Fitzpatrick takes 2025 Toyota Series Championship by tiebreaker on Grand Lake

Fishing near home, Roger Fitzpatrick had family on hand for the win. Photo by Rob Matsuura

By Jody White, Toyota Series 

GROVE, Okla. – The final day of the Toyota Series Championship Presented by Phoenix Boats on Grand Lake will go down as one of the tightest of all time. Entering Championship Saturday, four Ozark stalwarts were ounces apart – in theory shooting it out with jigs and spinnerbaits for the win. Then, the power fishing bite crumbled, and Drew Gill, Tucker Smith and Riley Harris blitzed up the leaderboard, picking off fish after fish with forward-facing sonar.

At weigh-in, Smith and Gill both weighed over 14 pounds, by far the biggest bags of the day. But, with 11 pounds, 7 ounces, Roger Fitzpatrick had just enough to hang on, moving up from second to first with 41-1 and beating Gill for the win via tiebreak, which is previous day’s standing first and then heaviest single-day catch, both of which favored the veteran angler.  

For the win, which is his 13th with MLF in nearly 250 events, Fitzpatrick took home $200,250 plus a berth in REDCREST 2026 – which just to happens to be at Table Rock Lake, where he’s won twice before with MLF. Though Fitzpatrick had come oh so close many times in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American, he’d never won it or a Toyota Series event until now. Throw in a Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title in the Plains Division, and it’s clear that Fitzpatrick waited until age 61 to have his best year yet.

Fitzpatrick is sure the win was meant to be

As someone who has been cashing checks with MLF/FLW since 1995, Fitzpatrick has plenty of experience when it comes to winning, but he’s probably going to need to fish for another 30 years or so to replicate this one.

TOP FINISHERS BELOW

2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite on Chickamauga Lake Day 3: Brock Mosley Claims Lead!

Canadians Gustafson 19th, & Chris Johnston 20th.

Brock Mosley of Collinsville, Miss., is leading after Day 3 of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Chickamauga Lake with a three-day total of 58 pounds, 1 ounce. (Photo: Seigo Saito/BASS) 

BASS PRESS RELEASE

DAYTON, Tenn. — The Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Chickamauga Lake has been anything but your typical early April event in the South.

 

At one point during Semifinal Saturday, anglers were actually sight fishing for bedding bass in 52-degree water with sleet peppering down on them. Any angler will tell you that’s not only an odd scenario, but one of the hardest to figure out.

 

Through it all, though, Mississippi pro Brock Mosley has remained consistent, building a three-day total of 58 pounds, 1 ounce to grab the lead heading into Championship Sunday. He caught 19-6 Thursday, 18-11 Friday and 20-0 Saturday and will now head into the final round with five anglers within 4 pounds of him.

 

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Mosley said. “I didn’t know if I could catch a fish at all going into the first day of the tournament. I caught five that weighed 17 or 18 pounds early that first day and then laid off of them because I didn’t know if I’d be able to find anything else the second day.

 

“But what I’m doing has pretty much worked every day.”

 

While Mosley has stayed in the same basic areas each day, he has alternated between several lures, including a bladed jig, a lipless crankbait and an assortment of flipping baits. He said it’s been a process of trial and error to figure out which of those offerings the bass want.

 

“Every day they’re in a different mood,” said Mosley, who has 13 Top 10 finishes with B.A.S.S. “The last two days, the flipping bite has been slow. So, it’s been the moving baits that worked. I kind of have to mix it up until I figure out which mood they’re in.”

Chris McCall Wins the 2014 Rayovac FLW San Rayburn Event

Story by Kyle Wood 

FLW Press Release

In tough conditions and an even tougher bite there can be no better tool for an angler than experience. That’s where Chris McCall of Brookeland, Texas, comes into play. McCall consistently put fish in the boat this week to bring home his second Rayovac FLW Series title on Sam Rayburn with a two-day total weight of 33 pounds, 15 ounces.

Despite snow and cancellation of Day2, McCall was able to
figure out San Rayburn to win. (Photos: FLW)

McCall started his week with a solid limit of fish that weighed 14-8 to put him inside the top 10 despite the wind, rain and falling temperatures. As a winter storm rolled in and temps plummeted under freezing, Rayovac FLW Series officials decided to cancel day two of the event for safety of the anglers. This led to the decision to fish all 112 pros and 112 co-anglers today to decide the champion.

“I’m pretty grateful of the weather this week,” said McCall. “I think it helped me out. I fish tournaments on Rayburn basically every weekend and most of the time I can’t even get to the spots I want to fish because they are so crowded. But this week I got on spots that you just normally can’t.”

Being that the 43-year-old pro has such vast experience on Rayburn he didn’t feel the need to practice much.

“I fished a tournament out here last Saturday and another one on Sunday and did all right,” said the Texas pro who has 11 top 10s on Rayburn with FLW competition. “I went out for a little bit on Monday morning and tried some silly stuff on Wednesday but I pretty much knew what I wanted to do.”

McCall knew it would be one of the toughest tournaments he has fished when throwing traps has been in play. With this in mind he decided to make a milk run of areas he knew would produce the best.

“I fished the same 10 spots each day. The first day I had about 12 bites and was able to narrow down the heart of every spot for today. Basically, I was fishing around 20 miles up the lake by the 147 bridge in a square between four creeks. I focused on the outside grass edges in 5 to 8 feet of water. I was keying in on the main points on these spots where the drains were. The fish were up in the drains further on Thursday but the water temp dropped about 8 degrees today so those fish pulled back out some.

Traps plus a jig helped put enough bass in the well for McCall.

“I didn’t change anything up today from the first day. I caught my first fish around 8:30 this morning and that gave me hope that they would bite some. Once the water warmed up around 11 o’clock it was on. I caught a bunch of fish after that and around 1:30 I put a 6-pounder in the boat. I never thought I had a chance to winning when I started the day. But I ran into Jay Yelas (who started the day in second) around 2:30 and he said he had 1 fish and I thought that I might have a chance.”

McCall’s limit was one of only 15 brought to the stage and his weight of 19-10 was the second largest to hit the scales and secure the win by over 2 pounds.

His primary bait was the Rat-L-Trap. He had six different Rat-L-Traps tied on in a variety of colors including red, white craw and gold. McCall threw those on 17-pound fluorocarbon on a heavy action rod with a 6.1:1 gear ratio. He also caught some fish on a 6th Sense squarebill and a Santone football jig with a Gambler craw trailer.

Cold Weather Boat Maintenance

I am no mechanic but I know how to break thing very well. The last thing I wish to do is damage my boat; I love that thing. Well, it is getting cold and the possibility of a good frost is not far away. Actually, some of you who live north of me had snow!

Here is a video that has a few great tips on protecting your boat.

Enjoy.