Jacob Wheeler Wins 2025 Toyota Stage 7 Presented by Ranger Boats on Saginaw Bay!

By Mitchell Forde 

BASS PRO TOUR 

BAY CITY, Mich. — Jacob Wheeler couldn’t help himself. 

Time had already run out in Toyota Stage 7 Presented by Ranger Boats on Saginaw Bay with Wheeler atop SCORETRACKER®, his 10th career Bass Pro Tour win secured. Yet after Wheeler addressed the MLFNOW! viewers and offered some thank yous to those who had helped him get his tournament fishing start growing up in Indiana, he picked his rod back up and pitched a topwater frog back to the clump of reeds and lily pads in front of his boat, trying to elicit one more blowup.

That summed up Wheeler’s week on Saginaw Bay. Needing only to finish 27th or better to secure his fourth Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title in the past five seasons, he could have played it safe, then celebrated and gone through the motions after he secured the hardware on Friday. Instead, he not only made Sunday’s Championship Round but overcame an early 22-pound deficit to Todd Faircloth and willed his way to a win in a three-way battle with Faircloth and Edwin Evers. His total of 110 pounds even on 42 scorable bass ultimately topped Faircloth by 7-6.

For the win, Wheeler earned $150,000 – he’ll leave Saginaw Bay with $250,000 and two trophies thanks to his AOY victory. The dream end to yet another dominant season left even Wheeler, who is no stranger to recapping victories, short for words.

“I still don’t know what to say, to be honest with you,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t even believe it half the time. I just go fishing and things happen. I’m just speechless. It’s crazy, it really is.” 

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

1. Jacob Wheeler – 110-0 (42)

2. Todd Faircloth – 102-10 (40)

3. Edwin Evers – 86-10 (36)

4. Cole Floyd – 66-2 (26)

5. Brent Ehrler – 61-2 (25)

6. Bryan Thrift – 58-0 (23)

7. Nick Hatfield – 54-12 (23)

8. Spencer Shuffield – 49-15 (21)

9. Keith Carson – 45-7 (18)

10. James Elam – 43-6 (18)

Complete results

Wheeler separates himself with strategy yet again

Wheeler took his first lead of the Championship Round with about 10 minutes left in Period 2. From there, he and Faircloth traded blows, the top spot on

Dean Rojas Wins Bass Pro Tour Smith Lake with 47lbs!

Location key to fast, flurry of bass.

By Joel Shangle

MLF PRESS RELEASE

Dean Rojas takes home the trophy and $100,000 check after winning the Bass Pro Tour.
(Photo: MLF_

It’s an age-old question in competitive bass fishing: pattern or location? If you ask MLF pro Dean Rojas this week, he’ll come down firmly on the side of “location”.

Fishing an area on the upper end of Smith Lake that he had found during practice for the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury, the Arizona pro went to work on the Sunday-morning shad spawn with a mix of baits (primarily a crankbait, swim jig, frog and swimbait). By the end of the first period, Rojas had put 23 fish on SCORETRACKER® for 36 pounds, 5 ounces – enough spotted and largemouth bass that Rojas could’ve put his rods down for most of the rest of the day and still won.

“It’s not too often that you get into a Championship Round where the fish are biting like that and you can use multiple baits to rack up a big lead,” Rojas said. “The conditions were right: we had overcast skies, a breeze, warm temperatures, and the fish were just feeding in the area I was in. It was just about capitalizing on this format. I knew I had to catch as many fish as I could early to put some distance between me and the field.”

Rojas added an additional 9-1 in the second and third periods for good measure, finishing with 47-0 and a 6-plus-pound win over Brent Chapman (40-14), Michael Neal (34-15), Jason Christie (32-6) and Todd Faircloth (32-2). Mark Rose (29-14), Brent Ehrler (26-0), Dustin Connell (24-14), Mike Iaconelli (17-14) and Fred Roumbanis (10-1) rounded out the Top 10.

“At the end of the first period, that was the end of (the bite),” Rojas admitted. “It was a big deal that I caught as many fish as I could to build a big lead. Period 2 and Period 3 were a matter of catching a few here and there, but I was struggling because they just wouldn’t bite.”

Rojas Cashes in on “Money Spot”

Rojas was one of a handful of anglers in the 80-man field who identified his primary area, a stretch of bushes in the Ryan Creek Arm. Rojas hit the area throughout the week of competition, sharing it periodically with Boyd Duckett, etc., but had the whole stretch to himself on Championship morning.

