or Concord, N.C., holds the Big Bass lead among co-anglers with a 7-11.
The Division 1 season opener includes 175 competitors who have committed to all nine Opens events in the Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifiers division, which will award Bassmaster Elite Series invitations to the top nine finishers in Angler of the Year points standings.
In addition to the top prize of $49,860, the winning pro angler will qualify for 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic, assuming he fishes all three Division 1 events.
The full field will take off Friday at 7 a.m. ET from Roland Martin Marina. The weigh-in will be held at the marina at 3 p.m. The co-angler champion will be decided Friday and the pro field will be trimmed to the Top 10 for Championship Saturday.
All coverage from the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Okeechobee presented by SEVIIN will be available on Bassmaster.com.
The final day of competition will be broadcast live on FS1 Saturday morning beginning at 8 a.m. ET, with streaming available on Bassmaster.com, as well as FS2 and the FOX Sports digital platforms.
The tournament is being hosted by the City of Clewiston.
PALATKA, Fla. — Fighting through a painfully slow morning, John Crews of Salem, Va., capitalized on the afternoon bite and caught a limit of 17 pounds, 3 ounces to retain his lead in the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at St. Johns River with a two-day total of 45-3.
After posting a Day 1 limit of 28 pounds, Crews edged Bob Downey of Hudson, Wis., by 12 ounces. On Friday, Crews greatly improved his position and will head into Saturday’s semifinal round with a 9-13 lead over Elite Series rookie Masayuki Matsushita of Tokoname-Aichi, Japan.
A telling moment that bespoke the attitude driving Crews’ decisions came midmorning when Crews’ cameraman asked if he had a target weight.
“I never do that; I want to catch as much as I can,” Crews said. “If you say, ‘I’ll be okay if I get 15,’ or, ‘I’ll be okay if I get 18,’ if you reach that, you might take your foot off the gas.
“Early on in my career, I settled more than I should have in a tournament, instead of going for the kill. Whether I finish first, second, 12th, 15th or whatever, I’m going to try to catch every fish I can catch.”
Despite high-pressure, postfrontal conditions, Crews did not take his foot off the gas Friday. Retracing his Day 1 game plan, he returned to Rodman Reservoir, where he threw a jerkbait and a drop shot. Rigged with a prototype Missile Baits worm, the latter produced all of his Rodman catches.
By the time he left Rodman at 1 p.m., Crews had only a small limit of 10-9 that he anchored with a 4-pounder. The reservoir was much more productive on Day 1, as Crews locked out with a 24-pound bag that included an 8-1.
“I got very fortunate to catch the bag that I caught yesterday, but I made some good adjustments today,” he said.
Specifically, he fished his way out of the Rodman canal and spent the rest of his afternoon targeting shallow cover on the main river. His afternoon effort allowed him to make three upgrades with a 4 1/2-pounder, a 4 and a 2.
Crews caught his main-river fish on a 1/2-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait JackHammer with a Missile Baits D Bomb in the bruiser (black/blue) color. While the bulky 4-inch creature bait is typically used for flipping and pitching presentations, Crews said the D Bomb proved appealing to the quality bass he needed.
“It’s a big profile and when the (ChatterBait’s) blade is vibrating, the whole tail portion of it kicks and it looks big,” Crews said. “These big fish are used to eating bream and crappie. If you throw the little stuff, you can catch some fish, but I like the bigger stuff.”
Crews’ most notable catch came around 2:35 when a fish bit and missed his bait. He threw back to the same spot and again missed a bite. On his third cast to the spot, he caught his largest fish of the day.
“I think it was the same fish,” Crews said. “Sometimes, they just get mad that they missed it.”
Crews said he’s unsure if he will return to Rodman on Day 3. After Friday’s flat calm conditions seemed to hinder the bite, he said he needs wind to stimulate the fish. If Saturday looks windy, he’ll go; if not, he’ll work his main-river spots.
