Paul Marks Wins 2025 Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell

Rookie Marks tops Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell

BASS Press Release

ANDERSON, S.C. — Despite a Day 1 kicker that clearly helped his cause, rookie Paul Marks played the long game, and his patience paid off with his first blue trophy in the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell.

Hailing from Cumming, Ga., Marks started strong with a third-place Day 1 limit of 19 pounds, 7 ounces, then held the second-place spot for the next two days with weights of 17-4 and 16-5. Adding a Championship Sunday limit of 15-8, he tallied a tournament total of 68-8.

Edging fellow rookie Tucker Smith by 14 ounces, Marks collected the top prize of $100,000.

“I don’t know what to think; it’ll probably take a week to set in — maybe a month,” the 23-year-old said. “I think I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little kid.

“I love spotted bass; I love fishing the way I do. It’s the best thing ever in my eyes.”

Marks jump-started his event with a Day 1 bed-fishing effort that produced a 5-pound largemouth. That fish ate a white Zoom Z Craw Jr in about 2 feet of water.

After that, it was nearly all offshore fishing, as Marks committed himself to grinding through numbers of spotted bass and daily culling his way to competitive limits.

“There are fish everywhere on the bank and I knew it was going to be really hard to win with spots,” Marks said. “I got lucky on Day 1 and caught a big one on the bed. That fish made my tournament.”

Marks, who lives about 2 hours west of Hartwell, brought with him a lifetime of knowledge and experience. Whittling down his mental library to an actionable plan was the key, and Marks said he did so on the fly.

2024 Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray Day 2: Patrick Walters Remains in the Lead!

Canadians Cory Johnston 11th, Chris Johnston 17th, Gustafson 41st & Gallant 55th. 

By David A. Brown

BASS Press Release

PROSPERITY, S.C. — Patrick Walters admitted he missed his goal by a few ounces, but you wouldn’t know it from the Day 2 standings.
After turning in an opening-round limit of 25 pounds, 8 ounces — the tournament’s heaviest bag — the pro from Eutawville, S.C., added 19-13. Tallying 45-5, Walters leads rookie J.T. Thompkins by 4-15, as the Top 50 anglers head into Semifinal Sunday of the Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray. (severe weather postponed the event’s scheduled start by one day).

“I knew it was going to be a slower day,” Walters said of the day’s calm, sunny conditions, which contrasted Friday’s cloudy, windy makeup. “The goal was to just survive and get 20 pounds, but I was just a few ounces shy of that.
“The sunny skies don’t bother me, but it means the bite is probably going to end quicker. At 9:30, it shut off for me and I felt like it did for the whole lake.”
At the day’s beginning, Walters knew he was facing a do-or-die scenario. With no time to dally, he went to work on the blueback herring spawn.

2023 Marathon Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray Day 2: Drew Benton Jumps into Lead!

Canadians: Cory Johnston 36th, Gallant 58th, Gustafson 59th & Chris Johnston 63th

Drew Benton of Panama City, Fla., is leading after Day 2 of the Marathon Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray with a two-day total of 46 pounds, 9 ounces. (Photo: BASS) 

BASS PRESS RELEASE

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Drew Benton had never fished a tournament on Lake Murray before this week, but the conditions are making him feel right at home.

 

With the bass right in the middle of their spawning cycle, Benton has fished his strengths and took the lead Friday in the Marathon Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray with a two-day total of 46 pounds, 9 ounces. After landing in second with 23-0 on Day 1, the Panama City, Fla., pro added 23-9 on Day 2 and holds a slim lead over Tennessee angler Hunter Shryock, who is second with 45-14.

 

“If I spent time on (a bedding bass), I caught it today,” said Benton, who earned his only career Elite Series victory on Lake Travis in Texas in 2018. “Yesterday I spent a lot of time on a couple I didn’t get to catch. You have to find them in the right mood. It isn’t just, go down the bank and you see one and catch it. A lot goes into it, and I was really fortunate today.”

