Category: BASSMASTER Elite Series/Opens

November 14, 2019B.A.S.S. Announces New National Tournament Series For Kayak AnglersBIRMINGHAM, Ala. —

The popularity of kayak fishing is at an all-time high, just one of the reasons B.A.S.S., the world’s largest fishing organization, has formed a new tournament trail aimed specifically at kayaking enthusiasts.

Today, B.A.S.S. officials announced the schedule for the inaugural Huk Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX presented by Abu Garcia. The trail will feature five regular-season events in 2020 on well-known bass fisheries across the country with a championship to be held in conjunction with the 2021 Academy Outdoors + Sports Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk.

“You don’t have to look very hard these days to find a kayak in the bed of a truck or strapped to the roof of a SUV,” said Bruce Akin, CEO of B.A.S.S. “People are bass fishing from kayaks all over the world — and they’re doing it everywhere from big lakes and rivers to small creeks and ponds.

“With this new trail, we wanted to give those anglers an opportunity to show what they can do from a small craft.”

The inaugural tournament will be held in conjunction with the 50th edition of the Bassmaster Classic on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City, Ala., on March 5. Classic competition kicks-off on nearby Lake Guntersville the next morning. Other events will be held on Lake Fork in Lake Fork Marina, Texas (March 14), Chickamauga Lake in Dayton, Tenn. (May 23), the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis. (Aug. 15) and Clear Lake in Lakeport, Calif. (Aug. 29).

Entry fees for all of the events will be $250, and each will pay 30 places. Based on a full field of 150 kayaks, the total purse for each event will be $30,000.

“Huk is proud to work with B.A.S.S. on this exciting new tournament series designed to push the limits of kayak fishing,” said Melinda Hays, Freshwater Community Manager for Huk. “Bass fishing is an integral part of our DNA here at Huk and we endeavor to inspire anglers to explore their home waters by kayak.”

In addition to title sponsor Huk and presenting sponsor Abu Garcia, the kayak series is partnering with Old Town for the inaugural season.

“Abu Garcia is always looking for a way to connect with passionate anglers,” said Jon Schlosser, VP of marketing for Abu Garcia. “With so many people fishing for bass from kayaks now, this was the perfect partnership, allowing our brand to help serve a growing segment in the sportfishing community.”

Instead of a standard weigh-in that uses scales to measure pounds and ounces, anglers will practice “catch, photograph and release” to determine the standings.

When an angler catches a bass, he or she will photograph the fish lying on a standard-issue measuring board and submit the photo through a special mobile app provided by TourneyX. The boards will measure each fish in inches down to a quarter of an inch, and the angler with the longest five-bass limit will win.

“There will be certain criteria for the photograph to be deemed a valid photograph,” B.A.S.S. Nation Director Jon Stewart said. “It will have to show the fish’s nose touching a certain part of the board and the fish’s tail touching a line. It will also have to show the identifying mark on the board that is specific to that tournament.”

Once the photograph is submitted via the TourneyX app, a tournament director and judges will deem them legal or not and enter an official length. A real-time leaderboard will be available online during the tournament until an hour before weigh-in.

“This is pretty standard procedure for kayak tournament fishing,” Stewart said. “In fact, most tournament trails use this very same app when hosting kayak events.”

The Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series Championship will be held in conjunction with the 2021 Bassmaster Classic at a site to be determined. The top finishers from the kayak season will be recognized during Classic festivities.

“It’s just one more opportunity for bass anglers,” Stewart said. “That’s what we’re all about.”

Registration is now open online at https://ssl.palmcoastd.com/app/bass/registration/kayak/2020. Anglers must be a B.A.S.S. member to sign up.

2020 Huk Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX presented by Abu Garcia

March 5, Lake Logan Martin, Pell City, Ala.

March 14, Lake Fork, Lake Fork Marina, Texas

May 23, Chickamauga Lake, Dayton, Tenn.

Aug. 15, Mississippi River, La Crosse, Wis.

Aug. 29, Clear Lake, Lakeport, Calif.

October 1, 2019 HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. —

As a child, Scott Canterbury always spent his Saturday mornings watching The Bassmasters television program.

To him, the stars of that show — people like Bob Cobb, Ray Scott and Denny Brauer — are the true legends of professional bass fishing.

Now, he has forever claimed his own spot alongside them in B.A.S.S. history.

With five bass that weighed 19 pounds, 12 ounces during Tuesday’s final round, Canterbury pushed his three-day total to 59-4 and finished in 14th place for the week at the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship on Lake St. Clair.

More importantly, he finished at the top of the season points standings with 848 points, earning one of the most coveted titles in professional fishing and the $100,000 check that goes with it.

“My first goal coming into the season was to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic next year,” Canterbury said. “Angler of the Year is always there on the radar. It’s just way out there.

“You always set goals that you don’t think you can reach — because if they’re easy to reach, you didn’t set them high enough.”

Canterbury was faced with his share of hurdles throughout the year, but he always seemed to have just enough in his tank to clear them.

After a tough first day at the regular-season opener on the St. Johns River in Florida, he rebounded with a ninth-place finish. From there, he placed 11th at Georgia’s Lake Lanier, 22nd at South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell and finished just 10 ounces shy of a victory during a second-place finish at Winyah Bay.

Then he had the kind of tournament that often sinks a competitor’s bid for the AOY crown, placing 49th at Lake Fork. But he followed it with a solid 22nd-place finish on Lake Guntersville in his home state of Alabama, and wowed fishing fans across the country by finishing third and 11th, respectively, in New York events at the St. Lawrence River and Cayuga Lake.

