Jason Christie Wins 2022 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic Presented by Huk Day!

Canadian Chris Johnston 5th!

Jason Christie of Park Hill, Okla., has won the 2022 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk with a three-day total of 54 pounds. 

(Photo: BASS) 

BASS PRESS RELEASE

GREENVILLE, S.C. — For years, Jason Christie has had to live with the crushing weight of leading pro fishing’s biggest event twice on the final day, only to fall short.

 

But no more.

 

The 48-year-old pro from Park Hill, Okla., led once again going into Championship Sunday and this time sealed the deal in dramatic fashion with a final-day limit of 17 pounds, 9 ounces that made him the champion of the 52nd Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk at Lake Hartwell. His three-day total of 54-0 was only 5 ounces better than that of second-place finisher Kyle Welcher, who shared the lead with Christie going into the final day.

 

The event drew a Classic-record 154,932 fans.

 

“Honestly, when I was sitting at the door waiting to come in and weigh my fish, I thought I had given it away again,” said Christie, who pushed his career earnings with B.A.S.S. to $1,668,011 with the $300,000 victory. “Stetson Blaylock had just weighed in a big bag, and Kyle Welcher used to be a professional poker player, so I knew he had more than what he was saying.

 

“I knew it was gonna be close. I honestly thought there could be a tie, and that was scary for me because I didn’t have any fish left.”

 

Christie certainly found plenty of fish throughout the week as he alternated between deep- and shallow-water patterns that were about as different as two techniques can be.

 

He caught half of his weight targeting bass on Garmin LiveScope in a 15- to 30-foot drain that he said held “hundreds of fish” the first two days. He used a spinning rod with a 3/16-ounce jighead and a prototype lure from Yum that only this week earned an official name, the FF Sonar Minnow, which stands for “Forward Facing Sonar Minnow.”

 

“It’s a bait that I can cast to the fish and work the rod and keep it on him; the bait does not move forward,” Christie said. “It’s a technique that I’ve been working on for about five years now.

 

“A lot of times you throw a swimbait over the top of them and they’ll just trail it. But you can drop this bait right to the fish and keep it on top of him.”

 

The drain was good to Christie the first two days. But when he arrived there early on Sunday, he found what he described as a “ghost town.” A spot that had produced half of his weigh-in fish during the week produced only one on the final day — and even though it was his biggest bass of the day, a 4-11 largemouth, he admittedly started thinking, “Here we go again.”

2021 Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River Day 2: Gustafson Remains Leader with 33-08lbs!

Canadians Cory Johnston 33rd & Chris Johnston 46th

By Christopher Decker

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Focusing on smallmouth, Gussy is making it work despite rainy conditions. 
(Photo: BASS)

Despite cool, rainy conditions, Jeff Gustafson maintained the lead during Friday’s second round of the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River, catching a limit of smallmouth bass that weighed 15 pounds, 10 ounces.

His two-day total of 33-8 gives him more than a 3-pound advantage of Tennessee pro Brandon Card, who is second with 30-7.

Gustafson, a two-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier from Canada, said he never expected to catch two limits of smallmouth with the 18-inch minimum size restriction in place for this week’s tournament waters.

“It feels awesome,” he said. “Now with the position I’m in, there’s that stress. It’s been a good week so far. You could have signed me up for 50th place on Wednesday night. One thing I’ve learned doing this, these chances to win don’t come along very often and you just hope you take advantage of it when it happens.” 

While the area Gustafson is fishing is still producing quality smallmouth, the bites didn’t come quite as fast Friday as they did on Day 1. The Keewatin, Ontario, native said he had more bass bump his bait instead of eating it.

After catching four fish in the first two hours, it took Gustafson until just before 1 p.m. to secure his final keeper.

“There are still some fish there, but they were harder to catch today and they are getting harder to catch,” he said. “I wasn’t really able to expand a whole lot, and part of that was it took me so long to catch my fifth fish. 

2020 Bassmaster Classic Lake Guntersville Day 2: Hank Cherry Continues to Lead with 45-13lbs!

Canadians Gustafson 31st, Chris Johnston 34th & Cory Johnston 47th
By Bryan Brasher
BASS PRESS RELEASE

Jerkbait and crankbait key to Cherry's lead.
(Photo:BASS)

If Hank Cherry’s arm is bothering him, it certainly doesn’t show.

The North Carolina veteran pro, who fell and injured his arm in his boat Friday, played through the pain Saturday to catch five bass that weighed 16 pounds, 10 ounces. Added to the 29-3 he caught Friday, it gives him a two-day total of 45-13 that leads the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk.

Competition is taking place at Lake Guntersville, and weigh-ins are being held at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. Cherry’s solid Saturday catch gave him a lead of 4-13 going into Championship Sunday with a $300,000 first-place prize on the line.

“I’m gonna do what I’ve got to do to get this done,” Cherry said. “New fish are still moving into my area. I’ve just got to relax — and if it’s my time, it’s my time.”

