2025 Yokohama Tire Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair Day 2: Trey McKinney Still on Top!

Canadians: Evan Kung 15th, Cory Johnston 19th, Chris Johnston 24th Gustafson 45th, & Gallant 47th 

BASS Press Release

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. — Trey McKinney has been more nervous during the Yokohama Tire Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair than any tournament in his short career. Country music helps ease that anxiousness, and it seemed like on Day 2, the smallmouth enjoyed the sound of fiddles and steel guitars too. 

“Country music makes me fish better, especially when I get out there and have a knot in my stomach,” the 20-year-old said. 

The second-year pro from Carbondale, Ill., maintained his lead on Day 2 at Lake St. Clair, landing a limit weighing 23 pounds, 10 ounces on Friday to increase his two-day total to 48-5, anchoring his bag with a 5-8 smallmouth. McKinney’s lead over second place Tucker Smith is just 4 ounces, but the gap between him and third place Kyoya Fujita is almost 2 1/2 pounds.

Not only that, McKinney took the unofficial lead in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. That is partially to blame for his nervousness. The 2024 Dakota Lithium Elite Series Rookie of the Year could have won AOY in 2024 as well had it not been for self-inflicted errors. 

2025 Yokohama Tire Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair Day 1: Trey McKinney Soars to the Top!

Canadians: Evan Kung 19th, Cory Johnston 28th, Gustafson 31th, Chris Johnston 39th & Gallant 75th 

BASS Press Release

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. –— In his first three years as a Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series angler, Trey McKinney has come to realize a northern smallmouth bass is smarter than a southern largemouth. On Day 1 of the Yokohama Tire Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair, McKinney found the right cadence to trick five big brown fish into biting.

The 20-year-old phenom from Carbondale, Ill., leads the 101 Elite Series field with 24 pounds, 11 ounces, anchoring his bag with a 5-10 smallmouth. McKinney’s lead over second-place Matt Robertson is just 11-ounce while Will Davis Jr. trails by 1-8.

“I’ve never been nervous for a tournament, but I was nervous for this one,” McKinney said. “I think the main thing will be staying consistent on finding new areas as the days go on.”

Despite reports of a tougher than usual bite, Lake St. Clair once again proved why it is one of the best smallmouth lakes in the country. Forty-four anglers landed limits of 20 pounds or better on Day 1 and 100 anglers landed a five-bass limit. Two pounds separates the leader from 16th-place Pat Schlapper.

To prepare for this tournament, the 2024 Dakota Lithium Rookie of the Year spent several days on Lake Michigan. While Lake St. Clair and Lake Michigan are vastly different fisheries, McKinney has learned smallmouth have the same tendencies no matter which body of water they are in. 

That realization has helped the young angler quickly get a grip on northern fisheries. 

“Smallmouth are smallmouth. They have the same instincts,” he explained. “A lot of it is cadence. They are sight feeders. Everyone says largemouth are smarter, but I think smallmouth are smarter. When you present your bait, it has to look so natural for a big one to eat it. How you present the bait to them is the difference between them eating it and bumping it.”

Jake Lawrence Wins 2025 O"Reilly Auto Parts Stage $ Presented by Optima Batteries

Buzzbait buzzer-beater lifts Lawrence over Wheeler in instant classic on Nickajack

Jake Lawrence scored his first Bass Pro Tour event win with a clutch catch in the final seconds of Period 3. Photo by Phoenix Moore.

Mitchell Forde 

Bass Pro Tour Press Release

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Thirty hours of competition across four days at O’Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries boiled down to the final seconds. Separated on SCORETRACKER® by just 6 ounces, Jake Lawrence and Jacob Wheeler both set the hook.

Wheeler and Lawrence had long since distanced themselves from the rest of the field during Sunday’s Championship Round on Nickajack Lake. The latter half of the day morphed into a one-on-one prize fight: Wheeler, the longtime bully of the Bass Pro Tour, who caught all smallmouth in the current beneath Chickamauga Dam, versus Lawrence, a rookie who caught all largemouth roughly 40 miles down the lake. Lawrence had led most of the day, but with 6 minutes left, Wheeler finally passed him. Still, both anglers felt like if they could just muster one more scorable bass, they’d secure the trophy and $150,000 top prize that comes with it. 