 

Anglers once again fished under warm and sunny conditions on Friday, with winds picking up as the afternoon progressed. That allowed several of the competitors to see the cruising bass they were targeting.

 

Though there was also plenty of schooling activity across the lake, Benton has ignored schoolers for the most part this week. Instead, he’s cruising around the shallows looking for bass that are locked on bed. According to BassTrakk, he caught 11 total bass and made important culls throughout the day.

 

Roy Hawk Wins 2021 WON BASS U.S. Open on Lake Mead!

Roy Hawk battles from 12th to win on shorten event. 
(Photo: WON)

Las Vegas, Nev. – October 13, 2021 – They say there is no substitute for experience. For Major League Fishing pro, Roy Hawk, the 2015 WON Bass U.S. Open Champion and veteran of many national events on the former FLW Tour, Bassmaster Elite Series and now the Bass Pro Tour, experience made all the difference on the final day of the 2021 edition of the West’s most prestigious bass tournament.

 

Starting the day in 12^th place with a respectable 10.12 pounds, 1.69 pounds behind day one leader Rusty Salewske. Being a veteran of desert events, Hawk proved that consistency is key in the U.S. Open, as 11 pounds a day has historically given an angler a shot to win. 

 

Hawk gave himself that opportunity when he plopped 11.62 pounds on the Callville Bay scales to bring his winning weight to a two-day total of 21.74 pounds. For his victory, Hawk received the keys to a 2021 Bass Cat Cougar FTD powered by a Mercury Pro XS 250 Four Stroke outboard valued at $64,000 and $83,000 in cash prizes. 

 

Both days were tough fishing for Hawk, who spent his entire tournament fishing main lake areas near the Callville Bay – like when he won in 2015.  “It was really tough fishing,” said Hawk. We only caught five keepers on the first day and six keepers on day two. We threw jigs and dropshot rigs on main lake points and just managed to scrape up enough to hold on.” 

 

Matt Becker 2021 Tackle Warehouse Circuit Lake Murray with 76.-05lbs!

SEAN OSTRUSZKA • TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT

Matt Becker wasn’t planning on taking a risk this week on Lake Murray. Fate had other plans.

One of the most consistent anglers on the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit, Becker started Day 1 of the event with a conservative plan of sight-fishing and fishing docks. But, before doing that, he slotted in a little time to try a risky timing/herring-spawn pattern. He never looked back in route to his first win, as he brought in 17 pounds, 11 ounces today to hold off local favorite Anthony Gagliardi with 76-5 total.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life,” says Becker after the victory. “I had started to think it was never going to happen.”

Why?

“I don’t catch big fish, and you need to catch big fish to win. But that’s fishing risky, which is basically what I did this week.”

The 2018 Rookie of the Year admits what he did went against his nature and made it one of the most stressful fishing weeks of his life. It’s understandable considering just how risky his pattern was. He truly had no idea where, when or if he’d get a bite. If his timing was off all day, he’d zero.

2021 Tackle Warehouse Circuit Lake Murray Day 2: Becker Moved Into Lead with 41-02lbs!

Canadian Luzak 86th

SEAN OSTRUSZKA • TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT

Top 5 mixing up tactics. Sight fishing, docks, herring bite and points
are all key to bigger bass.
(Photo: MLF) 

No risk, no reward, right? Well, few anglers have taken a bigger risk this week than Matt Becker, and the reward has thus far spoken for itself.

Keying on a timing/schooling-fish pattern, the 2018 Rookie of the Year has turned only a couple 10-minute flurries into some of the biggest bags on Lake Murray. On Day 1 of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers event, he turned three flurries into 21 pounds, 9 ounces. On Day 2, it was just one flurry, but it was good enough to help him toward his 19-9 bag that has him in the lead with 41-2 total.

