Cody Stahl Wins 2026 Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Kissimmee Chain Presented by Battery Tender

By David A. Brown

BASS Press Release

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Intuition plus determination plus execution equalled a dominant victory for Cody Stahl, who tallied a three-day total of 74 pounds, 6 ounces and earned the wire-to-wire victory in the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Kissimmee Chain presented by Battery Tender.

“That is one heckuva way to start the season,” Stahl said. “It was just an unbelievable week.”

With all due respect to Stahl’s Top 10 competitors, the Barnsville, Ga., pro could’ve slept in this morning and still won the event, as he caught a Championship Saturday limit of 17-13 and finished with a 22-1 margin over second-place Stephen Browning.

En route to that enviable position, Stahl took the Day 1 lead with the event’s heaviest bag — a limit of 28-9. He’d back up that strong performance with an even 28 pounds to hold the lead and head into the final round with a 19-pound, 7-ounce advantage.

“If you would’ve told me I’d be sitting in first place with a 19-pound lead going into the third day, I’d put every single dollar in my bank account on saying that’s not possible,” Stahl said. “Ultimately, things just worked out and God blessed me with an amazing week.”

Clearly, Stahl would’ve lost that bet, but being wrong meant adding $38,731 to his account — and receiving an invitation to fish the 2027 Bassmaster Classic.

All week, Stahl focused on a prespawn staging area at the south end of Lake Toho. A good mix of grass species provided what he believed would offer appealing habitat that would attract the right size fish.

Stahl located this area in practice and, even though he caught only small male bass prior to the event, he believed the week’s weather and the approaching full moon (Feb. 1) would invite the larger prespawn females.

2017 BASS Elite Lake Okeechobee Day 1: DeFoe Grabs Lead with 31-03lbs!

Tyler Carriere Day 1 Big Fish winer with 9-05lbs. 
BASS PRESS RELEASE

Two beast leaps Ott atop of field.
(Photo: BASS)

Florida’s famous big-bass factory showed off during the first day of the A.R.E. Truck Caps Bassmaster Elite at Lake Okeechobee, as Tennessee native Ott DeFoe caught a huge five-bass limit that weighed 31 pounds, 3 ounces.
 
DeFoe’s impressive catch put him more than 4 pounds ahead of Stephen Browning of Hot Springs, Ark., who is in second place with 26-13.
 
Anchoring his limit with two giant bass that weighed 8-6 each, the 31-year-old DeFoe knew he had located quality fish during practice on the lake, but he didn’t realize just how good they were.
 
“I had a lot of bites during practice, but I wasn’t catching very many fish over 2 1/2 to 3 pounds,” DeFoe said. “But, a few of those fish were in one area that seemed to have all the right ingredients to justify a return trip once the tournament began.”
 

Bassmaster Elite Sunshine Showdown Day 3: Shaw Keeps Shining at Harris

Sunshine Showdown
Harris Chain, Tavares, FL, March 10-13, 2011
By Deb Johnson
Bassmaster.com (Press Release)

TAVARES, Fla. -- -- Shaw Grigsby sacked 18 pounds, 12 ounces Saturday for an even tighter hold on the lead in the Sunshine Showdown. But even his 11-10 cushion might not be enough on Florida's Harris Chain of Lakes, given its current crop of heavyweight spawners.
Three days of enticing fussy bedding bass to bite resulted in a hard-won 62-11 total over three days for Grigsby in the Bassmaster Elite Series season opener.
Most in the Elite field agree that big spawners are still out there, and any of the top 12 finalists competing Sunday could overtake Grigsby by landing a lunker and amassing a big bag. Or Grigsby's magic could evaporate. That happened the last time the Elite field competed on Harris. In that 2008 contest, Brian Snowden's 10-pound lead was not enough to fend off Mike McClelland, who won then with 59-2.
Already surpassing that after three days, Grigsby, a veteran pro from Gainesville, Fla., is the first to nod to the reality of what the Harris Chain can do to even a long lead.
"I'm very blessed right now in catching the right fish, and just holding on," he said. "I really am. I feel like I'm holding on by my toenails, my fingernails, and I'll have to grow them out by tomorrow. I'm not catching all that's in there, I'm just catching enough to hang on. It will be a tight one."