Before those New York events, he had never fished either lake

“I went into those events just hoping to survive,” he said. “But I ended up doing really well. I think that’s the way it happens sometimes in this sport. We deal with so many things that are completely beyond our control. If you just keep fishing hard, your day will come.”

Canterbury was thrown another curveball when the final regular-season Elite Series event that was scheduled for Fort Gibson Lake in Oklahoma had to be moved to Lake Tenkiller due to flood conditions. Again, he survived, finding two small offshore schools of smallmouth that landed him in 19th place.

Things beyond his control struck again Sunday, as he was forced to fish the entire first round without the use of depthfinders on the front of his boat. Canterbury still caught almost 18 pounds and managed to hold off hard charges from Arkansas pro Stetson Blaylock (840 points), Canadian Cory Johnston (840) and Texas pro Chris Zaldain (838).

Canterbury caught the majority of his bass for the week on a tube.

“That first day was such a challenge, and it could have caused me to fall apart,” he said. “But I managed to get through that and then used that tube to catch just enough fish to get by.

“It was anything but an easy tournament.”

The AOY Championship featured a total purse of $1 million, including the $100,000 that went to the season points winner and the $25,000 that went to the angler with the heaviest three-day weight for the week. The latter honor was claimed by Minnesota pro Seth Feider.

Feider found a gigantic school of smallmouth on a flat with substantial current, and used a Rapala DT-10 crankbait in the Helsinki shad pattern to catch a three-day weight of 77-15. It was his second career Bassmaster Elite Series victory.

“It was basically just a flat with scattered rocks and sand, so I think the current was the biggest thing,” Feider said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before on Lake St. Clair.

“That DT-10 ran just the right depth. I was fishing 11 to 12 feet of water, and I don’t like hitting the bottom for smallies.”

One race that had already been decided before Tuesday’s round began was DICK’s Sporting Goods Rookie of the Year. That award went to Florida pro Drew Cook, who finished with 798 ROY points despite finishing just 36th for the week.

The tournament also decided the 42 Elite Series anglers who will fish the 2020 Bassmaster Classic, scheduled for March 6-8 on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville.

The last three anglers to make the Top 42 cut were Skylar Hamilton, Brian Snowden and Jake Whitaker. The first three out were Garrett Paquette, Clark Wendlandt and Kelley Jaye.

Feider claimed Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the week honors with the 6-12 smallmouth he caught on Day 1.

But the big story of the event was Canterbury and his AOY crown.

“I think about my wife, Dixie, and my daughter, Taylor,” Canterbury said. “I think about all of those days and weeks I’ve had to spend on the road away from them, and I can’t help but get emotional over this.

“As pro fishermen, this is why we do what we do.”

September 26, 2019 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —

Next year’s tournament schedule continues to take shape, as B.A.S.S. officials announced the 2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens schedule on Thursday.

The schedule will once again feature four events in two divisions — Eastern and Central — with the winners of each event earning an automatic berth into the 2021 Bassmaster Classic, provided he or she has fished all four events in that division.

The Top 4 anglers from each division’s final points standings will receive an invitation to fish the 2021 Bassmaster Elite Series. But as a new addition, Elite Series invitations will also be extended to the Top 4 anglers from the cumulative standings for both divisions.

That means 12 competitors can earn a chance to pursue their dreams as Elite anglers.

“The Opens have always been about opportunity, and there are more opportunities available this year,” said B.A.S.S. CEO Bruce Akin. “Not only do we feel like we have a great lineup of lakes in each division, we’re excited about the idea that 12 anglers could have their lives changed by finishing strongly in these events.”

The schedule for the Eastern Division will begin in Kissimmee, Fla., at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes on Jan. 15-17. Then the trail will wind its way North with trips to Cherokee Lake in Jefferson County, Tenn., on May 7-9 and Oneida Lake in Syracuse, N.Y., on Aug. 6-8.

The Eastern Division points race and the Elite Series berths that go with it will be decided at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, S.C. — site of three previous Bassmaster Classics and six major B.A.S.S. events — on Sept. 24-26.

“When you think about the Eastern Division side of the schedule — Florida in January, trips to awesome fisheries like Cherokee and Oneida where B.A.S.S. has had some great events and a finish at Hartwell, which is deeply entrenched in B.A.S.S. history — it’s hard not to be excited,” said Chris Bowes, tournament director for the Bassmaster Opens. “That’s a slate that will give anglers a chance to prove themselves — and one that fans across the country will be able to appreciate, I’m sure.”

To accommodate cooler geographic temperatures, the Central Division will begin its slate later in the year, with its season-opening event on Lewisville Lake in Lewisville, Texas, on April 9-11. Lewisville has been the site of major B.A.S.S. events only three times and hasn’t hosted an Open since 2012.

After Lewisville, the Central Division will visit Neely Henry Lake in Gadsden, Ala., on May 21-23, the Arkansas River in Muskogee, Okla., on June 18-20 and the giant-bass haven that is Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Jasper, Texas, on Sept. 10-12. The City of Jasper will serve as the local host for the Sam Rayburn event.

“The Central slate offers a fantastic variety of fisheries,” Bowes said. “Lewisville is an urban fishery that’s located right outside of Dallas. Then you have Neely Henry, a classic Coosa River fishery known for big spotted bass, the Arkansas River, which offers about every kind of structure you can imagine, and a September finish at Sam Rayburn — a place we know is capable of producing 30-pound limits.”

The payout per event will be $250,400 (based on a field of 150 anglers), giving the eight-event circuit a total payout of just over $2 million. Seven of the eight tournaments on this year’s Opens schedule topped the 150-angler mark, with five easily topping 200.