2019 Bass Pro Tour Jordon Lake Shot Gun Round 1: Kelly Jordon Rocks the field with 82-04lbs!

KJ set new Bass Pro Tour single-day record

By Joel Shangle

MLF PRESS RELEASE

Kelly Jordon & Jackhammer Chatterbait have record day.
(Photo: MLF)

It took virtually no time for the chunky northern-strain largemouth of North Carolina to reveal themselves on Day 1 of the Favorite Fishing Stage Three Presented by Evinrude: Jason Christie boated a 7-pound, 12-ouncer just four minutes into competition on Jordan Lake, the first fish of the day.

Christie’s opening shot was just the beginning: By the end of Shotgun Round 1, 11 7-pounders and 48 fish over 5 pounds made it onto SCORETRACKER, an astoundingly impressive showing for an unknown fishery that most of the field of 80 had never even seen before practice.

But not nearly as impressive as the fish-catching clinic put on by Kelly Jordon.

Fishing his way around a shallow creek arm on this impoundment of the Cape Fear River system north of Raleigh, the Texas pro piled up 82-4 on 26 fish, not only winning the round by over 18 pounds, but also establishing a new single-day Bass Pro Tour weight total.

“It was just an awesome, awesome day,” Jordon said. “This area had gotten a ton of rain, and then the water dropped so much, I thought ‘Maybe this isn’t going to happen’, but guess what? The fish are still here. There’s no telling how much I could’ve caught if it had stayed warm. But what a fishery.”

Jordon did the majority of his damage with an Evergreen Jack Hammer bladed jig with a Lake Fork Tackle Live Magic Shad trailer, and he did it consistently for the first five hours of competition, pinging SCORETRACKER with four to five scorable largemouth per hour until he hit a brief lull late in the afternoon. He found some good ones, too, highlighting his day with seven 5-plus-pounders, including a 5-2 and 5-6 in the final five minutes of competition.

“Anytime you catch 82 pounds in a day of fishing is an awesome day, and I didn’t want to quit fishing,” Jordon admitted. “It was sad, I wanted to keep fishing because they were starting to fire off again. It was one of those days to remember.”

The rest of the field, while lagging a sizeable distance behind Jordon for most of the day, had some notable success as well:

-Todd Faircloth chipped away at Jordon’s lead all afternoon, finishing the round with 63-10 and connecting with the biggest fish of the day, a 9-4 giant that inhaled a jig early in the third period. Faircloth stacked up over 35 pounds of largemouth in the final period to trim Jordon’s lead to 10 pounds before K.J. caught his final two 5-pounders.

2017 BASS Elite Toledo Bend Day 1: Jacob Wheeler Grabs Lead with 25-01lbs!

Toledo Bend fishing strong

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Wheeler lead big day on Toledo Bend.
(Photo: BASS)

For the second time in three tournaments this season, Jacob Wheeler is sitting atop the leaderboard.

The Indiana pro caught five bass that weighed 25 pounds, 1 ounce during Thursday's first round of the Bassmaster Elite at Toledo Bend presented by Econo Lodge.

Wheeler, who won the season's first Elite Series event on Tennessee's Cherokee Lake in February, leads Arizona pro Brett Hite (24-11) by 6 ounces. But the field has three days left to fish on a lake that has topped the list of Bassmaster Magazine's 100 Best Bass Lakes the last two years.

"I don't have much experience here, which might have helped me a little bit or might have hurt me," said Wheeler, who made the move to the Elite Series this year after a successful career on the FLW Tour. "I spent two days here in the fall one time, five or six days in pre-practice and then practice this week — and that's it.

"But I know there are a lot of big fish here, and everything worked out for me today."

With so much fishing left to do, Wheeler was tightlipped about how he caught his fish Thursday. He only said that he managed to catch a few good fish early to calm his nerves.

2016 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake Day 2: Jason Christie Leading with 37-9 lb!

Canadian Charles Sim finishes 31th.
By Bryan Brasher
BASS PRESS RELEASE

A big spinnerbait and local knowledge assist Christie on Day 2.
(Photo: BASS)

For the first 43 years of the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro, only one angler managed to win the event in his home state.

Now, there’s a chance it could happen for the third year in a row.