Matsushita caught nearly twice what he caught on Day 1 and improved from 41st place to second with a two-day total of 35-6. Spending his day in the main river, Matsushita bolstered his Day 1 weight of 12-1 with 23-5 — the day’s heaviest catch.
“I fished all shallow water; 3 to 5 feet,” he said. “I got bites all day. I caught two big ones in the morning and when the (sun shined brightly) I caught three big bites.”
Matsushita caught all of his bass on a free rig — a Texas-rigged worm with a tear drop weight hanging from his line. He used a 3/16-ounce weight and a Zoom Magnum Finesse worm in junebug and redbug colors.
Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark., added 13-5 to his Day 1 limit of 22 pounds and remained in third place with 35-5. Returning to the Rodman canal, Blaylock caught most of his fish on a wacky-rigged watermelon red Yum finesse worm.
Blaylock caught one of his keepers on a Booyah Hard Knocker lipless bait. While the reaction bait played a bigger role on Day 1, he was unable to replicate that success Friday.
“I went through the whole area with moving baits and never got a single bite,” Blaylock said. “It never did feel right and then once I started picking up finesse, I started catching one here, one there. I just knew right off the bat that, as soon as I got the first one, this is what it’s going to take to get bites today.
“I kept the other stuff honest throughout the day, but it just wasn’t working.”
Brandon Cobb of Greenwood, S.C., is in the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass honors with the 9-13 largemouth he caught on Day 1.
Crews leads the VMC Monster Bag standings for the event’s heaviest limit with his 28-pound first-round bag.
The Top 47 remaining anglers will take off at 7:30 a.m. ET Saturday from Palatka City Docks. The weigh-in will be held at Palatka Riverfront Park at 3:30 p.m., with only the Top 10 pros advancing to Championship Sunday with a chance at the $100,000 first-place prize.
Live coverage for the event can be streamed on Bassmaster.com and the FOX Sports digital platforms. FS1 will also broadcast live with the tournament leaders beginning at 8 a.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday.
2022 AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at St. Johns River 2/10-2/13 St. Johns River, Palatka FL. (PROFESSIONAL) Standings Day 2
1. John Crews Jr Salem, VA 10 45-03 100 Day 1: 5 28-00 Day 2: 5 17-03 2. Masayuki Matsushita Tokoname-Shi JAPAN 10 35-06 99 Day 1: 5 12-01 Day 2: 5 23-05 3. Stetson Blaylock Benton, AR 10 35-05 98 Day 1: 5 22-00 Day 2: 5 13-05 4. Patrick Walters Summerville, SC 10 34-13 97 Day 1: 5 17-12 Day 2: 5 17-01 5. Bob Downey Hudson, WI 6 33-15 96 Day 1: 5 27-04 Day 2: 1 06-11 6. David Mullins Mt Carmel, TN 10 33-12 95 Day 1: 5 19-07 Day 2: 5 14-05 7. Brandon Palaniuk Rathdrum, ID 