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.

Mitchell Robinson Wins 2025 Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 2 Presented by Suzuki Marine on Lake Hartwell

The entire Robinson family got paid this week, but Mitchell came out on top. Photo by Rob Matsuura. Angler: Mitchell Robinson.

By Jody White MLF Invitationals Press Release

ANDERSON, S.C. – The final day of Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 2 Presented by Suzuki Marine on Lake Hartwell turned out to be a classic. Big spotted bass and largemouth hit the scales left and right, and the event went down the wire, as all the leaders struggled to put it away. 

Going out with the lead, Dustin Smith weighed an even 13 pounds on the final day for a 53-11 total, which was not quite enough to hold off young Mitchell Robinson. Starting the day in second, Robinson never caught more than 20 pounds any day of the week, but he managed to scrape up 17-5 on Day 3 for a 53-13 total to earn his first win above the high school level. For the win, Robinson takes home the trophy plus $115,000, which is a lot of money to win at 19 years old. 

Through two events, Drew Gill has the lead for Fishing Clash Angler of the Year, with rookies Banks Shaw and Dustin Smith in second and third. The next event of the Invitationals season is Stop 3 Presented by Phoenix Boats at Smith Lake. 

Honed LiveScope approach helps Robinson prevail 

In July 2023, Robinson and partner Cody Abbott won the Bassmaster High School National Championship at Lake Hartwell – at the time, it was the culmination of years fishing Hartwell and Keowee, the home lakes for the Robinson family. Robinson and Abbott split $5,000 in scholarship money in that one – not insignificant, but maybe not a huge factor for someone diving headlong into the family plumbing and fishing businesses. 

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2024 TNT Firework Bassmaster Elite at Smith Lake Day 3: Robert Gee Snags Lead, Takumi Ito 2nd!

Canadians Cory Johnston 4th, Gallant 7th, Chris Johnston 18th & Gustafson 40th

By Andrew Calulette

BASS Press Release

CULLMAN, Ala. — With the leaderboard as tight as it’s been at the TNT Fireworks Bassmaster Elite at Smith Lake, the door was open for any of the 50 remaining anglers in the tournament to move up the standings.

Robert Gee is that guy.

After lurking near the lead for the first half of the tournament, the 25-year-old Knoxville, Tenn., resident grabbed the pole position on Saturday with a 14-pound, 2-ounce bag that gave him a three-day total of 41-9.

It’s the slimmest of cushions, though, with every one of the remaining 10 anglers in the field less than four pounds from Gee’s lead. And that’s perfectly fitting for what could be one of the most competitive Championship Sundays in recent memory.

Taku Ito, the 38-year-old veteran from Chiba, Japan, is just behind Gee with a three-day weight of 41-7. Jay Przekurat, a 25-year-old Elite pro from Stevens Point, Wis., is third with 41-6.

Gee’s lead might be bigger, but he had three fish expire on Day 2 of the tournament, which resulted in a 12-ounce deduction to his daily total. In a difficult derby, when every ounce is precious, he’s hoping that unfortunate situation doesn’t come back to haunt him.

“It’s going to be a game of ounces,” Gee said. “And I might be up by a pound without that penalty. It was the heat. I guess I didn’t buy enough ice. It was just stress on the fish from being so hot.”

2024 TNT Firework Bassmaster Elite at Smith Lake Day 2: Cody Huff Grabs Lead!

Canadians Cory Johnston 5th, Gallant 15th, Chris Johnston 25th & Gustafson 40th

By Andrew Calulette 

BASS Press Release

CULLMAN, Ala. — The heat was on,

literally and figuratively, on Day 2 of the

TNT Fireworks Bassmaster Elite at

Smith Lake. And at the halfway point of this Elite

Series derby, Cody Huff is the one

holding fellow Elite feet to the fire.

Huff, a 27-year-old pro from Ava, Mo., leads the tournament with a two-day total of 10 bass for 29 pounds, 1 ounce. And while that might not be the eye-popping weight the sport’s best sticks regularly post, it’s certainly an impressive total given the slack bite on Day 1 followed by blistering temperatures that pushed the heat index into triple digits Friday.

The heat was extreme enough that Huff came to the scales more than an hour early on Friday, weighing in at approximately 1 p.m.

“I had a fish die on me, and I didn’t want to take the chance of losing any more,” Huff said.

His 15-4 total Friday was the heaviest of the day, even with the expired fish factored into his total. He bagged 13-13 on Thursday.