After establishing a solid lead with 20 pounds, 14 ounces on Day 1 at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, Oklahoma pro Jason Christie added 16-11 Saturday and maintained his spot atop the leaderboard with a two-day total of 37-9. Christie leads second-place angler Todd Faircloth (31-14) by more than 5 pounds, and has better than a 6-pound advantage over third-place angler Edwin Evers (31-4), another Oklahoma native.

“It wasn’t a great day by Grand Lake standards, but it was pretty good compared to what everybody else did today,” said Christie, who lives in Park Hill, Okla., just an hour from Grand Lake. “Just like Friday, I was surprised that I had as much weight as I did.”

Christie was emphatic Friday that he was going to stick with the one tactic that’s really been working for him since practice began for the event last week.

2016 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake Day 2: Mid-morning Report.

Canadian Sim jumps 30 spots with 3 big fish!
By Luigi De Rose

It's 10am (central time) and the lake is some-what dead. Bright sun and no wind killed almost everyone's morning bite. No one has a limit and the fishing is starting to grind on all the competitors. Surprisingly, the mid-morning was one of the worst fishing periods yesterday but several big fish have just been boated and it might signal a new beginning.

Here's the unofficial top 5.

1. Randy Howell 25-4lb
2. Todd Faircloth 23lb
3. Jason Christie 23 lb
4. Bill Lowen 23lb
5. Greg Vinson 22lb

Todd Faircloth Wins the 2015 Bassmaster Elite Lake St. Clair Event!

Texan scores 5th Elite Tournament!

By Thomas Allen

bass press release

DETROIT — A thrilling conclusion to the 2015 Plano Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair brought a new level of anticipation to the professional bass-fishing world.

Drop shotting St. Clair was key to great day and win!
(Photo: BASS)

Todd Faircloth of Jasper, Texas, continued to improve his daily weights of bass and clinched the championship on Lake St. Clair.

Meanwhile, Aaron Martens caught 19 pounds, 6 ounces of bass, which was good enough for a sixth-place finish and the necessary points to lay early claim to the prestigious Toyota Bassmaster Anger of the Year title.

Faircloth spent the entire tournament building on the previous day’s weight by catching large smallmouth bass from Bell’s Hump, which is located on the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair.

2015 Bassmaster Elite Sabine River Day 2: Chris Lane Controls with 28-7 Pounds!

Spawning bass and long fog delay derails many anglers.

By Bryan Brasher

bass press release

ORANGE, Texas – Chris Lane knows things can change quickly on an unpredictable fishery like the Sabine River.

So he can’t say for sure if the pattern he’s fishing will hold up long enough for him to win the Bassmaster Elite at Sabine River Presented by STARK Cultural Venues.

But for the moment, it certainly seems to be serving him well.

Lane has been consistent when others can catch a limit.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

After a fog delay of more than two hours Friday – the second such delay in as many days – Lane caught five bass that weighed 12 pounds, 13 ounces and pushed his two-day total to 28-7. That mark put him in the lead for the second straight day, with Aaron Martens (25-14), Shaw Grigsby (24-6), Todd Faircloth (23-8) and Scott Rook (21-6) trailing behind him.

The field will be trimmed to the top 53 anglers for Saturday’s round, and those in contention will be forced to chase fish that have experienced heavy pressure all week.

“I really think I’m going to need 13-15 pounds each day the next two days to win,” Lane said. “Aaron is catching them, Shaw is catching them – and they’re all coming from similar areas. Will that hold up to win? That’s going to be the question.”

Lane continued targeting spawning fish in water less than 2 feet deep – and once again, his best fish came during one brief period of the day. He said it started between noon and 1 p.m., and was influenced heavily by tidal flows.

“I pulled in to where I was yesterday, and there were five or six boats in the back,” Lane said. “So I stayed out, and I caught one as soon as I got there – my first flip. Then I caught another one, caught another one, caught another one and then I culled one. It happened just that fast.”

Lane, who said he plans to follow the same pattern Saturday, is hoping for an earlier start that would give him more time to catch a decent limit and then go exploring other areas for larger fish.

Martens, who crossed paths with Lane several times Thursday, caught five bass Friday that weighed 12-0 with Grigsby close enough to see his every move. The Alabama pro and two-time Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year is running a similar shallow pattern to Lane’s and watching closely for those moments when the tidal flow is just right.

“I stayed in one area all day because I’m not planning on going back, and I beat it up as best I could,” Martens said. “The fishing is getting a little tougher because the easy ones are getting caught. The ones that are left are hard to catch.