Shaw scores another on Day 3.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

Shaw E. Grigsby (First, 62-11)Grigsby's success has been in a canal he's been sharing with at least two others, Grant Goldbeck and Pat Golden. The leader has found heartache there, too. Saturday he lost a bass that he estimated at 5 pounds.
"At the end of my day, she set up (on the bed), I threw in, and she ate it on the first cast. I got her to the boat, she went straight up in the air, and sent my bait flying, I don't know why. I lost her, and that's all there is to it," he said.
A win on Sunday would be the first in a Bassmaster event for Grigsby since 2000, when he won two to add to six previous Bassmaster wins. The Elite's first prize is $100,000. an instant qualification for the 2012 Bassmaster Classic, and the lead in the points race for the 2012 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title.
Going into Sunday's final round of the top 12, no pro near the leaderboard's top was ready to concede to Grigsby. That included Goldbeck, who moved up from 16th place into the runner-up spot with 51-1; Stephen Browning, with 50-6; Golden with 49-2; and the hottest angler on the Elite circuit, 2010 and 2011 Bassmaster Classic champ Kevin VanDam, who had 48-10 for fifth place.
Grant Goldbeck (Second, 51-1)Goldbeck brought in Saturday's biggest bag, 22-15, as well as the largest bass, a 7-4. It was another success on top of Friday's, when he sacked 27-1, but still he had regrets.
"I had a couple of 2-pounders in my bag today, and I left a few fish behind that are haunting me," he said.
One was a bedding bass he estimated at between 12 and 14.


Goldbeck is literally behind Shaw.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

 "For four hours I tried and never got her," he said.
He bypassed a 7-pound male on the same bed, making the call that taking the smaller bass would spook the behemoth.
"That would have been really helpful going into tomorrow," he added. "Shaw's fished a great tournament, and he deserves to win, but it would be nice to give him a little scare."
Grigsby and Goldbeck both said they thought their shared water would hold up under another day of pressure from them and Golden, also in the same small area.
Third-place holder Browning, who said he was not fishing for bedding bass, said he changed his tactics.
"I changed lakes, but did the exact same thing," Browning said. "The lack of wind was wonderful. I was fishing a worm, extremely slow, and that's been the biggest key for me this week. Every fish I've caught this week has been on a soft-plastic worm on the bottom."

Bassmaster Elite Sunshine Showdown Day 2: Shaw Show How to Do It.

Sunshine Showdown
Harris Chain, Tavares, FL, March 10-13, 2011
By Deb Johnson
Bassmaster.com (Press Release)


TAVARES, Fla. -- The bag required to hold Shaw Grigsby's Friday catch at the Sunshine Showdown was so heavy, he had to have help toting it from the docks to the official check-in station. Few who witnessed the lugging of the shoulder-popping bag had any doubts that Grigsby had done very well for himself.

Shaw hoists two brutes!
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

Minus the water drained from the bag, the bass weighed 29 pounds, 8 ounces, and Grigsby was leading with a two-day total of 43-15. He was more than 8 pounds in front of Kevin VanDam, who remained consistent with a Friday catch of 18-3 for 35-12 over two days.
The field was cut to 50 for Saturday's round of the Bassmaster Elite Series season opener on the Harris Chain, with the final on Sunday, when the winner will claim $100,000 and instant qualification for the 2012 Bassmaster Classic.
It was a great showing near home for the Gainesville, Fla., pro, who lifted his 10-pound anchor fish for the crowd. Grigsby, whose eight Bassmaster wins include two in his home state, later related how he landed the lunker while he was sight-fishing in an area shared with two other Elite pros.
"I just spotted her and she was a real tough female, I didn't mess with the male, and just kept working on her," Grigsby said. "Finally she got flustered and smacked it, and I set the hook and fought her around. I'd barely hooked her. She was just hanging by a thread."
It was his 7-pounder that snapped his rod. Both were fish he first saw Friday, thanks to a weather change that brought sunny skies, enabling him to see the fish.
"It was catch one here, one there, another hour and catch another," Grigsby said. "All in the same area."
It was an area Grigsby shared with first-day leader Pat Golden, who slipped to fourth with 31-10 for the two days.
For Golden, his day was all about the big one that bit his bait in half, but would not take the hook.
"I worked that fish for about 45 minutes," he said. "For some reason or another, she tasted the bait, and she just started cutting big circles and spooked off. It was weird; I guess she didn't like my tube bait."
Golden likes his chances for tomorrow in the same canal.
"It's apparent we're in a good area," he said. "Both me and Shaw are catching them, and we should tomorrow, too."
VanDam, more than 8 pounds behind, said he changed his entire approach on Friday, but he ended much the same, with 18-3 compared to 17-9 on Thursday.