As in the past, the full field will fish the first two days, with only the Top 12 pros and co-anglers advancing to the final round. All final-round weigh-ins will be held at the nearest Bass Pro Shops location, except for at the final Central Division event at Sam Rayburn.

For the first time since 2013, entry fees will increase on the Opens circuit. Pro anglers will pay $1,800 per event with an $800 deposit due up front, while co-anglers will pay $475 per event with a $200 deposit.

Entry for pro and co-angler linking will begin online Oct. 29 for B.A.S.S Nation and Life members and B.A.S.S. members Oct. 31. The Top 30 pros and co-anglers from each Opens division standings in 2019 will receive early entry, as well as current Elite Series pros and B.A.S.S. Nation Championship qualifiers. Any former Elite anglers who are interested in fishing the 2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens should contact Chris Bowes at cbowes@bassmaster.com before Oct. 8 for registration instructions.

“You’re talking eight events from mid-January to late September with trips to some of the best fisheries in the country,” Bowes said. “I’m sure a lot of anglers will agree with me when I say I wish it all started tomorrow.”

2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Schedule

Eastern Division:

Jan. 15-17, Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, Kissimmee, Fla.

May 7-9, Cherokee Lake, Jefferson County, Tenn.

Aug. 6-8, Oneida Lake, Syracuse, N.Y.

Sept. 24-26, Lake Hartwell, Anderson, S.C.

Central Division:

April 9-11, Lewisville Lake, Lewisville, Texas

May 21-23, Neely Henry Lake, Gadsden, Ala.

June 18-20, Arkansas River, Muskogee, Okla.

Sept. 10-12, Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Jasper, Texas

September 22, 2019 TAHLEQUAH, Okla. —

Relentless determination and commitment to his game plan paid off big for Carl Jocumsen, who turned in a catch of 19 pounds, 12 ounces on Championship Sunday and scored a career-defining victory at the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller.

His four-day total weight of 54-15 was worth $100,000 and made a nice birthday gift for the Queensland, Australia angler, who turned 35 Sunday.

Jocumsen said his first Elite win — which is also the first by an Aussie — has been a lifelong dream.

“Since I was four years old, I’ve loved fishing and I’ve dreamed of the day I would do this,” Jocumsen said. “Today is that day. This is a lifetime of work; a lifetime of passion and loving this sport with every ounce of my body.”

Yesterday, after placing third and trailing leader Kyle Monti by 4-8, Jocumsen boldly stated that he believed he was on the fish to win. He predicted he needed five keepers to have a legitimate shot, and he blew away that expectation with a limit of 19-12 that ranked as the tournament’s heaviest single-day catch.

Jocumsen’s winning program stood out from much of the field, in that he committed his tournament to fishing offshore. Relying heavily on his electronics to break down the lake and identify the most promising spots, he targeted six different offshore drop-offs with brush and other cover.

Day 3 revealed a particularly productive piece of cover that delivered his final-round magic.

“I used my Humminbird 360, side imaging and mapping to break down this lake in two and a half days. I stayed out here from daylight until dark,” Jocumsen said. “Yesterday afternoon, I found this one tree off this island. It was one late in the day, and I caught one keeper. But I said, ‘I want to hit this early on the final day to see if they’re biting.’”

His intuition was spot-on, and Jocumsen experienced a phenomenal morning that saw him catch four quality largemouth by 8:30, including three in span of approximately seven minutes. Jocumsen would suffer through a long dry spell before completing his five-fish limit, but the 4-pound smallmouth that sealed his fate gave Bassmaster LIVE viewers a look at pure bass fishing emotion.

“I’ve waited my life to catch that fish,” said a visibly emotional Jocumsen. “I had gone three hours without a bite and I said, ‘It can’t go down this way. I have to finish it.’ When I caught that smallmouth, the weight of the world came off my shoulders.”

Adding a 5-pound largemouth late in the day increased Jocumsen’s total and gave him a 3-pound, 10-ounce margin of victory.

Jocumsen, who will marry fiancee Kayla Palaniuk in two weeks, caught all of his bass on a 3/4-ounce Molix football jig with a green pumpkin Strike King Rage Craw trailer. He made a couple of brief visits to fish the bank, mostly to let his offshore sites rest, but did all of his heavy lifting offshore.

In second, Day 2 leader Chris Zaldain of Fort Worth, Texas, switched tactics Sunday and caught a limit of 14-7 to finish with 51-5. After focusing mostly on running shallow points for smallmouth the first three days, Zaldain spent the first half of the final day throwing a 1/2-ounce Santone wobblehead jig with a green pumpkin creature bait trailer.

“I caught two 16-inch-plus largemouth in the morning, and that kind of relaxed me to go fish all new water and search out those smallmouth,” he said.

Zaldain added three smallmouth to his final bag. He caught those with a Megabass Spark Shad swimbait on a 1/8-ounce Megabass Okashira Screw Head.

Cory Johnston of Cavan, Cananda, finished third with 48-6. For the first three days, he spent most of his time working covered boat docks with jigging spoons and a Neko rig. But today’s conditions kept the fish from positioning in predictable spots, so Johnston switched to his backup pattern.

“With the cloudy skies, the fish didn’t position on the boat slips like I needed them to, so I ended up cranking rock banks with squarebills,” Johnston said. “I caught one in a boat slip on the Neko rig and the rest came on squarebills.”

In the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Race, Scott Canterbury took the lead with 761 points. Canterbury finished 19th this week, but maintained a slim advantage in the points race, which will be decided next week at the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship on Lake St. Clair.