10 31-08 94 Day 1: 5 13-04 Day 2: 5 18-04 8. Austin Felix Eden Prairie, MN 10 30-13 93 Day 1: 5 12-12 Day 2: 5 18-01 9. Bill Lowen Brookville, IN 10 30-02 92 Day 1: 5 20-00 Day 2: 5 10-02 10. Chris Johnston Otonabee Ontario CANADA 10 29-05 91 Day 1: 5 17-09 Day 2: 5 11-12 11. Gregory DiPalma Millville, NJ 10 29-01 90 Day 1: 5 13-01 Day 2: 5 16-00 12. Clent Davis Montevallo, AL 10 28-05 89 Day 1: 5 13-02 Day 2: 5 15-03 13. Jake Whitaker Fairview, NC 10 28-03 88 Day 1: 5 12-12 Day 2: 5 15-07 14. Micah Frazier Newnan, GA 8 27-13 87 Day 1: 5 20-04 Day 2: 3 07-09 15. Wes Logan Springville, AL 10 27-10 86 Day 1: 5 13-15 Day 2: 5 13-11 16. Scott Canterbury Odenville, AL 9 27-09 85 Day 1: 5 12-13 Day 2: 4 14-12 17. Gary Clouse Winchester, TN 10 26-11 84 Day 1: 5 12-04 Day 2: 5 14-07 18. Ray Hanselman Jr Del Rio, TX 10 26-11 83 Day 1: 5 14-02 Day 2: 5 12-09 19. Matty Wong Honolulu, HI 7 26-10 82 Day 1: 5 19-14 Day 2: 2 06-12 20. Caleb Sumrall New Iberia, LA 9 26-08 81 $1,000.00 Day 1: 4 08-11 Day 2: 5 17-13 21. Jonathan Kelley Old Forge, PA 8 26-07 80 Day 1: 5 18-04 Day 2: 3 08-03 22. Jay Yelas Turner, OR 10 26-07 79 Day 1: 5 13-12 Day 2: 5 12-11 23. Brandon Card Salisbury, NC 10 26-06 78 Day 1: 5 14-10 Day 2: 5 11-12 24. Chris Zaldain Fort Worth, TX 9 26-03 77 Day 1: 5 19-03 Day 2: 4 07-00 25. Drew Cook Cairo, GA 8 25-11 76 Day 1: 3 04-00 Day 2: 5 21-11 26. Taku Ito Chiba JAPAN 10 25-10 75 Day 1: 5 16-04 Day 2: 5 09-06 27. Jamie Hartman Newport, NY 10 25-09 74 Day 1: 5 12-13 Day 2: 5 12-12 28. Jacob Powroznik North Prince George, VA 9 24-15 73 Day 1: 4 08-09 Day 2: 5 16-06 29. Tyler Rivet Raceland, LA 10 24-14 72 Day 1: 5 11-13 Day 2: 5 13-01 30. Jason Williamson Wagener, SC 10 24-14 71 Day 1: 5 11-14 Day 2: 5 13-00 31. Justin Atkins Florence, AL 10 24-13 70 Day 1: 5 14-13 Day 2: 5 10-00 32. Lee Livesay Longview, TX 8 24-07 69 Day 1: 5 18-15 Day 2: 3 05-08 33. Jay Przekurat Stevens Point, WI 8 24-07 68 Day 1: 4 13-01 Day 2: 4 11-06 34. Cory Johnston Cavan CANADA 9 24-02 67 Day 1: 4 07-07 Day 2: 5 16-11 35. Matt Arey Shelby, NC 10 24-01 66 Day 1: 5 16-07 Day 2: 5 07-10 36. Bernie Schultz Gainesville, FL 10 23-09 65 Day 1: 5 13-07 Day 2: 5 10-02 37. Brandon Lester Fayetteville, TN 10 23-08 64 Day 1: 5 11-03 Day 2: 5 12-05 38. John Cox Debary, FL 10 23-03 63 Day 1: 5 09-06 Day 2: 5 13-13 39. Clifford Pirch Payson, AZ 8 23-02 62 Day 1: 3 08-07 Day 2: 5 14-11 40. Chad Morgenthaler Reeds Spring, MO 10 23-01 61 Day 1: 5 14-05 Day 2: 5 08-12 41. David Williams Newton, NC 9 22-07 60 Day 1: 5 11-11 Day 2: 4 10-12 42. Bryan New Saluda, SC 7 21-14 59 Day 1: 5 18-11 Day 2: 2 03-03 43. Buddy Gross Chatanooga, TN 6 21-12 58 Day 1: 5 17-02 Day 2: 1 04-10 44. Bryan Schmitt Deale, MD 9 21-11 57 Day 1: 4 08-04 Day 2: 5 13-07 45. Caleb Kuphall Mukwonago, WI 7 21-11 56 Day 1: 2 09-08 Day 2: 5 12-03 46. Chad Pipkens