Josh Butler wins the 2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Logan Martin Lake presented by SEVIIN with 49 pounds.

By David A. Brown,
BASS Press Release

LINCOLN, Ala. — Josh Butler played the long game and, despite some midpoint frustrations, he executed that strategy to near perfection.
Committing to his plan, the Hayden, Ala., pro claimed a wire-to-wire victory with a three-day total of 49 pounds in the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Logan Martin Lake.
“The Lord just blessed me,” Butler said. “When it’s your time, it’s your time.”
Butler, who recently left another trail to pursue Bassmaster Elite Series qualification and earn a berth in the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors checked the latter box and moved closer to the former with this week’s performance.
Taking the top spot with a Day 1 limit of 19-7 — the event’s heaviest bag — Butler anchored that catch with a massive largemouth that went 7-13.
“That was a game-changer,” Butler said. “That fish was probably the reason I won.”

2024 Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Powered by OPTIMA Lithium on Lay Lake Day 3: Cornell Leaps into Lead!

Dustin Connell won the Knockout Round with 18 bass weighing 52 pounds, 14 ounces. Photo by Garrick Dixon.

Mitchell Forde

BASS PRO TOUR Press Release

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Knockout Round at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Powered by OPTIMA Lithium turned into a no-holds-barred melee. It didn’t matter whether anglers were chasing spotted bass with forward-facing sonar, beating the bank or dissecting current, the bite caught fire across Lay Lake, with the top spot on SCORETRACKER® and the weight needed to qualify for Sunday’s Championship Round fluctuating all day as a result.

Ultimately, Dustin Connell wound up atop the leaderboard with 18 scorable bass for 52 pounds, 15 ounces. Connell, who lives in nearby Clanton, Alabama, bailed on the main-lake area where he caught most of his fish during the Qualifying Round, instead opting to run up the river and fish beneath the Logan Martin dam. He started slow, spending the first two periods below the cut line, before making an adjustment and boating 10 spotted bass for 29 pounds even in the final period. He finished just 1 ounce ahead of Gerald Spohrer

Meanwhile, after 39-1 across two days proved enough to qualify for the Knockout Round, it took nearly as much Saturday alone to earn a spot in the Top 10 and a shot at the $300,000 first-place paycheck. Nick Hatfield claimed the 10th and final spot with 38-14, 1-8 ahead of BFL All-American champion Emil Wagner. University of Montevallo angler Dalton Head narrowly missed extending his dream event another day as well, finishing 12th.

With weights once again zeroing overnight, all 10 qualifiers in the stacked Championship Round field will have a chance to win the single-day sprint for the trophy. MLFNOW! will provide live coverage of all the action starting at 7:15 a.m. CT. 

Full results can be found here.

Connell committed to old-school current fishing

Connell has emerged as a vocal proponent of forward-facing sonar, and for good reason. The technology played a role in each of his five previous Bass Pro Tour wins, including Stage One on Toledo Bend.

2024 Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Powered by OPTIMA Lithium on Lay Lake Day 2: Ryan Salzman Grabs Lead!

Ryan Salzman caught 10 bass for 30-3 on Friday and a two-day total of 65-14 and a Qualifying Round win.

Mitchell Forde

BASS PRO TOUR Press Release

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Since the start of practice, the buzzword at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Powered by OPTIMA Lithium has been “change.” That remained the case on the second day of qualifying, with Thursday’s sunny skies giving way to morning thunderstorms and subsequent overcast conditions.

The ever-evolving spring bite on Lay Lake shifted as a result, and so did the name atop SCORETRACKER®. Alabama pro Ryan Salzman climbed to the top spot with a two-day total of 65 pounds, 14 ounces. Fishing at the upper end of the playing field below Logan Martin Dam, Salzman boated 10 scorable bass Friday for the second day in a row, adding 30-3 to his tab for a 65-14 Qualifying Round total. 

Salzman leads a tightly bunched and dangerous group of anglers at the top of the standings. Coosa River local and 2021 REDCREST champion Dustin Connell finished the round in second place with 63-4. Within 4 pounds of him are former Bass Pro Tour winners Michael Neal and Jesse Wiggins as well as Dalton Head, the Abu Garcia College Fishing representative from the University of Montevallo who happens to call Lay his home lake. 