Zaldain follows closely in second with 752, while Johnston is third with 747. Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark., is fourth with 741 and Drew Cook of Midway, Fla., is fifth with 733.

Cook also leads the DICK’S Sporting Goods Rookie of the Year race.

September 12, 2019Bassmaster Elite Series 2020 Schedule Puts Emphasis On Big Bass FisheriesBIRMINGHAM, Ala. —

B.A.S.S. officials have announced the schedule for the 2020 Bassmaster Elite Series, a nine-tournament slate that will take the world’s best bass anglers to six states and some of the most storied fisheries in the sport’s history.

For fans who love watching professional anglers catch giant bass, the schedule is likely to be love at first sight.

“This year, we unveiled the mantra ‘Big Bass. Big Stage. Big Dreams.,’” said B.A.S.S. CEO Bruce Akin. “We’ve certainly delivered on that in 2019 — and with the schedule we’ve put together for 2020, we’re ready to take another giant step on that path.

“Fans will have an opportunity to see our anglers compete on some of the best big-bass lakes in America.”

The season will start once again in Palatka, Fla., with an event at the St. Johns River on Feb. 6-9. Last year’s tournament on the St. Johns was one of the most exciting in B.A.S.S. history, with legendary angler Rick Clunn weighing 34 pounds, 14 ounces — a bag that included two bass over 9 pounds — on Championship Sunday to come from behind and win with 98-14.

That amazing tournament, along with an in-depth study of weekend tournament results on the fishery, earned the St. Johns River a fourth-place ranking in the Southeastern Division of Bassmaster Magazine’s annual list of Top 100 Best Bass Lakes.

It will be B.A.S.S.’s third trip to the Putnam County, Fla., fishery in five years — and the organization’s 21st visit to the St. Johns, dating back to 1973.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome back the B.A.S.S. Elite tournament to Putnam County,” said Dana C. Jones, president of the Putnam County Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a great way to start 2020, and we are grateful that they continue to choose us as a partner.

“Tourist Development Council members carefully evaluate the return on investment of all the events they fund, and it was an easy decision to host the B.A.S.S. Elite. The economic impact into our local economy by an Elite event easily equates to over $2 million dollars, and the media value of well over $500,000 is a huge value-add.”

After visiting one big largemouth factory in Florida, the Elite Series anticipates shifting to another fishery that was recently ranked as one of the best in the country on Bassmaster Magazine’s annual Top 100 Best Bass Lakes list. That event is scheduled for Feb. 14-17, but the site won’t be announced until a later date.

The Elite Series schedule will pause during March for the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing, the 2020 Bassmaster Classic. Competition will be March 6-8 on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville (second place overall, 100 Best Bass Lakes), with daily weigh-ins and the annual Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo in Birmingham.

When Elite competition resumes, B.A.S.S. will take a trip down memory lane with a return visit to Alabama’s historic Lake Eufaula (12th place, Southeastern Division, 100 Best Bass Lakes) in Eufaula, Ala., on April 2-5.

B.A.S.S. hasn’t visited the 45,000-acre Chattahoochee River fishery since a Southern Open was held there in 2006. But the lake on the Alabama/Georgia border has been the site of 18 major B.A.S.S. events, dating back to 1968 — just the second year of the Bassmaster Tournament Trail.

With the emergence of abundant aquatic vegetation, Eufaula has evolved through the years from a place where nearly all big-money tournaments were won on the ledges into a fishery with a little bit of everything. Options should be especially diverse during the early April visit, when temperatures in the Chattahoochee Valley should be as pleasant as they’ll be all year.

“Anyone who follows professional bass fishing is familiar with Lake Eufaula’s reputation for producing big bass,” said B.A.S.S. Tournament Director Trip Weldon. “As an organization, B.A.S.S. has had some great events there through the years, and it’ll be a lot of fun going back.”

The fourth Elite Series event will be in Manning, S.C., on the Santee Cooper Lakes April 16-19 (ninth place overall, 100 Best Bass Lakes). The fishery has hosted 13 major B.A.S.S. events, but none since the 2009 Southern Open.

Massive lakes Marion and Moultrie, which measure 110,000 and 60,000 surface acres, respectively, have been on fire recently. A BFL event held on the Santee Cooper Lakes in March was won with five bass that weighed just over 30 pounds.

The next fishery on the schedule is known for producing some of the biggest crowds in B.A.S.S. history — the Sabine River in Orange, Texas. The fifth Elite Series event on the 2020 slate will be held at Orange on May 29-June 1 and could challenge the Elite Series fan attendance record of 36,200.

It’ll be the fourth time the Elite Series has visited the Sabine River system — and in three previous visits, the crowds totaled more than 96,000.

For earlier events at the Sabine River, catch rates were somewhat low. But the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has worked tirelessly to create a zone that is good for both the Orange, Texas, area and anglers. Thanks to those efforts by TPWD, tournament waters for the 2020 event will be expanded to include that new five-county zone.

“The Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce is excited to partner with B.A.S.S. to bring the Bassmaster Elite Series to Orange County once again,” said Ida Schossow, president of the Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce. “This tournament has brought Orange County waterways to the forefront in the fishing world. The tournament is an economic boost to our community and creates a sense of pride for our citizens.”

The site for the annual Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks & Wildlife Department will be announced at a later time. But the dates have been tentatively set for June 5-9 — just before the Elite Series makes its New York swing.