With 45 seconds left before lines out, Lawrence made a bomb cast with his his Buckeye Buzzerk buzzbait. About halfway back to the boat – 21 seconds left – a massive mouth engulfed it. Nine seconds later, Lawrence swung the bass over the gunnel and hung it on the BUBBA scale: a 5-pound, 9-ounce buzzer-beater, easily enough to put him back in the lead. At virtually that exact moment, Wheeler hooked up with another smallmouth, but he couldn’t get it in the boat before time expired. It might not have been enough to overcome Lawrence’s late lunker anyway. 

With a total of 83-2 on 27 scorable bass, Lawrence had won his first Bass Pro Tour title in one of the most dramatic finishes in the seven-year history of the tour. More than an hour later, he still couldn’t come up with a way to describe the ending other than divine intervention.

“The only thing I can say is, man, He wanted me to do it,” Lawrence said. “Wheeler jumped me there by a couple ounces, and I said out loud, ‘Lord, if you want me to do this, you’re going to make it happen.’ I had 45 seconds left, and I had just gotten my buzzer back to the boat, and I said, alright, you can throw right, which is where I had been catching them, or you can throw somewhere totally new. And I chose to throw somewhere totally new, and it was the deal. Unbelievable.” 

Here’s how the Top 10 pros finished the Championship Round:

1. Jake Lawrence – 83-2 (27)

2. Jacob Wheeler – 77-15 (27)

3. Cole Floyd – 48-14 (17)

4. Ron Nelson – 42-7 (15)

5. Wesley Strader – 37-14 (15)

6. Michael Neal – 37-4 (12)

7. Matt Becker – 29-9 (12)

8. Drew Gill – 25-9 (11)

9. Justin Cooper – 21-12 (7)

10. Justin Lucas – 15-8 (6)

Complete results

Matt Messer Wins 2023 2023 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Harris Chain of Lakes!

Late bonus pushes Messer to Bassmaster Open victory at Harris Chain of Lakes

Matt Messer of Warfield, Ky., has won the 2023 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Harris Chain of Lakes with a two-day total of 39 pounds, 13 ounces. (Photo: BASS) 

BASS PRESS RELEASE

LEESBURG, Fla. — Two weeks ago, Matt Messer wondered how he would pay for his 2024 tournament entry fees.

But winning the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Harris Chain of Lakes completely changed that outlook.

After leading Day 1 with 24 pounds, 6 ounces, the Warfield, Ky., angler added a second-round total of 15-7 and tallied 39-13. Edging Blake Sylvester of Plaquemine, La., by 1-12, Messer won $42,467 and an automatic berth in the 2024 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic scheduled for March 22-24 in Tulsa, Okla.

“I’ve been dreaming of the Classic since I was 5 and now I get a shot at it,” Messer said. “I can hardly talk. I’m torn all to pieces.”

Messer, who won the 2022 Strike King Bassmaster College Series at Harris Chain presented by Bass Pro Shops with his brother and Kentucky Christian University teammate Lafe Messer, caught both day's limits in Lake Griffin. While Day 1 yielded a 7-14 and a 7-2, the second round saw his lone shot at a kicker fizzle.

“I did not think I was going to catch ‘em,” Messer admits. “I was grinding and I got one big bite, but I didn’t get it in the boat. It was like a 7-pounder.

Cifuentes notches second Bassmaster Elite Series win of 2023 season at Lake St. Clair

 Canadian Cooper Gallant 4th!

Joey Cifuentes of Clinton, Ark., has won the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair with a four-day total of 91 pounds, 8 ounces.  (Photo: Seigo Saito/ BASS)

BASS PRESS RELEASE

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. — A sure sign Joey Cifuentes III was in line to win his second blue trophy came when a 5-pound smallmouth jumped into his boat midway through Championship Sunday at the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair. 

That bass helped “the Cowboy” claim his second victory of his rookie season on the Elite Series with a four-day total of 91 pounds, 8 ounces, outlasting Oklahoma’s Luke Palmer by 1-2 ounces. 

The Clinton, Ark., pro caught 22-10, 24-0 and 21-1 the first three days before landing 23-13 on the final day. Including his acrobatic smallmouth, Cifuentes landed four smallmouth that weighed over 5 pounds on the final day.

“That is what you dream about, to have a Championship day like that,” Cifuentes said. “The conditions were perfect. I knew the fish were there and I got to fish really effectively. It was meant to be.

