A suspenseful Period 3 turned out in Cole Floyd's favor, scoring his first Bass Pro Tour win. Photo by Phoenix Moore.
By Mitchell Forde
BASS PRO TOUR Press Release
ROGERS, Ark. — With 25 minutes left in Sunday’s Championship Round at Yuengling Light Lager Stage 5 Presented by YETI, Cole Floyd got the news he’d been dreading.
Floyd had sat atop SCORETRACKER® for virtually all of Saturday’s Knockout Round and most of the final day on Beaver Lake. Leading Wesley Strader by more than 6 pounds with 30 minutes until lines out, he could taste his first Bass Pro Tour win. But Strader – who had closed strong each of the past two days just to make it to the Championship Round – caught a late 5-pounder for the third day in a row, then followed it up with a 1-12 to take over the lead.
Here we go again, thought Floyd, who had made 14 prior Top 10s in tour-level events (including nine on the BPT) without a victory.
“What was going through my mind at that point was I was probably going to finish second,” he said. “It was just a gut-wrencher. With roughly 15 minutes left, I was like, man, it’s going to have to be a miracle for me to catch one.”
But even after admittedly “throwing a little fit there for a minute,” Floyd kept casting. With 12 minutes left, he hooked a 1-11 that came unpinned as he swung it over the gunnel, mercifully landing in the bottom of his Ranger.
While far from the heaviest of Floyd’s 24 scorable bass on the day, it’ll go down as the biggest of his career so far. That fish pushed Floyd’s total to 56 pounds even, edging Strader by 14 ounces and earning Floyd $125,000 and his long-awaited first pro win.
Here’s how the Top 10 pros finished the Championship Round:
Cole Floyd – 56-0 (24)
Wesley Strader – 55-2 (23)
Banks Shaw – 38-13 (20)