That swing will begin with another trip to smallmouth bass fishing’s holy country, the St. Lawrence River in Waddington, N.Y., on July 23-26. The fishery was named the top bass fishing destination in America on Bassmaster Magazine’s list of Top 100 Best Bass Lakes, and this year’s Elite Series event on the river was won by Georgia pro Micah Frazier with an average of more than 20 pounds of smallmouth each day.

The pros will leave Waddington and head to Plattsburgh, N.Y., for an event at Lake Champlain (sixth place, Northeastern Division, 100 Best Bass Lakes) on July 30-Aug. 2. When B.A.S.S. last visited Champlain — for an Eastern Open on Aug. 2-4, 2018 — Vermont angler Bryan Labelle won with an average of almost 20 pounds of largemouth per day.

With the Bassmaster Angler of the Year title and numerous Bassmaster Classic berths hanging in the balance, the Elites will finish their season in Macomb County, Mich., at Lake St. Clair (eighth place overall, 100 Best Bass Lakes) on Aug. 20-23.

It will mark the eighth time B.A.S.S. has brought a major event to St. Clair since 1994, and the last three — in 2014, 2015 and 2017 — were all won with better than 20-pound daily averages.

“We set out to put together a schedule that would be pleasing to our anglers, our sponsors and the fans who’ve supported us for more than 50 years as an organization,” Akin said. “This is a schedule that takes us to some incredible fisheries, and every single weigh-in will be held lakeside.

“That means history will be made in some of the best settings imaginable.”

2020 Bassmaster Elite Series schedule

Feb. 6-9, St. Johns River, Palatka, Fla.

Feb. 14-17, TBA

March 6-8, Bassmaster Classic, Lake Guntersville, Birmingham, Ala.

April 2-5, Lake Eufaula, Eufaula, Ala.

April 16-19, Santee Cooper Lakes, Manning, S.C.

May 29-June 1, Sabine River, Orange, Texas

June 5-9, Texas Fest, TBA

July 23-26, St. Lawrence River, Waddington, N.Y.

July 30-Aug. 2, Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Aug. 13-16, Elite makeup date

Aug. 20-23, Lake St. Clair, Macomb County, Mich

SYRACUSE, N.Y. —

The Basspro.com Bassmaster Eastern Open at Oneida Lake attracted its share of local legends, and two of the biggest were in the Top 12.

But Oneida crowned a possible legend-in-the-making Saturday when Grae Buck brought his 15-pound, 6-ounce limit to the scales and clinched not only the trophy for the Oneida event, but an even bigger prize as well — a berth in the 2020 Bassmaster Classic.

His three-day winning total was 50-10.

“I’m ecstatic,” Buck said, shortly after he left the stage a winner. “I can’t believe I made my dream come true of fishing the Bassmaster Classic. I fished all the Bassmaster Eastern Opens this year just to come to Oneida Lake, because this is the lake I know the best in the country. It’s about 3 1/2 hours from my house, and I’ve made a lot of money up here.

“I remember being 7 or 8 years old. I played ice hockey, and I remember being at an ice hockey game and all I wanted to do was watch the Classic on the TV there. It’s always been my dream.”

The bite turned tough Saturday — a factor of the relentless fishing pressure, as well as wildly shifting winds (they were stiff and out of the West). Four of the final Top 12 failed to catch a limit, and only one pro weighed more than 17 pounds during the Championship round.

Buck not only had to move ahead of Day 2 leader Kameron Harbin of Abbeville, S.C., he also had to fend off local hammers like Jamie Hartman and Stanley Sypeck Jr., both of whom struggled Saturday. Hartman finished in third place, where he started the day. Harbin finished ninth.

Brisbane, Australia, pro Dean Silvester weighed the day’s heaviest bag at 17-5, which pushed him all the way from ninth to second. He fished a green pumpkin Z-Man ChatterBait all three days.

Buck hails from Harleysville in eastern Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. He won a BFL here at Oneida four weeks ago, and another several years ago. He’s got the lake wired, and he fished the same pattern that earned him last month’s win.

“I was fishing between 6 and 9 feet all tournament,” Buck said. “I was throwing a drop shot with a Cornerstone Baits Shimmy Shot. It’s been a strong pattern here for a month. When you get around the fish, they eat it.

“The only difference from how I won the BFL is that this week, I switched to the ghost color, which is white. I think before they were eating a lot of perch fry and gobies. Now they were probably focused more on shad. I also caught quite a few yesterday on a Ned Rig, which was a Shimmy Shot on a 1/10th-ounce Hyabusa Brush Easy jig.”

Buck made long casts with the Ned rig and precise drops with the drop shot into mixed areas of rock and grass.

Buck drop shotted with a Dobyns 7-foot, 3-inch Champion Extreme drop-shot rod and Ardent C-Force 3000 spinning reel. He used a size 2 Hyabusa DSR hook, 1/4- and 3/8-ounce Eco Pro Tungsten drop-shot weights, 18-pound Ardent Gliss braid in hi-vis yellow and 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon as a leader.

“I think the most important thing for me was finding concentrations of fish,” Buck said. “I had three spots I found in practice and they held through the tournament.”

Sylvester, with his second-place check money, now faces a decision. He sold his house in Brisbane and used the proceeds to fund his four-event experiment in the Eastern Opens.

“I’m amazed I finished second,” Silvester said. “I had a really good practice and a really good tournament. My goal was to catch a limit each day, and I did that. But I think I probably cost myself on Day 2, when I lost three or four fish that really could have helped me.”

Silvester said his Eastern Open campaign cost him more than $35,000. He still has $8,000 left from selling his house, but needs to purchase a bass boat in order to keep competing. He said he’s going to start looking for financial sponsors immediately.