“It seemed like there were the perfect amount of fish there for me to win this tournament. It was great.”

Cifuentes’ first victory of the season came back in February at Lake Seminole, an event he led for the final three days. At St. Clair, he did not lead a day until it mattered the most.

Jon Canada Wins 2022 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit on Pickwick!

MLF PRESS RELEASE

COUNCE, Tenn. – Pro Jon Canada of Helena, Alabama, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Sunday weighing 20 pounds even – his biggest limit of the event – to win Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Lithium Pros Stop 3 at Pickwick Lake Presented by Covercraft in Counce, Tennessee. Canada edged out the second-place angler Abu Garcia pro Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Alabama, by 1 pound, 2 ounces to earn the top payout of $100,000. 

After ending Day 1 in 74th place with only 12 pounds, 13 ounces, Canada weighed in the largest limit of Day 2 – five bass totaling 19-15 – to catapult into seventh place. He brought another solid limit of 17-8 to the scale on Day 3, putting him in third place and qualifying him into Championship Sunday. 

“This win is just the good Lord above, I don’t know what else to say – it was just meant to be,” Canada said. “I came here and practiced for two days when the water was down, idling up and down this thing – marking every stump, shell bed, everything you can think of on a 5- to 8-mile stretch of the river and I ended up catching them in some of the areas where I did my homework. 

“I spent most of the event fishing around the same areas as Lucas and (Andrew) Loberg, just fishing a little bit of grass and isolated stumps,” Canada said. “I caught two of the biggest bass I’ve ever caught on Pickwick in this one area during pre-practice for another tournament – a 7-pounder and an 8-pounder.

“I only had two fish at lunchtime on Day 2 and decided to change it up and run out to that spot. I’m not typically a drop-shot guy; but if it works, I’ll do it. I pitched the first couple stumps and had 19 or 20 pounds within 40 minutes, and I knew there was something special going on.” 

With weights zeroed on the final day, the tournament was anyone’s to win, but Canada found himself trailing behind Lucas in the No. 2 spot on the unofficial leaderboard throughout most of the day.

“I felt like the stumps I’d been fishing had a little extra pressure yesterday,” Canada said. “I could see the fish, but they wouldn’t bite and just kept running around and picking at my worm. I decided to idle to a new spot today that I’d never fished before, marked about 20 stumps and caught two big ones.” 

This last-minute move upriver proved very profitable for the Alabama pro, who caught a good kicker fish in the final hour of Championship Sunday to finally push him over the top.  

“Catching that fish this afternoon absolutely saved my tail,” Canada said. “I didn’t realize it was the winning fish, and knew it was going to be close, but I also knew that it definitely put me in contention for the top spot.”

Canada said most of his fish were caught on isolated stumps in 4- to 8-feet of water.

“I spent the first two days swimming a jig with a Reactions Innovations Twerk on the back of it, white-colored with chartreuse tipped ends, then I flipped a Reaction Innovations Spicy Beaver. I caught a lot on the first day doing that,” Canada said. “When I went offshore, I threw a shaky head with a Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm, green-pumpkin colored, and caught a 4-pounder. I decided to switch to a drop-shot because it was faster and allowed me to work the stumps more quickly and thoroughly.” 

Canada said he’s been fishing pretty good this year, but everything just finally came together during this event. 

“The win hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Canada said with a laugh. “It feels great to finally win one. This has been a long time coming.”

The Top 10 pros at the Lithium Pros Stop 3 on Pickwick Lake finished:

• 1st:           Jon Canada of Helena, Ala., five bass, 20-0, $100,000
• 2nd:          Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Ala., five bass, 18-14, $30,000
• 3rd:          Mitch Crane of Columbus, Miss., five bass, 15-14, $25,000
• 4th:           Ron Nelson of Berrien Springs, Mich., five bass, 15-3, $20,000
• 5th:           Nick Hatfield of Greeneville, Tenn., four bass, 14-4, $19,000
• 6th:           John Hunter of Shelbyville, Ky., five bass, 13-12, $18,000
• 7th:           John Cox of DeBary, Fla., five bass, 11-10, $17,000
• 8th:           Andrew Loberg of Rocklin, Calif., four bass, 9-15, $16,000
• 9th:           Nick LeBrun of Bossier City, La., four bass, 7-10, $15,000
• 10th:        Troy Stokes of Trenton, Mich., zero bass, 0-0, $14,000