“We survived another day, but boy was it stressful and risky,” says Becker. “I was super lucky on my timing again where I pulled up and was able to catch four of the five I weighed in in a few minutes. Otherwise, it was a struggle.”

That flurry came at 9 a.m. and before that, he hadn’t had a bite. But what really makes Becker’s pattern so stressful is he truly has no idea where, when or if he’ll get a bite. He knows the fish are there hanging off the edges of the points, but unless they move up shallow, he hasn’t been able to catch them. And he has no idea when he pulls up on a point if the fish have moved up, as the fish are not schooling visibly on the surface but just “schooling” and feeding up shallow.

Brandon Cobb Wins 2019 Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest with Massive 114lbs!

Canadians Gustafson 5th & Cory Johnston 5^th.

By Bryan Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

 Brandon Cobb takes home the title at Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks and Wildlife Department on Lake Fork after catching an impressive four-day total of 114 pounds. This is his second win of the 2019 Elite Series season.
(Photo: BASS)

Big Bass. Big Stage. Big Dreams. It’s the inspiring mantra B.A.S.S. unveiled before the 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series season, and it perfectly sums up the last two months for Brandon Cobb.

After earning his first Elite Series victory in April on Lake Hartwell in his home state of South Carolina, Cobb caught one big bass after another at Texas’ Lake Fork to amass a four-day total of 114 pounds. It earned him his second six-figure first-place prize of the season on one of the biggest stages in bass fishing — the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

He’s living his dream — big time.

“It’s absolutely been an amazing season for me,” said Cobb, who also earned an automatic berth into the 2020 Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods with the victory. “I had a lot of success on the FLW Tour, but I never could quite put together a win.

“For so many things to go right this season, it’s just been a dream come true.”

Cobb went into the day with nearly an 8-pound advantage over his closest competitor. But after a slow start, he actually lost the lead for a while to Georgia pro Micah Frazier.

Then Cobb, a 29-year-old former college angler at Clemson University, started working the magic that helped him grab the lead during Sunday’s semifinal round with a catch of 37-15.

Cobb put a three-pounder in his livewell at 8:23 a.m. and then added a 4-13 and a 6-5 in the span of six minutes between 9:07 a.m. and 9:13. He added a 3-15 at 9:38 and a 6-2 at 9:43. At that point, he had 24-13 and the tournament seemed to be over.

He kept culling until his five biggest fish weighed 6-5, 6-2, 6-2, 5-10 and 5-12 for total weight of 29-15. All fish were weighed on the water and immediately released.

“It was really boring until you’d run into them,” he said. “Then when you’d hit them, it was amazing.”

Cobb caught the bulk of his weight all week fishing around shallow shellbeds where bass were feeding on spawning shad. His primary bait was a Dual Hardcore Minnow Flat 110 SP jerkbait in ghost pro blue.

“I was basically running points and flats, and the areas I was fishing might be 6 feet deep for 200 yards,” he said. “But the fish, when they were eating, were in 1 to 2 1/2 feet of water up on the tops of the shellbeds.

“I’ve got mud all over me because I had to pick mud off my jerkbait bill just about every cast. I was literally jerking it into the bottom.”

Surface activity always signaled Cobb that the fishing was about to get good.

2018 BASS Elite Angler of the Year Championship Day 2: Justin Lucas Closer to AOY!

James Elam Leads Tournament
By Bryan Brasher
BASS PRESS RELEASE

Lucas one day away from AOY title.
(Photo: BASS)

Justin Lucas needed two things this week to ensure an easy path to winning the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship.
 
First, he needed to catch enough bass to simply maintain the first-place lead he brought with him in the regular-season AOY standings. He’s done that easily with 10 bass that weighed 27 pounds, 2 ounces the first two rounds, including a catch of 13-12 on Friday.
 
Lucas also needed Josh Bertrand, his good friend and closest competition in the AOY standings, to struggle. That’s happened as well, with Bertrand landing only two fish the first round and now resting in 43rd place in the weekly standings with a two-day weight of 15-13.
 