“Hopefully I can go to a different area tomorrow that nobody has been hammering, and it will pay off.”

Grigsby didn’t seem thrilled with the increased level of company he had in the spot that was so good to him on Day 1. But he still put together a solid five-fish limit that weighed 11-2.

Widely known as one of the top sight-fishing anglers in the world, Grigsby said he has been catching bedding fish this week. But with a heavy stain on the water in most places, he said “sight” has had little to do with the technique he’s using.
“They’re spawners,” Grigsby said. “So they’ll bite it and swim off and with it, and you’ll set the hook and miss 50 percent of them. As soon as you think ‘I got him,’ you ain’t got Jack.

“On clearer lakes like Harris Chain, I can watch them and know when the hook is in their mouths. You can’t do that here.”

Martens wasn’t the only contender who milked the same area as Grigsby on Friday.

Greg Hackney is the 2014 BASS Elite Angler of the Year!

Jacob Powroznik wins Rookie of the Year and Wins Tournament

By Ken Duke

bass press release

ESCANABA, Mich. — Louisiana's Greg Hackney, 41, is the 2014 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year.

Over nine events, Hackney out-practiced, out-strategized, out-fished and ultimately outlasted the other 107 Bassmaster Elite Series anglers who started the season.

Hackey is now an Elite class angler.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

Hackney finished 24th in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship on Bays de Noc where weather postponed the second (and final) round for three days.

It was enough to lock up his first career AOY title.

Along with the sport's most prestigious title and trophy, Hackney earns $100,000 as bass fishing's best angler in 2014.

His season was solid right out of the gate. He finished a respectable 38th in the opener on Lake Seminole and followed it up with top 16 finishes at the St. Johns River (16th), Table Rock Lake (3rd), Lake Dardanelle (3rd) and Cayuga Lake (1st).

His worst finish of the season was 48th at the Delaware River.

2014 Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship Day 1: Brett Hite the Hero with 24lbs, Hackey Holding On!

Big bags of smallmouth dominate but all eyes on AOY leader board.

By Steve Wright

bass press release

ESCANABA, Mich. — Greg Hackney had numbers in mind while thinking about what it would take for him to win the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year title this week at Lake Michigan.

Those numbers were 20 and 18, in that order.

Greg is holding onto the AOY but fishing was
better for Davis and Faircloth.
(Photo: BASS)

"I thought if I caught 20 pounds the first day and backed it up with 18 or 19, I'd be alright," said Hackney about his game plan for clinching the coveted AOY title.

After Day 1, the number 18 made him breathe a sigh of relief. That was his five-bass total weight Thursday, exactly.

"They actually weighed about two pounds heavier than what I thought I had," Hackney said. "That helped my feelings a little bit when I weighed in. (Friday) I've got to catch 20."

Todd Faircloth's number Thursday was 20 pounds, 15 ounces. That allowed him to cut into Hackney's lead in the AOY race.

Faircloth was in third place, 17 points behind. Now he's in second place, 10 points back.

Aaron Martens was discouraged by his numbers. A Day 1 total of 17-6 dropped him from 15 points behind Hackney to 19 points back.

Greg Hackney Wins 2014 Bassmaster Elite Cayuga Lake!

Hackney leaves best for last to dominate in New York. 

By Deb Johnson

bass press release

UNION SPRINGS, N.Y. — Greg Hackney was floating higher than a reel-peeling, skyward cast that seems to be held aloft by the sun itself.

Unlike a lure, he may not come down anytime soon.

In one fell swoop, the Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Gonzales, La., won the A.R.E. Truck Caps Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga Lake — and held tight to his lead in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race.

Hackney is on a role with 2 wins
this year and leading AOY in
the Elites!
(Photo: Seigo Saito BASS)

“I’ll ride this as long as I can,” Hackney said Sunday just after he took the trophy and was sure no other angler had busted into his AOY lead. “There are not too many times you get to do this. It’s pretty awesome.”

Hackney slapped the 12-man field in Sunday’s final round with a catch of 23 pounds, 15 ounces. That pumped his four-day total to 85-0. His margin of victory was 9 pounds, 3 ounces over Todd Faircloth, who weighed 15-6 Sunday to finish in second place at 75-13.

