Team Yavorsky takes the top spot at the Harris Chain

Rodney and Aaron Yavorsky have won the 2023 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Team Championship on the Harris Chain with a two day total of 51 pounds 9 ounces.

By Andrew Canulette 

BASS PRESS RELEASE 

LEESBURG, Fla. — The father-son duo of Rodney and Aaron Yavorsky were among the final teams to weigh in Thursday on the final day of the 2023 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Team Championship.

In this case, the best was saved almost for last.

The Yavorskys, Tampa-area residents representing the Florida BASS Nation Team Trail, caught a mammoth limit of five bass weighing 31 pounds, 6 ounces and stormed to the title here on the Harris Chain of Lakes in central Florida. Their two-day total of 10 bass weighing 51-9 was nearly 14 pounds heavier than the second-place tandem of Blain Bartley and Rj Graham, who caught 10 bass for 37-11 over two days.

The Yavorskys’ 31-6 bag was by far the heaviest of the tournament, easily besting the 24-11 limit caught by Day 1 leaders Chris Whitson and Kevin King of Tennessee’s Morristown Marine Team Trail. The catch was so hefty they would have placed eighth overall even if their Day 1 weight of 20-3 was eliminated.

“We’ve fished a lot of tournaments together and never had a 30-pound bag,” said Rodney Yavorsky, Aaron’s dad. “It was a special day.”

Chris Whitson and Kevin King of Tennessee take the Day 1 lead at the 2023 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Team Championship on the Harris Chain.

Whitson and King grab Day 1 lead at Team Championship

By Andrew Canulette

BASS PRESS RELEASE

LEESBURG, Fla. — Chris Whitson and Kevin King said they’d have been happy to weigh 12 pounds on Wednesday to start the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Team Championship.

Instead, they doubled that and jumped to an early lead here on the Harris Chain of Lakes in central Florida.

Whitson and King, Tennessee residents who fish on the Morristown Marine Team Trail, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 24 pounds, 11 ounces on Day 1 of the two-day derby. That was enough to give them the lead in the final tournament of the 2023 Bassmaster season, which boasts 248 competing teams representing 77 different trails from 30 states and three foreign countries.

Whitson and King were tight-lipped about specifics of Wednesday’s haul, though they said they were surprised to see heavy bass in the area they fished.

“We caught a couple there in practice, but not nearly that size,” Whitson said. “We only had about three spots we planned to fish today, but we hit the right one. We’re not sure why they are where they are. There’s no bait keying us in on anything.”

“We really did kind of stumble on it,” King added.

And what a fortunate find it was.

“We caught one within 15 minutes or so on the first spot and then we got three in a row real quick,” Whitson said. “The other two came a couple hours later, in the middle of the day. We left there about 1 o’clock and we’ll head back there tomorrow…I don’t know if they’ll repeat themselves, but I figure we’ll beat around there and catch a few more.”

Standings here

Predator's Choice

 

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WON Bass announces new partnerships, incentives

 WON Bass, the longest-running Western bass fishing tournament circuit, has announced new partnerships for the 2024 WON Bass Western Opens Series and more incentives for its participants.

In 2024, the WON Bass Western Opens Series will include five pro-am style events that will be held in California, Nevada and Arizona. The events will also feature automatic berths for pro and AAA anglers to compete in the 2025 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship.

In a new partnership with B.A.S.S., the Top 5 anglers in each of the four regional pro and AAA events as well as the Top 5 anglers in the WON Bass Angler of the Year standings after the five events will receive berths into the 2025 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship. From that event, three anglers will earn berths into the 2026 Bassmaster Classic.

In addition to the 25 B.A.S.S. Nation entries, the Top 5 pros in the 2024 WON Bass Angler of the Year standings will receive priority entry codes to the 2025 Bassmaster Opens, guaranteeing their spot in the Opens Elite Qualifiers Division. Only EQ anglers, who compete in all nine Bassmaster Opens have a chance to qualify for the 2026 Bassmaster Elite Series.

To be eligible, each angler will be required to be a current member of WON Bass and B.A.S.S Nation and not competing in the 2024 Bassmaster Elite Series, MLF Bass Pro Tour, MLF Invitationals or the National Professional Fishing League (NPFL).

Legendary Angler Hank Parker Joins X Zone Lures!