White was a key color all week, along with the ever-effective green pumpkin, and most pros fished some form of white at least part of the time, whether it was a ChatterBait, drop shot, frog, topwater or swim jig. Buck was fairly alone among the top finishers in his 100 percent reliance on plastics.

This was the final 2019 Eastern Open. The Top 5 finishers in the points standings, who are not already qualified through the Elite Series, will earn a berth in the 2020 Bassmaster Elite Series. Anglers must have fished all four Eastern Opens to qualify.

Alex Prince of Blue Ridge, Ga., won the co-angler division. Prince’s 8-4, three-fish limit today pushed his three-day total to 26-6.

“I don’t know what to say,” Prince said, with trophy in hand. “This means the world to me. I live in Georgia. It took 17 hours to get here. I’d never caught a smallie before this week. To come here and get a check like this — I didn’t expect that.”

Prince drop shotted a 4-inch Berkley Power Minnow in green pumpkin the first two days and threw a white swim jig the final day.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. —

Smallmouth bass ruled a slick-calm day at the Basspro.com Bassmaster Eastern Open on Oneida Lake, and Day 1 leader Grae Buck of Harleyville, Pa., bagged 17 pounds, 12 ounces of brown bass to establish the lead pace.

He holds a 4-ounce advantage over second-place Ben Nielsen of Lowell, Mich., and Patrick Walters of Summerville, S.C., both of whom weighed five-fish limits for 17-8. Walters actually anchored his bag with a largemouth, which was the only green bass caught by the Top 3.

A strong storm front swept through the area mid-week, which colored the water, and overcast conditions gave way to sun and slick-calm conditions most of the day. The famous schools of Oneida smallmouth failed to materialize, and several of the day’s top limits were caught junk fishing, while several others came through slow and meticulous finesse fishing.

Only 12 pros will earn the right to fish Day 3, and such tough conditions should paint a backdrop full of drama during Friday’s second round, as the junk fishermen battle the finesse fishermen, again under high, clear skies and light winds.

Buck has only fished one previous B.A.S.S. event at Oneida, an Open in 2013 that produced a 16th-place finish. But fans who follow Oneida events closely will no doubt recognize his name because he’s won two BFLs here, the most recent of which was four short weeks ago.

Buck has a lot of Oneida history, which he said helped him after missing more than a day of practice due to his cousin’s wedding. Overall, Buck described his practice as “tough.”

“In practice I checked two main areas I knew — one had them, one didn’t — so I fished that one today and hit them hard,” Buck said. “There were a few other boats in there, but I was the only one who caught them, so I hope I can fish there tomorrow.

“I’ve spent a lot of time here, and I’m just sort of out there picking at them. The lake has mixed rock and grass, which I love, and I just hope I can keep catching them.”

Buck caught most of his weight during a morning flurry, but added a 4-plus-pounder around 1:30 p.m., which he caught in deeper water. His goal is to make the 2020 Bassmaster Classic, he said, and a win here would put him in.

“Overall, I’m very happy with how the day went,” he said. “I drop shotted a Cornerstone Baits Shimmy Shot, which is what I won the BFL on.”

Nielsen made the trek from Michigan and things started slowly for him this morning, he said. But he eventually moved into one patch of water that produced four of the five smallmouth he weighed. With a fairly decent sack of fish, he decided against going to his remaining two areas, in anticipation of Friday.

There were a few other boats in his primary area, but given his competitive position, Nielsen hopes he’ll have some room to move around more there tomorrow, in addition to fishing his two other spots held in reserve.

He noted he’s fishing a moving bait and he’s “fairly optimistic about tomorrow.”

Walters, a Bassmaster Elite Series pro, likewise mentioned the slow nature of the fishing overall, and estimated he boated just one fish per hour. He culled only four times on his way to 17-8, and each time he replaced a largemouth with a smallmouth.

“I fished half-half,” Walters said. “I fished half the day on my practice water and half the day on new water. I have 14 rods on my deck — seven casting, seven spinning — and I’m junk fishing. You just have to run around and work hard and hope to get lucky.

“I’m going to do the same thing tomorrow,” Walters added. “I feel good about it. Sometimes you cull 10 times and things don’t work out. Sometimes you cull five times and they do work out. Today it worked out.”

Kyle Welcher (Opelika, Ala.) and Chris Kingree (Inverness, Fla.) tied for the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Day with a 4-13.

Japanese angler Dai Kitajima leads the co-angler division with a three-fish limit that weighed 11-14. He doesn’t speak English, but his pro Trevor Fitzgerald did note that Kitajima is a “remarkably patient and skilled finesse angler, and he spent the day dropshotting.”

Also notable is that Elite Series pro Jamie Hartman, a native of nearby Baldwinsville, N.Y., continues his roll and currently sits in fourth with 17-6. He has won two of the past three Elite events (Cayuga Lake and Lake Guntersville).

“I fished very settled today,” Hartman said. “I caught probably 25 bass, and I never felt any pressure out there. It was a great day.”

The tournament resumes Friday with takeoff at 6:30 a.m. ET from Oneida Shores Park. The Friday weigh-in begins there at 2:30 p.m. The final weigh-in on Saturday is at 3:30 p.m. at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Auburn, N.Y., near the north tip of Owasco Lake.

The event is hosted by Visit Syracuse and Onondaga County Parks.

UNION SPRINGS, N.Y. —

On Sunday afternoon, for the second time in three tournaments, Jamie Hartman claimed a Bassmaster Elite Series victory.