2021 MLF Bass Pro Tour Lake Champlain: Wheeler’s Drop-Shot Dominates for Knockout Round Win

Jacob Wheeler will fish in the 13th Championship Round of his career
after a win in the Knockout Round on Lake Champlain. Photo by Phoenix Moore

By Mason Prince

Bass Pro Tour Press Release

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – While the Knockout Round didn’t earn him another $100,000 check for the season, it’s safe to say that Jacob Wheeler, once again, has as good of a shot as anyone to take home another win in the 2021 season. Wheeler totaled 32 Lake Champlain bass for 107 pounds, 2 ounces to beat Brent Ehrler by 27-7 in the Knockout Round of the Toyota Stage Six Presented by Googan Baits.

Wheeler—a four-time winner on the Bass Pro Tour—will head into the Championship Round as the only angler besides Group A winner, Matt Lee, to have a 100-pound day on Champlain. The Tennessee pro spent most of his day in deeper water working a drop-shot catching both smallmouth and largemouth.

The Googan Baits pro will have to go toe-to-toe Tuesday with some hammers who have Champlain figured out in their own right, but he heads into his fourth Championship Round of the season with tons of confidence thanks to another solid day of fishing.

COMPLETE RESULTS

“This place is unbelievable even though it’s taken me a little longer than usual to dial it in,” Wheeler mentioned. “Every time I fish here it’s different, and this time I’m starting to get it. It’s one of the best lakes in the country and this lake has got ‘em. I’ve got my work cut out for me tomorrow, but it should be a lot of fun.”

Turning an eye to the Angler of the Year race, four of the top five anglers in the standings will compete on Tuesday. Ott DeFoe (first), Brent Ehrler (second), Wheeler (third) and Lucas (fifth) are all in a dogfight as they head into the Championship Round and then into the final event of the season on Lake St. Clair. Thanks to his 10-point lead over Ehrler, even if DeFoe finishes in 10th place and Ehrler finishes first, the two would be tied for first in AOY heading into Stage Seven. As for Wheeler and Lucas, they will be looking to not only win Stage Six, but hope for Ehrler and DeFoe to struggle with the changing conditions expected on Champlain tomorrow.

2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers on the Potomac River Day 1: Hibdon Leads with 17lb!

Lawson Hibdon grabs lead in bass fest first day!
(Photo: MLF

Kyle Wood

TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT 

Press Release 

Day 1 of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers on the Potomac River was a certified banger. Federal Ammunition Stop 5 Presented by Lucas Oil featured not only a strong leading weight, but more than 20 bags over 15 pounds on the first day. Leading the pack, Lawson Hibdon put 17 pounds even on the scale to edge ahead of Zell Rowland’s 16-15 by just 1 ounce. Going into Day 2, the pressure could slow things down a bit, but there’s no reason to think the fishing will drop off too much, which should make for a fun race well into the weekend.

Lawson, who’s the son of legendary pro Dion Hibdon, is far from his home in the Ozarks of Missouri, but he’s not letting that stop him from making hay on the Potomac.

“I’ve been [to the Potomac] three or four times I think, never as a pro,” says the 26-year-old rookie. “I’ve fished as a co-angler and practiced with dad a lot, but I don’t have a lot of experience.

“I’m trying to stay away from people a bit, but I still had to fish around ‘em a time or two today. The biggest thing I figured out was that I had to slow way down. I really expected to weigh 12, 13 pounds like you’re seeing a lot of those stringers, but I slowed down with a worm and caught some better ones today. It was very unexpected, I was not ready for it at all, but it worked out today.”

Those with experience on tidal fisheries like the Potomac tend to make a game plan to run the tide to maximize their time in certain stretches of the river during prime times. Hibdon is certainly not one of them.

2020 BASS Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes Day 1: Carl Jocumsen Snatches Lead with 25-08lbs!

Canadians Cory Johnston 8th, Gustafson 34th & Chris Johnston 73rd

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Jocumsen's two giants secures lead.
(Photo: BASS) 

Carl Jocumsen is known for his aggressive fishing style, but it was actually a healthy dose of caution that led him to three of the five fish he needed to take the Day 1 lead of the Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes brought to you by the United States Marine Corps with 25 pounds, 8 ounces.