Cherry fished the same three baits Saturday that he used to catch his massive bag Friday — a bladed jig, a jerkbait and his own Hank Cherry Signature Series Jig from Picasso. He’s fishing one small area with a causeway and a flat, and he’s done so little running that he hasn’t even had to buy gas for his boat this week.

Now, it’s just a matter of settling down and finishing the job.

“My last thoughts before I go to bed tonight will just be to thank the good Lord for putting me in this position,” said Cherry, who finished third in the 2013 Classic at Grand Lake in Oklahoma. “Then I’ll just get up in the morning ready to go.

“I have to stay relaxed. I have to get that first one in the boat. The first one’s always the roughest one. After that, they start coming.”

The angler closest to Cherry going into the final day is Fayetteville, Tenn., pro Brandon Lester, who caught 20-1 Saturday and jumped from fourth place into second with a two-day mark of 41-0.

Lester started his day with a lipless crankbait and caught a limit early. But since he didn’t have the quality of fish he knew he’d need to win, he made a drastic change.

Ott DeFoe Wins 2019 Bassmaster Classic!

Hometown hero wins Classic. 

By Bryan Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Ott DeFoe wins Knoxville in style with 49-03lbs.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

For decades, it seemed almost impossible for an angler to win the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods in his home state.

Now it’s happened four times in six years.

Tennessee pro Ott DeFoe, who makes his home in Knoxville, caught five bass Sunday from the Tennessee River that weighed 18 pounds, 14 ounces to win the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing and the $300,000 prize that goes with the iconic trophy.

His three-day total weight of 49-3 helped him slip past second-place angler Jacob Wheeler before a raucous home crowd at the University of Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena.

The world-championship bass tournament drew a record-total attendance of 153,809 to tournament venues, including daily weigh-ins in Thompson-Boling Arena, the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo consumer show presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods in the Knoxville Convention Center and World's Fair Exhibition Hall, and morning takeoffs at Volunteer Landing. Attendance counts, including as many as 6,500 at Saturday’s early-morning takeoff, were provided by officials at each of the venues. “This is a dream come true — a dream I’ve had since I was a 9-year-old kid,” said DeFoe, who now has six career victories with B.A.S.S. “When we came over here and did the walk-through the day before the tournament, I actually imagined hearing my name after the words ‘Bassmaster Classic champion.’

“For it to happen now … I just keep thinking I’m gonna wake up.”

For the first 36 years the event was held, no home-state angler claimed the Classic crown. But that streak was broken in 2007, and then home-state anglers won three straight times from 2014-16.

Since DeFoe lives in Knoxville — and since few others in the 52-angler field had much experience on the tournament waters of Fort Loudon and Tellico lakes — he was one of the obvious favorites coming into the event.

2019 Bassmaster Classic Tennessee River Day 2: Jacob Wheeler Take Lead with 32-06lbs

Zaldain, Ike, MDJ & Wheeler score big limits. 

By Bryan Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Wheeler's luck in Tennessee continues as he moves into the lead
with 17-11lb limit on Day 2.
(Photo: BASS)

During the early portions of practice for the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Jacob Wheeler discovered a pattern that he knew would put bass in his livewell.

But since it seemed a little too obvious, he spent the latter portions of practice looking for something he thought no one else would find.

He ultimately went back to the obvious — and it has him in position to win the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing.

After landing 14 pounds, 11 ounces during Friday’s opening round, Wheeler caught five bass Saturday that weighed 17-11 and sprang into first place with a two-day total of 32-6. His five-bass limit Saturday was one of the few weighed in this week that featured all smallmouth.

“I know this crew,” Wheeler said. “I knew they would figure out the same thing I had figured out. Even though there are miles and miles and miles of water, they were going to figure it out.

“I tried to move around the lake, be smart about it and just fish what looked good to me — looking for that needle in the haystack. But I never found it, so I just had to fall back to what I knew I had.”

No angler on earth is more guarded with his techniques than the one who leads the Bassmaster Classic heading into the final round. So Wheeler only said that he was fishing a “reaction bite” with moving baits.

He said catching five smallmouth Saturday was a surprise.

“If you would have told me at the start of the tournament that eight of my 10 fish so far would be smallmouth, I would have said there’s no way,” Wheeler said. “It’s been so hard to catch a smallmouth — even a nonkeeper.”

“That is not something I thought I had dialed in at all.”

2019 Bassmaster Classic Tennessee River Day 1: Ott DeFoe Sack 20lbs and Lead!

Local hero DeFoe a crowd favourite

By Bryan Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Ott DeFoe grabs lead with help from daily big bass, a 6lber.
(Photo: BASS)

Ott DeFoe came into Friday’s opening round of the GECIO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods with two patterns in mind that he thought would work on the Tennessee River.

Only one of them did — and even then, just barely.

But it worked well enough to give him the lead at the Super Bowl of Professional Bass Fishing.

DeFoe caught only eight keeper bass on the day, but his best five weighed 20 pounds and gave him an early cushion over Arizona pros Roy Hawk, who was second with 17-11, and Clifford Pirch, who was third with 16-11.