Both were special. But he couldn’t deny this one meant just a little more.

Fishing in his home state of New York, Hartman caught five bass that weighed 22 pounds, 4 ounces Sunday and jumped from fourth place into the winner’s spot at the SiteOne Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga Lake with a four-day total of 80-13.

After all the bass had been weighed, Hartman carried the blue trophy into a boisterous crowd of fans who were eager to hug and high-five their hometown favorite. It was a stark contrast to the celebration he was basically denied when he earned his first victory two months ago at Lake Guntersville and a severe thunderstorm rolled through just as he was handed the trophy.

“It just couldn’t be any better than this,” Hartman said. “For it to happen right here in my home state with all of my family here, it’s incredibly special.

“This is where my heart is. It’ll be hard to top this — ever.”

Hartman was one of the few anglers all week whose trajectory was consistently headed upward. He caught 16-14 Thursday, 19-9 Friday, 22-2 Saturday and 22-4 Sunday.

He spent all week fishing with two baits — a 4.75-inch Synth Worm from Riot Baits in green pumpkin neon on a drop-shot rig and a shad-colored crankbait he said is no longer in production.

He said his weights went up every day because he slowly learned the sweet spots of the area he was fishing on the North end of the lake.

“I had found a place on the South end during practice that was just loaded with them,” he said. “That’s where I started, and they just weren’t in there. I left there with only about 14 pounds and went back up to one little area of grass I found back up North.

“I decided to stick with that the rest of the week, and I learned which parts of it I needed to be fishing and which ones I didn’t have to bother with.”

Hartman said the green pumpkin neon pattern, which is a two-toned worm with green pumpkin on one side and chartreuse on the other, seemed perfect for the water color at Cayuga. He dyed the tail chartreuse to add even more color.

His crankbait bite was best when there was at least a little wind blowing. So, when he found slick calm conditions Sunday morning, he panicked and decided to run to the South end of the lake in an effort to catch one more big bass fishing boat docks.

After fishing 15 docks without a bite, he ran back North.

“As I was running to the South end, I could see that wind was finally putting a little bit of a ripple on the water,” Hartman said. “I started to just turn around and go right back to fish the crankbait. But I knew I would be able to tell pretty fast if the dock bite was happening — and it wasn’t.”

His decision to leave the docks proved to be the right one as he quickly landed a 4-pounder on the crankbait that put him over the top.

“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “If I don’t make that run to the South — if I just stay where I was — maybe I don’t catch that 4-pounder. It worked out just right.”

Without that final big fish, Hartman would have come up short at the scales. His final total of 80-13 was just 10 ounces better than that of second-place angler Jeff Gustafson (80-3) and less than 2 pounds better than third-place pro Chris Zaldain (79-0).

Hartman’s second $100,000 first-place check of the season brought his career earnings with B.A.S.S. to just over $458,000. He only joined the Elite Series three years ago, and he missed several tournaments last season with back issues.

“The first win was awesome, coming back after everything that happened last year,” Hartman said. “I had missed everything that I had worked so hard for my whole life.

“This is all I’ve ever wanted to do — and to have this happen here today in New York, is literally my dream coming true.”

The Phoenix Boats Big Bass award of $1,500 went to Derek Hudnall for the 8 pound, 1 ounce giant he landed on Day 1 of the tournament.

Hartman earned $3,000 in Toyota Bonus Bucks for being the highest placing angler to drive a Toyota, while Brandon Lester earned an extra $2,000 for being the second highest-placing pro to drive a Toyota.

UNION SPRINGS, N.Y. —

Canadian pro Jeff Gustafson came into the SiteOne Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga Lake with modest expectations.

But his confidence has grown with each passing day — and on Friday, it grew by leaps and bounds as Gustafson caught five bass that weighed 25 pounds, 6 ounces and took the lead with a two-day total of 49-1.

His catch of 25-6 is the biggest of the tournament so far.

“It was a dream day — both of the last two days were,” said Gustafson, who lives in Keewatin, Canada. “I was expecting that to happen either day, but now the expectations are pretty high. I’ve seen what’s out there, and it’s pretty impressive.”

While much of the field has been concentrating on shallow grass, Gustafson has focused on small patches of hard bottom offshore. Since this is his first trip to Cayuga, he said he doesn’t know a lot of spots to try.

So, he’s been sticking mainly with one area.

“There’s just not a lot of rock here,” he said. “In practice, I idled for hours and every couple of hours I’d kind of find something.

“When I started the tournament, my plan was to get a limit of largemouth and then go fish for smallmouth. I thought the smallmouth would be my biggest fish, but they disappeared.”

Gustafson has been using an Aqua-Vu underwater camera — and on Friday, he saw a few smallmouth that gave him an extra tinge of hope for the final two days.

“Even though I caught 25 pounds today, it wasn’t as easy as it might have seemed,” he said. “I’m really just catching one here and one there, but they’re the right ones.

“If the smallmouth turn back on, that could really make a big difference for me.”

Thursday’s leader Chris Zaldain of Fort Worth, Texas, caught another impressive bag of 21-11 and now rests in second place with 46-0.

He said his day could have been much better if it hadn’t been for some early miscues.

“With the way they’re biting, you’ve got to capitalize early,” Zaldain said. “I had some big bites early today and didn’t catch any of them. I missed a bite on a swimbait when the fish just crushed it, and then I broke one off.

“You have to put fish in the boat in that situation.”

Like Gustafson, Zaldain is fishing offshore structure with a variety of baits, including the big swimbaits he’s known for using.