The Cayuga trophy was the fourth for Hackney in his B.A.S.S. career. Coming more than eight years after his only other Elite win in March 2006, the Cayuga victory broke his Bassmaster winner’s drought. He won an FLW Tour in June, and also owns the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup trophy.

Hackney collected $100,000 and an instant qualification for the 2015 Bassmaster Classic. He virtually has a Classic entry in hand through his standing in points, so the Cayuga title will double-qualify him.

Taking third place at Cayuga was Chris Zaldain of San Jose, Calif., with 74-12. Fourth place was claimed by Edwin Evers of Talala, Okla., with 72-9.

Anchoring the Top 5 was Jared Lintner of Arroyo Grande, Calif., with 71-6. Lintner weighed a 6-2, tying him with Hackney for the largest bass of Sunday.

2014 Bassmaster Elite Cayuga Lake Day 3: Greg Hackney Continues to Lead But Fail to Limit Out.

Hackney controls tournament and AOY points 

By Deb Johnson

bass press release

UNION SPRINGS, N.Y. — Who could be happy after not catching a limit in what is likely the most important bass tournament of your career?

Greg Hackney.

He was grinning ear-to-ear Saturday after weighing only four bass instead of the allowed five in the third round of the A.R.E. Truck Caps Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga Lake.

Greg Hackney on monsters but not many of them.
He only had four today but still kept his lead.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

But those four were solid largemouth bass that tipped the scales at 17-11. It was enough to keep a 10-ounce lead over his biggest threat, Todd Faircloth of Jasper, Texas.

2014 Bassmaster Elite Cayuga Lake Day 2: Greg Hackney in Lead of AOY and Tournament!

Angler of the Year is Super Hot with Hackney and Faircloth 1-2. 

By Deb Johnson

bass press release

UNION SPRINGS, N.Y. — Give the man some grass, and he feels right at home.

That’s grass, as in aquatic vegetation, and crystal-clear Cayuga Lake is loaded with it.

“Deep, clear water with grass is by far my favorite way to fish,” said Greg Hackney, the pro angler from Gonzales, La., who took the lead Friday in the second round of the A.R.E. Truck Caps Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga Lake out of Union Springs, N.Y.

Greg is a master with the big rod. New York is playing to
the strengths of many Elite anglers.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

Hackney weighed the day’s heaviest bag of bass — 23 pounds, 1 ounce — to rise into the lead from fourth place. His two-day total was 43-6.

“Grassmaster” No. 2 on Friday was Todd Faircloth of Jasper, Texas.

“Anytime we go to a lake that has grass in it, my confidence soars,” said Faircloth, who climbed from seventh place into second place with twin weights of 20-2 for a running total of 40-4. He trailed Hackney by 3-2.

Coincidentally, Hackney and Faircloth currently occupy first and second place, respectively, in the season’s Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. After Friday’s round, they were 17 points apart.

Jacob Powroznik Wins the 2014 Bassmaster Elite Toledo Bend Tournament

Powroznik throws KO punch on Toledo Bend

By Deb Johnson

bass press release

MANY, La. — With a one-two, the rookie won.

Jacob Powroznik delivered that punch Sunday in the form of two good-sized bass in the last hours of competition of the four-day Evan Williams Bourbon Bassmaster Elite at Toledo Bend.

Dave Mercer gets the good on how Jacob achieved his
first win on the Elites.
(Photo: BASS)

“I’m speechless. That doesn’t happen very often,” said Powroznik as he accepted his first Bassmaster Elite Series trophy after competing in only four events in his first year on the top-level tour — and on a fishery on which he had never before competed.

From Port Haywood, Va., Powroznik claimed the first-place prize of $100,000 and an instant-in for the 2015 Bassmaster Classic, his first world championship qualification.

“To get into the Classic feels like someone just gave me a million dollars,” said Powroznik after he stepped off the stage and got his voice back. “You don’t get many opportunities to win one of these events. It’s so hard to do. To do it my first year is a blessing.”

After leading on Friday, Powroznik was stumped in Saturday’s round by a disappearing shad spawn bite that had helped him considerably in the early morning hours of competition. Then he was smoked out of a promising spawning bass area by a controlled burn of Texas shoreline forest. Going into the Sunday finals, Powroznik had dropped more than 2 1/2 pounds behind the leader, two-time Bassmaster Toledo Bend champ Dean Rojas.