Dewitt, MI 7 21-06 55 Day 1: 5 19-00 Day 2: 2 02-06 47. Luke Palmer Coalgate, OK 10 20-15 54 Day 1: 5 10-14 Day 2: 5 10-01 48. Joseph Webster Hamilton, AL 9 20-12 53 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 11-05 Day 2: 4 09-07 49. Brandon Cobb Greenwood, SC 6 20-11 52 $3,500.00 Day 1: 1 09-13 Day 2: 5 10-14 50. Jason Christie Park Hill, OK 9 20-01 51 $2,500.00 Day 1: 4 10-14 Day 2: 5 09-03 51. Jeff Gustafson Keewatin Ontario CANADA 10 19-14 50 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 09-03 Day 2: 5 10-11 52. Gerald Swindle Guntersville, AL 10 19-14 49 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 09-10 Day 2: 5 10-04 53. Marc Frazier Newnan, GA 8 19-08 48 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 15-00 Day 2: 3 04-08 54. Josh Douglas Isle, MN 6 19-04 47 $2,500.00 Day 1: 1 02-07 Day 2: 5 16-13 55. Cody Huff Ava, MO 9 19-02 46 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 09-07 Day 2: 4 09-11 56. Scott Martin Clewiston, FL 8 19-00 45 $2,500.00 Day 1: 4 09-05 Day 2: 4 09-11 57. Hank Cherry Jr Lincolnton, NC 8 18-14 44 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 13-14 Day 2: 3 05-00 58. Greg Hackney Gonzales, LA 9 18-09 43 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 08-00 Day 2: 4 10-09 59. Clark Wendlandt Leander, TX 7 18-06 42 $2,500.00 Day 1: 2 05-14 Day 2: 5 12-08 60. Seth Feider New Market, MN 8 18-04 41 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 15-00 Day 2: 3 03-04 61. Matt Robertson Kuttawa, KY 8 17-15 40 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 13-00 Day 2: 3 04-15 62. Drew Benton Blakely, GA 8 17-15 39 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 11-05 Day 2: 3 06-10 63. Brock Mosley Collinsville, MS 8 17-05 38 $2,500.00 Day 1: 3 04-09 Day 2: 5 12-12 64. Matt Herren Ashville, AL 10 17-05 37 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 12-10 Day 2: 5 04-11 65. Ed Loughran III Richmond, VA 7 17-04 36 $2,500.00 Day 1: 4 06-14 Day 2: 3 10-06 66. Cliff Prince Palatka, FL 10 17-02 35 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 08-15 Day 2: 5 08-03 67. Frank Talley Temple, TX 7 16-11 34 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 14-07 Day 2: 2 02-04 68. Keith Combs Huntington, TX 9 16-03 33 Day 1: 4 07-05 Day 2: 5 08-14 69. Mark Menendez Paducah, KY 5 15-00 32 Day 1: 5 15-00 Day 2: 0 00-00 70. Carl Jocumsen Queensland AUSTRALIA 7 15-00 31 Day 1: 5 09-06 Day 2: 2 05-10 71. Todd Auten Lake Wylie, SC 9 14-14 30 Day 1: 5 06-00 Day 2: 4 08-14 72. Justin Hamner Northport, AL 9 14-13 29 Day 1: 4 07-00 Day 2: 5 07-13 73. Skylar Hamilton Dandridge, TN 9 14-06 28 Day 1: 4 05-10 Day 2: 5 08-12 74. Shane LeHew Catawba, NC 6 14-05 27 Day 1: 4 07-00 Day 2: 2 07-05 75. Hunter Shryock Ooltewah, TN 7 14-00 26 Day 1: 4 09-11 Day 2: 3 04-05 76. Koby Kreiger Alva, FL 7 13-15 25 