 

TV and BASS Angler legend has moved to X Zone. This is their announcement on their Facebook page, t “Thrilled” is one word to convey the feelings that we at X Zone Lures have in our recently formed partnership with one of the greatest bass anglers of all time! Join us in welcoming Hank Parker to X Zone Lures!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing our American friends a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

Former Classic champion David Fritts announces retirement from B.A.S.S.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — After a career that spanned parts of five decades, decorated professional angler David Fritts of Lexington, N.C., has announced his retirement from B.A.S.S. The 1993 Bassmaster Classic champion and 1994 Bassmaster Angler of the Year said his declining health and the rigors of the various B.A.S.S. schedules were the major factors in his decision.

“I had COVID-19 in 2021, and I still have what they call ‘long COVID,’” Fritts said. “I still can’t smell anything. I never got all of my energy back, and it sort of messed my heart up a little bit. My bones and my joints still work pretty well, but I just don’t quite have the stamina or energy I used to have.”
Though Fritts said he may still explore a less rigorous schedule, he doesn’t think he has it left in him to pursue the Bassmaster Elite Series or the St. Croix Bassmaster Opens.

That puts a cap on a star-studded career that began with the 1986 Georgia Invitational on West Point Lake and ended with the 2023 Elite Series event on the St. Lawrence River. Between those dates, he became one of the few anglers to win a Classic, an AOY title and the FLW Tour’s Forrest Wood Cup.
“Winning the Bassmaster Classic makes your career, and to follow up with the AOY in 1994 was really something special,” said Fritts, who had five victories and earned more than $1 million with B.A.S.S. “Winning the Forrest Wood Cup in 1997 was also a really big moment for me. All of those things were big stepping stones and building blocks for my career.”

Major League Fishing announces roster for 2024 Bass Pro Tour

Reigning Angler of the Year Matt Becker, six-time BPT winner Jacob Wheeler highlight 80-angler field

MLF PRESS RELEASE

BENTON, Ky. — Major League Fishing announced today the roster for the 2024 Bass Pro Tour, the sixth season of professional bass fishing’s preeminent tournament circuit. The field of 80 of the world’s top bass fishing professionals will compete across nine states during the Bass Pro Tour season for a total purse of more than $6.7 million.

The season starts Jan. 30 at the Bass Pro Tour Stage One at Toledo Bend in Many, Louisiana, and ends in August at the St. Lawrence River in Massena, New York, where the 2024 Bass Pro Tour Angler of Year will be crowned and 40 berths into REDCREST 2025 on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville will be determined.

“We’re excited to announce the Bass Pro Tour roster for the 2024 season,” said Kathy Fennel, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Major League Fishing. “The Bass Pro Tour represents the highest level of competition our sport has to offer, and nowhere is that more evident than in the field of anglers who will be competing in 2024. It’s going to be an extremely competitive season.”

The 2024 field is headlined by 2023 Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) Matt Becker, as well as two-time Bass Pro Tour AOY Jacob Wheeler and 2019 AOY and REDCREST champion Edwin Evers. Also returning are multi-time MLF winner Ott DeFoe, REDCREST 2023 champion Bryan Thrift, multi-time Bass Pro Tour winner and REDCREST 2021 champion Dustin Connell, and up-and-coming superstars Alton Jones, Jr. and Dakota Ebare. REDCREST 2022 champion Bobby Lane will also return to the lineup via a champions exemption after a one-year hiatus from the Tour. The 2024 field includes 29 anglers who have won either a major circuit Angler of the Year title or national tour-level championship.

ANGLER LIST BELOW

Jordan Lee makes legendary return to Bassmaster Elite Series

BASS PRESS RELEASE

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Former back-to-back Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic champion Jordan Lee is headed back to the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2024. Lee will return to the Elites via a Legend’s spot in the field, which opened when Larry Nixon announced his retirement.

 In just five seasons competing in major B.A.S.S. events, Lee, of Grant, Ala., amassed more than $1.1 million in earnings through wins in the 2017 and 2018 Bassmaster Classic and dominant performances in both the Elites and the St. Croix Bassmaster Opens, notching 21 Top 10s and 36 Top 30 finishes.

 

“It is great to welcome Jordan back home to the Bassmaster stage, where he built such a fantastic career spanning from college to the historic back-to-back Classic victories,” said Lisa Talmadge, tournament director for the Elite Series.

 

The former Auburn University angler, who was an early star in the Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, is ready to get back to the biggest stage in fishing.