Massive Storm Shortens Day 4 of the 2014 Bassmaster Elite Lake Seminole Event

BASS Report

B.A.S.S. personnel are preparing for the worst, and it looks like the worst will be hitting here in Bainbridge at weigh-in time - 1 p.m. ET. According to the timeline on weather radar, we'll be in the thick of the storm as the weigh-in begins.

The main weigh-in stage has already been disassembled and stowed away. The smaller sound  stage will be used for the weigh-in, just as it was at Falcon Lake on Day 4 last year, when a wind storm hit.

Every bassmaster.com feature, like First Look and Hooked Up, will probably occur in abbreviated form this afternoon.

2013 Bassmaster Elite West Point Lake Day 2: Biffle Bounds into Lead

By Deb Johnson

BASS Press Release

LAGRANGE, Ga. — Saturday was a rainy day in Georgia, but Tommy Biffle was not singing the blues about the West Point Lake Battle.

He managed to fill a five-fish limit after falling one bass short on both Day One and Day Two of the Battle.

Biffle eeks out a lead with 33.09 for three days.
(Photo: BASS)

Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., seized the third-day lead in the four-day Bassmaster Elite Series’ Battle with a total of 33 pounds, 9 ounces. Seventh after Thursday, he popped into third Friday before taking the hot seat Saturday.

The loss of a “good keeper” early Saturday had him wondering if he’d even weigh four bass.

“I was a little bit worried I’d only have three, because I’ve been getting (and boating) four bites a day,” he said. “Today I had six, but I didn’t catch the quality I’ve been catching. As tough as the fishing is, I was glad to catch five.”

Biffle liked Saturday’s wet, wet weather. He said he actually hoped for a thunder and lightning storm on the water to change the barometric pressure.

2013 BASSMASTER Elite Sabine River Champion is Todd Faircloth!

Sabine a dream for Todd Faircloth

By Deb Johnson

BASS Press Release

ORANGE, Texas — “Everything’s bigger and better in Texas.”

Faircloth's big limit was too much for Rojas to overcome.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

That’s what Todd Faircloth of Jasper, Texas, said Sunday as he won the Sabine River Challenge presented by STARK Cultural Venues out of Orange, Texas, trumping Dean Rojas of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., by 6 pounds, 10 ounces.

“It means a lot to me to win here,” Faircloth said. “I won one in Texas in Amistad, but that’s not real close to my home. Winning here in front of my home crowd is special. I’ve got a lot of family and friends here, and a lot of people I grew up fishing with and against.”

Faircloth’s win — his fourth Bassmaster Elite Series title and second in Texas — was a victory in a four-day tug-of-war with Rojas. Rojas led the first day, then Faircloth took the lead away from him on Day Two.

The third day, Rojas got it back, and led Faircloth by 3-9, a considerable deficit on the stingy and tough Sabine River system. But Faircloth pulled away on Day Four by weighing a 14-9 limit, easily getting the best of Rojas, who had a single fish Sunday that weighed 4-6.

2013 IBASSIN.com’s Classic picks

So, who will win the Classic on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees?

Here are IBASSIN.com’s picks and why.

(Photos: BASS)

Jason Christie

It is statistically proven that hometown favorites have a slim chance of winning. Boyd Duckett is the only Classic Champ to ever do it. With that in mind, Jason Christie is our huge favourite. Not sure if it is divine intervention of this southern FLW pro winning the Northern Open on smallmouth bass but that is very odd series of events not to be ignored. Christie has local winter time experience on Grand plus he recently won a pre-spawn FLW event two years ago. He is playing it too cool and that is a sure sign he is hiding something.

Tommy Biffle

Tommy is another Oklahoma expert. He has the extra incentive of several missed Classic titles. Recently he has proven himself as an off-shore angler, mostly on the back of his Biffle Hard head and Bug, but who cares how he did it. He knows how to catch deep water bass. If he was still just a flipping expert, his chances would be limited. Plus, how fitting would it be for him to finally win a Classic in his home state. A definite career topper!

Kevin Van Dam

Come on, I would be a fool not to pick him. He is amazing a transitions and change. If the weather flickers from freezing to mild he’ll react accordingly. One down fall is the lack of grass in this lake. Van Dam is a master with grass. Grand is all rock, so that might be a downfall. In reality, KVD has no downfalls and this seasonal period is an off-shore jerk bait, crankbait and jig bite. He will get his fifth Classic and Grand Lake is a perfect setting for another KVD fest.