Day 1: 2 02-05 Day 2: 5 11-10 77. Mike Huff London, KY 10 13-14 24 Day 1: 5 07-10 Day 2: 5 06-04 78. Rick Clunn Ava, MO 5 13-00 23 Day 1: 1 03-14 Day 2: 4 09-02 79. Alex Redwine Blue Ash, OH 7 12-15 22 Day 1: 5 09-15 Day 2: 2 03-00 80. Pat Schlapper Eleva, WI 7 12-03 21 Day 1: 5 10-08 Day 2: 2 01-11 81. Joshua Stracner Vandiver, AL 8 12-02 20 Day 1: 5 06-08 Day 2: 3 05-10 82. Darold Gleason Many, LA 6 11-15 19 Day 1: 4 07-03 Day 2: 2 04-12 83. Jesse Tacoronte Kissimmee, FL 6 11-15 18 Day 1: 3 04-13 Day 2: 3 07-02 84. Jacob Foutz Charleston, TN 5 11-10 17 Day 1: 3 08-14 Day 2: 2 02-12 85. Kenta Kimura Osaka JAPAN 4 11-03 16 Day 1: 3 04-11 Day 2: 1 06-08 86. Paul Mueller Naugatuck, CT 5 09-03 15 Day 1: 3 05-04 Day 2: 2 03-15 87. Steve Kennedy Auburn, AL 6 09-01 14 Day 1: 1 01-11 Day 2: 5 07-06 88. KJ Queen Catawba, NC 6 08-13 13 Day 1: 2 03-15 Day 2: 4 04-14 89. Kyle Welcher Opelika, AL 4 06-14 12 Day 1: 2 03-12 Day 2: 2 03-02 90. Derek Hudnall Denham Springs, LA 3 04-11 11 Day 1: 3 04-11 Day 2: 0 00-00 91. Brad Whatley Bivins, TX 3 04-10 10 Day 1: 2 03-09 Day 2: 1 01-01 92. David Fritts Lexington, NC 2 03-15 9 Day 1: 1 02-06 Day 2: 1 01-09 93. Michael Iaconelli Pittsgrove, NJ 3 03-06 8 Day 1: 1 00-14 Day 2: 2 02-08 94. Daisuke Aoki Minamitsurugun Yamanash 2 03-04 7 Day 1: 0 00-00 Day 2: 2 03-04 ———————————————————————–
PHOENIX BOATS BIG BASS Day 1 Brandon Cobb Greenwood, SC 09-13 $1,000.00 2 Caleb Sumrall New Iberia, LA 09-07 $1,000.00
VMC MONSTER BAG Day 1 John Crews Jr Salem, VA 28-00 $0.00
PALATKA, Fla. — Looking past current conditions and considering the forthcoming weather patterns, John Crews of Salem, Va., employed a two-stage strategy and sacked up a Day 1 limit of 28 pounds to lead the season-opening AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at St. Johns River.
Leading Bob Downey of Hudson, Wis., by 12 ounces, Crews also sits atop the VMC Monster Bag standings for the event’s heaviest limit.
Following the miserably rainy, cold conditions that plagued practice, Day 1 dawned clear and bright. It was definitely a postfrontal, high-pressure scenario, but air temperatures quickly rose and spurred the fish.
“At the beginning of practice, I was practicing for these conditions, so it made me look really smart, like I made a good decision,” Crews said. “Hopefully, it will hold up. I think we’ll have the same weather tomorrow.”
Running upriver from Palatka, Crews started his day in Rodman Reservoir. While 22 other boats passed through the Buckman Lock with him, Crews said he never felt cramped or crowded. Covering a 2-mile area, he had to hit several spots to secure a limit.
“There was no aggregation of boats; there were three or four boats in sight of where I was at, but nobody was on top of anybody,” Crews said. “I don’t think anything is that good — at least I didn’t find it.