KVD at it again.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

"But it worked out," said VanDam, who last month won the Bassmaster Classic, his fourth Classic title and 20th Bassmaster tournament win. "I had a much better day as far as getting bit. I was pretty excited about that; I wanted to have something no matter what the conditions were. My area of yesterday had 4-foot waves today. I had to totally change areas and my approach.
"I can't compete with that right there," he said, pointing to Grigsby's 29-8, "but I'm going to do the best I can."
Browning, slipping one place to third, was satisfied with his day.
"I'm hoping some of these sight fishermen are going to run out," said the pro from Hot Springs, Ark. "That's going to be the big thing for me to win this thing."
Rounding out the top five was Chris Lane of Alabama, who grew up fishing Florida waters. He tapped into that knowledge to lift himself from 13th place.
"Do I need to go sight-fishing? That is my big question," he said. "I'm saying no. [I will] see if I can't just keep grinding it out and get another 15 to 17 pounds on Saturday."

Z-Man Unveils Premiere Pro Staff

Luke Clausen, David Walker and Stephen Browning to lead Z-Man’s Pro Team.

LADSON, S.C.  Z-Man Fishing Products is proud to announce the signing of professional anglers Luke Clausen, David Walker, Stephen Browning and David Goshorn to Z-Man’s national freshwater pro-staff.

These top-notch anglers will assist Z-Man in the design and promotion of ElaZtech® baits, as well as educating anglers on how to achieve maximum results when fishing ElaZtech space-age soft plastic baits.

“We are thrilled to have four of bass fishing’s best aboard to help promote and design ElaZtech baits for Z-Man,” said Daniel Nussbaum, General Manager and Executive Vice President of Z-Man. “In addition, these pros will be very active on our social media channels, providing a look inside the lives of pro anglers for our Facebook fans and Website visitors.”

Luke Clausen of Spokane, Wash., is one of only five pros to have won both the Bassmaster Classic (2006 at Lake Toho) and the FLW Tour Forrest Wood Cup (2004 at Lake Logan Martin). He will be fishing the FLW Tour in 2011.

“ElaZtech is a product of the future and I’m really pumped to be a part of it,” said Clausen. “ElaZtech has a lot of advantages fishermen have yet to discover. Yes, it’s a departure from conventional plastics, and just as fluorocarbon is different than monofilament and tungsten is different from lead, there’s going to be a period of adjustment for anglers to get used to it. But once anglers realize the advantages of ElaZtech, they will definitely incorporate it into their arsenals.

David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., won the FLW Tour Angler of the Year title in 1999, has qualified for the FLW Tour Forrest Wood Cup 10 times, the Bassmaster Classic six times, and has amassed an amazing 32 top-10 finishes in FLW Tour and Bassmaster Tour competition. He will be fishing the B.A.S.S. Elite Series in 2011.

“This is a huge opportunity to influence the future of soft plastics, and I’m certainly looking forward to it,” Walker said. “The supreme durability of ElaZtech in high-impact situations such as skipping docks, flipping heavy cover or punching mats will reveal just how much unnecessary plastic we go through and time we waste in a day’s fishing due to conventional plastic tearing up so easily. I started fishing ElaZtech baits on the Redfish circuit years ago and have been a believer ever since.”

Stephen Browning of Hot Springs, Ark., has 15 top-10 appearances in Bassmaster Tour and Elite Series competition, with one Tour win, and seven Bassmaster Classic qualifications, including the 2011 Classic coming up in New Orleans.

“I’m excited about being involved with Z-Man,” Browning said. “The Original Chatterbait® lure has been a big plus in my fishing the last couple of years. This fall I had a chance to try some of the ElaZtech products and it opened my eyes to how much fishing time and money can be saved with it. The days of constantly stopping your fishing to dig out a new jig chunk or creature bait are over.”

Rounding out the Z-Man pro staff is David Goshorn of Harleyville, SC. Goshorn fished the FLW Tour from 1997-2000 and recently re-qualified for the 2011 FLW Tour through the FLW Series.

For more information, visit Z-Man at www.zmanfishing.com . Learn more about Luke Clausen at www.lukeclausenfishing.com  and David Walker at www.davidwalkerfishing.com .