Considering the logjam at the top of the leaderboard and the fact that weights will zero when the Top 20 anglers take the water for Saturday’s Knockout Round, the race for the championship trophy and $300,000 first-place paycheck remains wide open. Just about every technique still has a chance to account for the win, too, as the suspended spotted bass pattern that dominated Day 1 appeared to cool and shallow power fishing in pockets, bedding bass and heavy current all produced big days.

The Top 10 finishers during the Knockout Round will qualify for Sunday’s Championship Round. All the action during the final two days can be streamed live on MLFNOW! from 7:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT each day.

Complete tournament results can be found here.

Salzman fishing his strengths

Salzman first branched out from pond fishing as a college student at North Alabama on the shores of Pickwick Lake. The only vessel he had access to was a jon boat with no electronics and a 25-horsepower outboard, so he quickly found that the easiest way to catch bass on the Tennessee River impoundment was by braving its turbulent tailraces.

He’s has been enamored with fishing heavy, manmade current ever since. Now a guide on the Tennessee River, Salzman focuses many of his outings on various tailraces. 

While Salzman said the area he’s patrolling on Lay is smaller and shallower than most of the tailraces he fishes at home, that knowledge has served him well so far at REDCREST.

“The main difference is this one is shallower,” he explained. “Our (Tennessee River) dams are so massive, there’s sections that set up just like this. So, we just have more options. This dam is just a lot smaller.”

While the current tends to position fish predictably, Salzman said the front that rolled through the area Friday morning impacted his bite. He caught just three bass in his first four hours on the water. He closed strong, though, catching more than half his weight (17-9 on five fish) in the final period.

Salzman kept coy about the nuances of his approach, but he said the key to his strong afternoon was getting into the perfect spot. He shared the area with two other anglers during most of the Qualifying Round, and one beat him to his primary location Friday morning. That’s why he wasn’t afraid to keep catching fish long after he’d locked up a place in the Knockout Round – by qualifying in the top spot, he’ll be the first boat to launch Saturday.

“Yesterday, we had someone who had zero run up there in the middle of the day, and he kind of got on one of my main places and sacked it pretty good,” Salzman said. “Then he was on it all morning, and then he finally got off of it, and I was able to get on it at the end of the day, and I caught some of my bigger fish. That was really the big goal was to win the round so that I could have a good boat number.”

Fishing his first REDCREST, Salzman said he’s not nervous entering the weekend – for good reason. He has a strong track record when championships are on the line. In both his two previous appearances in championship events, the 2019 Forrest Wood Cup and 2021 Tackle Warehouse TITLE, Salzman finished among the Top 10. He thinks being able to take risks and not worry about points suits his style.

“I feel like I feel no pressure, because you don’t have to worry about just going and getting a few bites,” Salzman said. “You can just go all-in on whatever you’re doing.”

Salzman isn’t quite all-in on fishing the tailrace. He recognizes that a change in generation at Logan Martin dam could occur at any time and make the area far less productive, if not unfishable, so he has a few backup patterns in mind. But he’d much rather stick to his comfort zone in the current.

“Pending a drastic change, I will be up there,” he said. “But I did figure out some patterns down the lake that I felt good about. I didn’t know that I could catch the weight that I caught up there, but I feel like I can catch fish in other places. I’d like to be up there, but you just never know. With the current, every day is different up there, and you’ve just got to keep an open mind.”

Jeremiah Kindy Wins 2024 St. Croix BASS Open on Lake Ouachita with 52-03lbs!

Canadian Evan Kung finishes 9th!

Christopher Decker

BASS Press Release 

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Jeremiah Kindy has bass fished on Lake Ouachita since he could walk. In fact, he caught his first jig bass as a toddler around a set of islands 2 miles from Brady Mountain Recreation Area fishing with his dad and brother.

It was the Benton, Ark., native’s first Bassmaster Open appearance since the 2002 Central Open, which was also held at Ouachita.

“This is definitely the most important tournament I’ve ever won,” Kindy said. “It means the world. Just being able to compete and have so many family and friends here. Even if I wouldn’t have won, it would have been awesome. But to get this win is freaking amazing. For three days, I was the best angler on this lake. That’s pretty important.”

With bags of 19-7, 16-5 and 16-7, Kindy outlasted fellow Arkansan Matt Baker, who finished second with 46-13 and third-place Andy Newcomb who finished with 45-12. Although he isn’t currently signed up for the next two Opens in Division II, Kindy plans on fishing both of them, which will make him eligible for the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, scheduled for March 21-23 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Since he began fishing tournaments as a teenager, Kindy has earned a reputation from fellow anglers as one of the best anglers on Lake Ouachita. With nearly 200 of the best anglers in the country coming to his home lake, many of whom planned on LiveScoping out deep, he knew he would have to do it his way if he wanted a shot at the win.