“It was one here, one there, one here. Then, at the end of the day, it was like, ‘You smoked them.’ But it wasn’t like that.”
Anchoring his bag with an 8-1, Crews said he used multiple techniques in Rodman and combined moving baits with slower presentations.
“I used these baits in relationship to similar places,” he said. “All the places I fished in Rodman were similar. I think I can go back tomorrow and catch some more fish, but catching big fish like that — I don’t know.”
Around 1 p.m., Crews locked out of Rodman. While he waited, he spoke with the Bassmaster LIVE crew and told them his plan was to return to the St. Johns and look for another big bite. He checked that box around 2:45 by relocating to a familiar spot and adding a 4 1/2-pounder.
“I had some things in mind; I tried some offshore stuff and I tried some other shallow stuff,” Crews said. “It’s an area where I’ve caught some in the past. I caught a 2 1/4-pounder and then I caught that 4 1/2 and then I left. It’s one of those places where you can usually catch one or two, but I’ve never caught a limit there.”
As Crews explained, his decision to leave Rodman was based on factors beyond his control.
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“With (Rodman), you have to lock when you can lock (based on the predetermined schedule),” he said. “I thought, ‘When I come back to the river, maybe I can get another bite or two, and maybe it will help me at some point.’ It helped me today.”
Overcoming an early mechanical issue, Downey placed second with 27-4. He would eventually leave the water around 11:30 a.m. to have the service crew address the issues, but not before reaching his planned destination south of Palatka.
“I limped down to my area and had all my weight by 10 o’clock,” Downey said. “I caught a good fish in that area in practice and I think the weather conditions set up right — the cold last night just sucked them into this area. I only caught five fish today.
“I would have loved to have gone and practiced elsewhere today; I had some stuff south of Lake George and I would have loved to run some canals later today just to see if I could find a bigger one, but I didn’t do that because I didn’t know if I could get back or not.”
Downey caught his fish in what he described as a backwater creek. He caught his fish off the bank and used his Humminbird 360 to locate key areas. Winding a reaction bait produced all of his fish.
Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark., is in third place with 22 pounds. Starting with a solid game plan, Blaylock realized the situation was not going to produce, so he made a wholesale change and salvaged his day.
“There are a couple of little places that people keep overlooking and every year that I’ve caught them (well) here, I’ve caught some key fish in those areas and this year was no different,” Blaylock said. “I just happened to catch a couple of really nice ones midday that really helped the cause.
“In my primary stuff, only one place out of all the stuff I’d found in practice had a fish on it. I just got one bite and that was it. Hopefully, there’s enough left in that backup spot to carry me on to a Top 10.”
Blaylock caught his bass on a trio of moving baits. His strategy was to “buzz through” the area to locate active fish that were positioning off the bank in open water.
“I definitely left them biting today,” he said. “But it’s not like you just pull up and just throw at one spot and catch them; you have to work hard to get those bites.”
Brandon Cobb of Greenwood, S.C., is in the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass honors with his 9-13 largemouth.
Friday’s takeoff is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. ET from Palatka City Docks. The weigh-in will be held at Palatka Riverfront Park at 3:30 p.m.
After Friday’s weigh-in, the Top 47 remaining anglers will advance to Saturday’s semifinal round.
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The tournament is being hosted by the Putnam County Tourist Development Council and Putnam County Chamber of Commerce.
2022 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota 2022 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors: Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha 2022 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Daiwa, Garmin, Huk Performance Fishing, Marathon, Strike King, Triton Boats, VMC
CECIL COUNTY, Md. — With one minute to spare before lines out, Michael “Ike” Iaconelli landed an 18.50-inch bass that lifted him to victory Saturday in the Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX at Upper Chesapeake Bay.
Iaconelli’s five biggest bass measured 88.25 inches, edging second-place Sterling Leach by just 1.75 inches.