It’s never over until it’s over. But as Lucas now holds a gigantic 47-point lead in the standings with only one day left to fish, the race is certainly creeping in that direction.
 
“We have one more day, and I need to go out and catch maybe 8 pounds to lock it up,” said Lucas, who admits he’s been losing sleep over the idea of winning the AOY trophy and the $100,000 bonus that goes with it. “It may not even take 8 pounds, but I haven’t reached the point where I feel like I can let up.”
 

2017 FLW CUP Championship Lake Murray Day 1: Justin Atkins Leads with 21-05lbs!

Schooling bass key to many leaders
By Jody White
FLW PRESS RELEASE

Calm, cloudy morning key to many of the leader's success.
(Photo: FLW)

Sacking up a monumental catch of 21 pounds, 5 ounces, Justin Atkins of Florence, Ala., established a slim 4-ounce lead over Anthony Gagliardi on day one of the Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Murray. Atkins finished runner-up in the Rookie of the Year race on the FLW Tour in 2017 and third in the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League All-American this summer. Now, the 27-year-old pro is leading the race for one of the biggest titles in fishing.

Lake Murray has a reputation as a fickle fishery in the summertime, but today the schooling and offshore bite on the lower end of the lake shined bright, with Atkins, Gagliardi and most of the rest of the top 10 pros taking advantage of willing bass feeding on blueback herring.

Atkins fished for schooling bass some, but a lot of his fish came from fairly specific places that didn’t take many casts to cover. He says he caught all his fish on a topwater, but tossed a worm and a few other baits as well.

TOP 10 BELOW

John Cox Wins the 2016 FLW CUP with 54-13 lbs.!

Chris Johnston grabs  8^th!

by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

This is John's second FLW victory this year. (Photo FLW)

John Cox started his fishing career in an aluminum boat, participating in small pond tournaments in a johnboat powered with just a trolling motor.
In 2011, in his rookie season on the Walmart FLW Tour, Cox earned his first Tour win out of an aluminum boat on the Red River.
In 2015, he finished runner-up in the Tour Angler of the Year standings with an aluminum boat. And in March of this year, Cox got his second Tour win out of an aluminum boat.
Today, Cox reached the pinnacle of the bass tournament world, winning professional bass fishing’s Forrest Wood Cup, and he did it out of an aluminum boat. With his $300,000 victory, Cox has made a bit of unique fishing history, being the only pro to ever win a modern world championship bass fishing event from an aluminum boat.

In doing so, he proved to the fishing world that owning a big brand new glass boat maxed out with a 250-hp outboard is not necessarily a prerequisite to winning a world title in bass fishing. Indeed, his memorable week at Wheeler Lake, which culminated today with the Forrest Wood Cup held high over his head, should serve as an inspiration for tournament anglers at all levels.
“I started in aluminums because I could not afford bigger glass boats,” Cox says. “Aluminum rigs are a more realistic boat purchase for the average working person. I used to paint apartments and just could not afford a $60,000 glass boat.

Froggin' and buzzbait key to CUP win. (Photo: FLW)

“After fishing out of aluminums, I discovered they have distinct advantages of being lighter and they can get up on plane in very shallow water,” he adds. “They don’t get stuck as bad when you plant one on a sandbar, and they tend to hop over logs and stuff better. They are simply more efficient for the way I like to fish.
“I did run a glass boat for about a year on Tour,” he adds. “But I returned to aluminums because they suit my fishing style better.”

2015 Forrest L. Wood Cup Lake Ouachita Day 3: Wheeler Back on Top!

Unsettled day mixes leaderboard.
by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

The weather across the Ozarks was unstable and volatile today – much like the leaderboard on the third day of the Forrest Wood Cup presented by Walmart at Lake Ouachita.

First there was rain. Then sunshine. Then wind. Then another round of storms thrashed the top 20 pros just before check-in.