The veteran pro from Queensland, Australia, who captured his first Elite Series win last year on Oklahoma’s Lake Tenkiller, said he started his practice with a well-founded respect for Santee Cooper’s minefield of submerged stumps. Doing so compelled him to spend more time idling.

“When you roll up to a place like this, it is scary,” Jocumsen said. “When I first launched at the ramp (in practice), I didn’t even know if you could get up on pad going out of the ramp. To go from that to a bag like this is just a magical day.

“It actually helped me not knowing this place because I got to idle some areas, not knowing how to get back in. That’s how I found a couple of little magical spots.”

With a limit that included a 6-15 and a 6-3, Jocumsen started in the midsection of Lake Marion, which along with Lake Moultrie to the south, comprises the Santee Cooper Lakes (linked by a diversion canal). His main area was a grass-lined depression that dropped from 2 feet to 4 1/2.

“If you ran the area, you would never see it, but I idled it because I was worried about getting into the back,” Jocumsen said. “I saw the grass on my Humminbird, and I think that’s what’s holding them.”

In practice, this spot hosted intense afternoon schooling action and produced several big bites. Today, Jocumsen saw minimal surface activity but caught one of his bigger fish from the schoolers.

2020 NOCO Bassmaster Elite on Lakes Guntersville Day 2: Brandon Cobb Scores Lead with cher Leads with 34-11Lbs!

Chris Johnston 18th, Cory Johnston 23rd & Gustafson 24th 

By Bryan Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Cobb using range of techniques to
counter difficult bite.
(Photo: BASS)

Professional bass anglers are some of the most notorious poor-mouthers on the planet. Even on their best days, they’re likely to tell you the fishing was tough.

But at this week’s NOCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Guntersville, they may actually be telling the truth — even the ones who seem to be doing well.

During Thursday’s second round, when 31 of the 85-angler field failed to bring in a five-bass limit, South Carolina pro Brandon Cobb managed to catch five that weighed 17 pounds, 11 ounces to take the lead with a two-day total of 34-11.

He said don’t let his success at the scales fool you.

“The weights really don’t reflect how hard the fishing has been,” said Cobb, who earned his first two Elite Series victories last season. “It is very tough. Today, I had four big bites and I lost one.

“The Guntersville way is to catch schools of fish, whether it’s ledge fish or grass fish or whatever. But since I haven’t really found that, I’ve just been fishing shallow and trying to catch one at a time.”

Despite those limited bites, Cobb has been the most consistent angler in the field. Before landing his 17-11 Thursday, he opened the event Wednesday with 17-0.

He’s been fishing a little bit of everything — docks, riprap, bank grass and offshore grass — to make it happen, and he’s been relying heavily on a tactic he admits isn’t his specialty.

“I’ve been flipping a lot this week, and I don’t do that in South Carolina,” he said. “That’s probably why I lost that one big fish today. When you go so long between bites, you start sort of halfway not paying attention.

“I’m too gun-shy flipping. I felt that fish bite, but I waited too long to pull the trigger.”

Chris Jones Wins 2020 Bassmaster Central Open Arkansas River with 42-13lbs!

Going for broke pays of win!
BASS PRESS RELEASE

Worm and swim jig key to wicked last day limit.
(Photo: BASS)

Chris Jones knew he had his work cut out for him, but he stuck to what he knows best and overcame a significant deficit to win the Basspro.com Bassmaster Central Open on the Arkansas River with a three-day total of 42 pounds, 13 ounces.

Starting Championship Saturday in eighth place, Jones’ biggest decision was whether to stay local or make the long run downriver to the Kerr Lake Pool. The latter option requires locking, which greatly diminishes a competitor’s fishing time, but this fertile reservoir’s renowned fish population often justifies the sacrifice.

After drawing the last flight on Day 1, the pro from Bokoshe, Okla., fished Kerr and placed 17th with 12-10. The next day’s reversed checkout order gave him a shorter day, so he stayed in local waters and secured a final-round spot after adding 11-3.

Championship Saturday allowed him a longer fishing day, so he returned to Kerr and locked up the win by adding a 19-pound limit — the tournament’s second-largest behind Keith Poche’s 19-5 on Day 2.

“I knew the wind was going to blow today, I knew a front was coming and I knew there was a chance to catch a giant bag [in Kerr] and I just wanted that chance,” said Jones, who earned $45,300. “I knew I was 4 pounds behind [Day 2 leader] Dale Hightower, so I knew I had to go.