It’s been a good couple of weeks for the popular New Jersey pro and 20-time Classic qualifier. His Kayak Series win comes on the heels of a fourth-place finish at the Basspro.com Bassmaster Northern Open at Oneida Lake, which lifted Iaconelli to second in the Northern Division points race.
“I’m proud of this one. I’ve been trying for three years to win a professional kayak event and I finally won one,” Iaconelli said. “It feels really, really good. It is a big moment for me. Kayak fishing has been great for me personally and a lot of the companies I work with are supporting me fishing on the kayak side as well.
“I launched an Ike-approved Hobie at ICAST this year. I’ve only fished out of it about six times. What a great way to break in a new kayak.”
The victory also gives Ike a win at every level of adult Bassmaster competition.
“I’ve won as an amateur, I’ve won as a Nation angler, I’ve won at the Open level, the Elite level, the Classic and Angler of the Year,” he said. (Iaconelli won the 2003 Bassmaster Classic at the Louisiana Delta and captured the Angler of the Year title in 2006.) “I talk to Brandon Palaniuk a lot and one of his goals is to win at every level of B.A.S.S. and the Classic is sort of the last thing he has left to win.
“But not now. If he wants to top my record he has to get a kayak and win a kayak event.”
Iaconelli’s winning fish engulfed his Berkley MaxScent Creature Hawg with just enough time for him to haul it into the boat, measure it and photograph it before the official lines out time of 2 p.m. ET.
“It’s funny how those things happen like that,” he said. “I was flipping and flipping and watching the time click. At 1:59 p.m., I pitched in a mat and it sank about a foot and the hydrilla shook. I saw my line jump and set the hook, cranked it in on 65-pound braid, swung it in, unhooked it and submitted the picture all within a minute. It was an incredible thing.
“It ranks up there as one of the most exciting fish catches I’ve ever had in my life.”
Throughout his years of tournament fishing, Iaconelli has accumulated hours of experience on the Upper Chesapeake Bay, a place he calls a “premier fishery” in the Northeast. This time of the year, however, is one of the more difficult seasons to generate bites.
“It is a special place, but it has this ugly stage which is early August through late September,” he said. “Today was one of those days. It was hard to get bites. Sometimes the grind tournaments, when you do well or win, mean even more than the easy ones.”
Iaconelli fished parts of a big grass flat, specifically targeting ditches that drained out of the flat as well as hard hydrilla edges that were pinned against deeper creeks that ran through the flat.
With all of his experience on the Upper Chesapeake, it was the first time he fished these specific areas of the flat.
“The quality that lives out there is what attracted me to that flat. It has a tremendous amount of 15- to 20-inch largemouth. The challenge was finding them. One of the reasons it gets so tough in August is that flat turns into a grassbed. It is mainly hydrilla, star grass, eelgrass and it is 5 square miles of it.”
“The golden rule of tidal fishing is low water is always the best,” he said. “I had an early window of low water. This morning I caught four within the first hour and a half. When we started it was low but coming in.
“As the tide started to come in, the bite really shut off. I went a long time without a bite. I caught the 19.50 on the bad tide, a dead high tide, and that got me my limit.”
Leach used two different patterns to claim second place in his first-ever Kayak Series event. He also claimed Big Bass of the Tournament honors after winning the tiebreaker against Iaconelli with a 19.50 and a 19.00-inch bass.
After his two days of practice, Leach decided to fish the Sassafras River section of the Bay. After failing to get a buzzbait bite first thing in the morning, he switched to a Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait JackHammer and landed three of his five keepers around wood in deeper pockets in the river bends.
West Virginia angler Greg Harper finished third with 78 inches of smallmouth bass. Harper ventured up the Susquehanna River, an environment that matched the style of his home waters.
“My day started out pretty slow. I didn’t catch my first fish until around 8 o’clock,” Harper said. “But after that, it was fast and furious. I caught a limit within an hour, and I caught a lot of fish all day long, just not a lot of size.”
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