“The only way I thought I could win this tournament was to fish to my strengths, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t compete with the guys out in the middle of the lake. It set up right. The way we had them two warm days, some females moved up and I got fortunate enough to catch enough of them.”

Mrazek makes it happen! Texas pro claims Toyota Series Championship with 7-ounce win on Table Rock

Top Canadians Evan Kung 10th & Erik Luzak 12th!

Bringing a sweet 16 pounds to the scales took Chad Mrazek to his first major win. Photo by Matt Brown.

MLF Press Release 

BRANSON, Mo. – Chad Mrazek backed up his impressive Day 2 bag with a five-bass limit for 16 pounds even on the final day of the Toyota Series Championship Presented by Simms. His Saturday bag was enough to boost his three-day total to 47-2 and earn him the win by 7 ounces over All-American champion Emil Wagner.

The victory represents the first win as a pro for the 23-year-old Texas native. He picked a good time for it. The win is worth $200,000 plus contingencies and a berth in REDCREST 2024. 

Down to the wire

Ideally, Day 3 of the tournament sails by – big fish bite early and often, and the winner ends up back at the dock with a good chunk of time to spare. Of course, that’s usually not the case, and it was certainly not the case for Mrazek, as the Texas pro didn’t have a keeper in the boat until noon.

“I fished drains all day, ‘Scoping them of course, mainly targeting singles, casting at every one I would see,” he said. “In the evening, I was fishing flatter, shallower pockets and creeks. Every school I had that was setting up late in the day, they were only setting up in flatter, shallower drains, and there aren’t a lot in this lake. I pretty much found five of them, and rotated them all day.

“I didn’t have a fish until noon. I was sitting on one until like 1 p.m. Then, I hit the back of this drain with a giant tree. The timber fields will have standing timber, and some that have fallen sideways. This one had a giant fallen tree on it, and I caught a 3 ½-pound spot and a 3-pound smallmouth off it.”

It was part of a hot afternoon that saw Mrazek go from a goose egg to 16 pounds and the win.

This week, the young Texan started out fishing deep with an ice jig and a Damiki rig – basically on the same game as much of the field. Then, he adapted.

“Day 2, I needed to go swing, and the only way I knew how was to fish for smallmouth all day,” he said.

Swinging meant fishing “shallow” in 20 to 37 feet. Targeting main lake pockets and “drains” with a flat contour and timber, Mrazek was able to pick off fish with a jig that were in and around the trees.

TOP 10 BELOW

2023 Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Presented by Shore Lunch on Lake Norman Day 3: Bryan Thrift Leads!

Bryan "Smoke" Thrift showed out yet again on his home pond of Lake Norman.
Photo by Phoenix Moore.

Tyler Brink

BASS PRO TOUR

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – As soon as Lake Norman was announced as the site of Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Presented by Shore Lunch, all eyes looked towards North Carolina’s own Bryan Thrift. He was the preeminent favorite to win as soon as the location was announced in July, and today he showed why, after catching a leading limit weighing 17 pounds, 12 ounces.

That tally is the best of the tournament so far and it feels like Thrift is taking things up a notch as he took an early 2-8 lead over two-time Bally Bet Angler of the Year Jacob Wheeler.

Thrift quickly caught limits each morning the first two days of competition and appeared to be in cruise control for much of the day. He did just enough to advance to the Knockout Round by placing 19th in the Qualifying Round, possibly finishing that low only because he was aware that weights started at zero today.

There’s no reason to hold back anymore, as a cumulative three-day total will decide the 2023 REDCREST winner and Thrift is in the pole position in the home of NASCAR.

Thrift’s one-two punch paying off

Mixing it up with two largemouth and three spotted bass, Thrift showcased a consistent bite throughout the day. His largest fish was a 4-9 and smallest a 2-14, with the other three in the 3-pound class. To get there, he’s relying on his extensive knowledge of the lake and mixing it up with two patterns.

“Today was a good day and most came doing what I’ve been doing all week; the big ones just ate a little bit better today,” he said. “I’m starting by fishing a little drain with a Damiki underspin to get a quick limit each morning. That helps me calm down, and I can start fishing for bigger ones.”