“I got five good bites all day, and I landed them,” said DeFoe, a Knoxville resident who was considered by many to be the odds-on favorite coming into the event. “Honestly, it felt like a very tough day.”

DeFoe’s two-pattern strategy included one tactic he believed would produce heavier bass and another he thought would be a good “limit filler.” The limit-filling pattern didn’t work at all.

Fortunately for the Tennessee pro, the big-fish strategy produced a 6-pound largemouth that anchored his catch.

“A 6-pounder here is a really big one,” said DeFoe, who also took the Day 1 lead in the Berkley Big Bass competition. “So to get that one and four other pretty good ones, I felt really blessed.”

This marks the first time that Fort Loudon and Tellico Lakes have hosted a major Bassmaster event — and since DeFoe lives in the area, he probably knows as much about the fisheries as anyone. But even he couldn’t say exactly what changed the fishing so dramatically from what he had come to expect in practice.

“Coming in, I felt like both of my patterns would hold up all week,” DeFoe said. “I don’t know if the fishing pressure got to the one that didn’t work for me today or if it was the fact that the water level came up some.

“If I had to guess, I would say the water level coming up probably caused the fish to scatter out in some places.” As the first-round leader, DeFoe receives the GEICO Everyday Leader Award of $2,500.

Paul Mueller Wins 2019 BASS Elite on Lake Lanier with 69lbs!

Canadian Chris Johnston 10th. 
By David Precht
BASS PRESS RELEASE

Mueller's first Elite a family celebration.
(Photo: BASS)

Former B.A.S.S. Nation Champion Paul Mueller proved he belongs in the big leagues of professional fishing by winning a spotted bass shootout on Georgia’s Lake Lanier. Mueller earned $100,000 by winning the Toyota Bassmaster Elite at Lake Lanier today.

Desperate to fill out his five-bass limit with bigger spotted bass, Mueller returned to a deep ridge that had produced most of his big spotted bass on previous days. There, he managed to dredge up two big spotted bass that pushed him ahead of Texas angler Chris Zaldain by less than a pound.

“I struggled today,” Mueller said. “I had run out of options, so I went back to my primary spot and caught a 5 1/4 (pounder) and then a 4. Without those two fish, I don’t win.”

Mueller had 18 pounds, 8 ounces for the day, giving him a four-day total of 69-0. It could have been even more. “There were still fish on that spot when I left,” he added. “At the end of the day, I lost a couple of big ones. I could have had a 20-something bag today.”

He described the structure as a large, underwater ridge with two shallower areas on top and very deep water on each side. He caught most of his spotted bass the first day on a Reins Bubbling Shad on a Do It Molds Freestyle Jighead, but the big producer the rest of the time was a 3 1/4-ounce Reins Fat Rockvibe Shad Swimbait on a 1/2-ounce herring head underspin jighead with the spinner removed.

“Who would have thought you could win this tournament — a blueback herring tournament — off of one spot?” he said. In fisheries where the nomadic herring are a main staple of bass diet, spotted bass are notorious for leaving their holding areas unexpectedly and en masse.

That happened to Zaldain, who also had to contend with a wind shift today that moved his schools of bass. A sudden drop of temperatures into the low 40s didn’t help.

“I fished long, sloping points all week and had to switch to western banks today because of the east wind,” he said.

Zaldain was the leader with 51-9 going into Championship Sunday, when only the Top 10 finalists competed, but he fell short with a 16-9 limit today that included two smaller bass. He alternated between a 3-inch Megabass Spark Shad swimbait on a 3/8-ounce jighead and a 3/8-ounce drop shot with a 3-inch Megabass Hazedong Shad.

Unlike Mueller and Zaldain, the others in the Top 5, and most of those in the Top 10, fished crankbaits in shallow to medium depths, especially on shorelines and points in 38,000-acre Lake Lanier.

Keith Combs of Texas finished third with 66-1, earning a $20,000 payday that pushed him into the Millionaire’s Club of B.A.S.S. His career earnings now stand at $1,001,635. He alternated between Strike King crankbaits and a 6-inch shaky head worm and followed a “run-and-gun” pattern to try numerous spots during the day. “I didn’t stay anywhere long,” he said.

Bryan Thrift Wins 2014 Walmart FLW Tour San Rayburn Event!

Flipping, Pitching and the Chatterbait solves the Rayburn puzzle!

by Curtis Niedermier

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Thrift comes from behind to take $125 000 and the trophy!
(Photos: FLW)

Fast, shallow and with moving baits – if you were to script the perfect scenario for a Bryan Thrift victory, those would be the key pieces. Today at the Sam Rayburn Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Chevy, however, Thrift proved that he can not only break his own stereotype, but he can win when he does it.

Relying on ultra-slow flipping tactics with a Texas-rigged Damiki Knock Out, Thrift brought in a 17-pound limit - the day’s heaviest - to come from 2 pounds, 14 ounces behind Walmart pro Mark Rose and lock up his third Tour victory. His four-day total was 73 pounds, 3 ounces, which earned the Chevy pro $125,000.

"I had to pitch that bait up there, let it sink and shake it," Thrift said. "Then I'd feel the 'thunk.'"