Jacob set to win his second Cup!
(Photo: FLW)

Names on the leaderboard swirled about as well. Weights were the lowest of the week, with Bryan Thrift checking in the day’s best weight of 14 pounds, 3 ounces for his biggest move of the tournament from 10th to fourth place. But some, like day-two leader Ramie Colson Jr., endured the dark clouds of not being able to complete a limit, which dropped him to third place.

By day’s end it was Jacob Wheeler who found the sunniest spot atop the leaderboard, regaining his first-place position from day one with a 14-pound limit, which gives him a three-day total of 41 pounds, 1 ounce and a scant 12-ounce lead over second-place pro Brad Knight.

Interestingly, as Wheeler and Knight battle it out on the final day, their strategies are very different. Wheeler is running a true pattern across the lake. Knight, however, is banking primarily on one area for the win.

Kevin Hawk Explains When to Use Spy Baiting with IBASSIN

Kevin Hawk, 2010 FLW Cup Champ explains how to use spy baiting in new and productive ways such as helping with schooling and topwater fishing. Learn as IBASSIN.com listens to this BASS Elite angler explain the different sizes of the Duo Realis Spin bait.

Thanks for watching. We have a whole library of bass fishing video on our YOUTUBE channel.  

Greg Hackney Wins the 2014 Walmart FLW Lake Pickwick Event!

Hackney near Century club once again. 
by Curtis Niedermier
FLW Press Release

Greg's monster bag on day 2 helped keep Neal
and the rest of the Top 10 at arm's length.
(Photo: FLW)

FLORENCE, Ala. – It was the spot of a lifetime – a shallow ledge, plumb full of “hammers” – and Greg Hackney found it just 45 minutes into his first day of practice on Pickwick Lake.

For four days, Hackney pounded away on the spot to the tune of a 20-bass tournament total worth 97 pounds, 7 ounces. He caught a jaw-dropping day-two stringer of 31-6 to take over the tournament lead, then milked the bite through thunderstorms, gushing current and heavy spectator traffic over the weekend to make sure that he never relinquished it.

In today’s final round of the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Straight Talk Wireless and hosted by the Florence/Lauderdale Tourism Bureau, Hackney pulled a 21-pound, 9-ounce limit off the school on his magic spot and locked up his first regular-season Tour victory, earning $100,000 and likely writing his ticket to this year’s Forrest Wood Cup.

The spot

Coming into Pickwick, Hackney figured two things. First, he needed to find something away from the crowds. Second, because of the late spring, there might still be some shad spawning, and the bass could be a little bit behind. He was spot-on with his predictions.

“My fish were pre- and postspawn,” Hackney says. “It took awhile for me to figure that out, but I think today I possibly caught some bedding fish up on top, staging kind of on the side. And I caught a lot of bucks.

“Everything is late,” he adds. “I knew there was no way they’ve had time to get finished spawning and look like that [with fat guts].”

Hackney located his tournament-winning spot early the first morning of practice. He was working around some shallow ledges that he’d been inspecting on his electronic map. When he dug in further, he found a ditch running up through the top of the ledge.

“There was a high spot with a small break, and it had a massive mussel bed up top,” he says. “The shell was on one side, but the other side was smooth. There was a ditch there, about 2 feet deep. When fish were staging, they were in that little depression [ditch] off to the side. It was real subtle.”

The spot was located on the backwater side of the main river, upstream from the bridge that carries the Natchez Trace Parkway across the Tennessee River.

“In practice, I was cranking up that ditch, and at the end of it was an ‘oil slick’ the size of my truck,” Hackney says. “I thought, ‘That can’t be what I think it is.’”

It was the telltale sign of a bunch of bait losing a battle to a bunch of jumbo predators – 6- and 7-pound largemouths and 4-pound smallmouths hammering away at gizzard shad that Hackney estimates were 10 to 12 inches long.