“I think these big bass roam, they’re nomadic,” he said. “There’s 400 feet of water out in the middle of this place, and it’s nothing for a 5- or 6-pound largemouth to live in 35 feet of water — just like they do during the wintertime here.

“Where they go after the morning bite, I have no clue. I think they just hang out in the lake with the lake trout.”

Tennessee pro David Mullins, who caught 22-1 on Day 1, added 23-13 Friday and is now in third place with 45-14. Mullins said he’s fishing “mid-range” depths and has been lucky enough to have several spots to himself.

“Not only have I been fishing by myself, but I’ve got several places from practice I haven’t even tried yet, and I haven’t seen anybody on those spots either,” he said. “It may be that there’s no fish there, but they were there in practice.

“It’s nice to have that in reserve.”

Alabama pro Scott Canterbury had yet another solid day, bringing in 22-4 to move into fourth place with 45-2. With that showing, he maintained his stranglehold on the lead for Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year.

Canterbury’s total of 686 puts him 24 points ahead of second-place angler Drew Cook, a rookie from Florida.

“It’s just been a dream week for me,” said Canterbury, who was obviously emotional over the prospect of winning the AOY title. “The last two weeks have been that way.

“There’s so much fishing left to do. But winning Angler of the year … that would just be a dream come true.”

Cook caught 21-10 Thursday and jumped from 20th place in the tournament to seventh. He maintained his lead in the race for DICK’S Sporting Goods Rookie of the Year.

Louisiana’s Derek Hudnall still holds the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the week with an 8-1 largemouth.

The tournament resumes Saturday, with the Top 35 remaining pros taking off at 6:30 a.m. ET from Frontenac Park. The weigh-in will be held back at the park at 3 p.m., with only the Top 10 advancing to Championship Sunday for a chance to win the $100,000 first-place prize.

UNION SPRINGS, N.Y. —

Chris Zaldain’s day couldn’t have started much worse.

Or ended much better.

The California native who now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, woke up Thursday to find that several of his best rod-and-reels had been stolen during the night.

But with what he had left, he went out and caught five bass that weighed 24 pounds, 5 ounces to take the first-round lead at the SiteOne Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga Lake. His catch was 10 ounces better than that of second-place angler Jeff Gustafson (23-11) and one of 14 bags of the day that weighed at least 20 pounds.

“I opened up my rod box and my whole top layer — my starting lineup of Megabass rods and Shimano reels, $1,000 combos — were just gone,” Zaldain said. “It started out really bad. But I decided to salvage what I had, re-tie a few things and just stick to what I knew.”

As is often the case during the early rounds of an Elite event, Zaldain was tight-lipped about how he caught his fish. He said he only used two or three baits most of the day, but wasn’t specific about what they were.

It helped him, he added, that the situation took place on a fishery where the bass are often very cooperative once you locate them.

“Just like any northern fishery, when you find the bass here, they will bite,” he said. “I will say they’re not as easy to find as they were when we were here in 2016. I’m not finding huge groups of fish where you catch one every cast.

“You’ve got to work every spot, see what’s there and mine everything out of it.”

Despite not finding giant schools of bass, Zaldain was hopeful about his chances of repeating his success Friday.

“This place is unique in that your spots replenish,” he said. “I learned that the last time I was here. There are so many bass in Cayuga that it’s not even funny — and when they pull up to some of your waypoints, it happens fast.

“The average fish on this place reminds me of Clear Lake back in California — just fatties that weigh about 3 3/4 pounds.”

Zaldain’s excellent day was just enough to put him ahead of Gustafson, who came close to leading an Elite Series event on Day 1 for the second time this year. The Canadian newcomer led the first round on Georgia’s Lake Lanier — the second event of the season — only to struggle on Day 2 and finish 48th.

Gustafson, who is making his first trip to Cayuga, said he was surprised by the size of his catch, judging from what he caught in practice.

“I was hoping to catch 19 or 20 pounds today,” he said. “I wasn’t really expecting to catch the quality of fish that I did. I don’t really have a lot of spots — and the ones I do have, I’m having to lean on pretty hard.”

Gustafson grew up fishing deep water in Canada, and he said the offshore bite on Cayuga has been relatable to what he’s used to at home.

“This time of year and into the fall, we’re fishing deep water back home,” he said. “The same thing is kind of happening here — at least for me.

“I know guys are fishing grass and fishing shallow, too. That’s what’s really cool about this place. You can kind of do what you want to.”

Alabama angler Scott Canterbury continued his impressive run of consistency by catching a five-bass limit of 22-14 that landed him in third place.

It also helped him maintain his lead in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. He now has 687 total points, with Zaldain following in second with 655.

“Today was an unbelievable day on the water,” Canterbury said. “We blasted them today — and I had no idea I was going to catch them like that. It was a lot of fun.”

After finishing third last week at the St. Lawrence River, Canterbury now has three Top 10s this season and has finished lower than 22nd in only one event.

For maybe the first time all year, he admitted Thursday that thoughts of the AOY title are starting to creep into his head.

“There’s still a lot of fishing left,” he said. “But you know, you are starting to think about it a little bit. I just want to keep fishing — and fish to win.”

Florida pro Drew Cook caught 19-2 Thursday and finished in 20th place, but he maintained his lead in the race for DICK’S Sporting Goods Rookie of the Year. Another rookie, Louisiana’s Derek Hudnall, took the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the week with an 8-1 giant.

The tournament resumes Friday with takeoff at 6:30 a.m. ET from Frontenac Park and the weigh-in back at the park at 3 p.m. After Friday, only the Top 35 remaining anglers will advance to Saturday’s semifinal round.