2023 Whataburger Bassmaster Elite At Lay Lake Day 2: Palaniuk Continues to Lead!

Canadians Gustafson 27th, Cory Johnston 52nd, Gallant 63rd & Chris Johnston 67th.

BASS PRESS RELEASE

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. — Most of this week, Brandon Palaniuk has worn a wry smile on his face. It is one of disbelief more than anything that he has actually found the quality of bass he has during the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake.

 

By adding 16 pounds, 5 ounces Friday to his Day 1 tally of 19-7, the Rathdrum, Idaho, native now has a two-day total of 35-12 and holds the lead for the second day in a row. Alabama rookie Will Davis Jr. is second with 34-3 and veteran Florida pro Bernie Schultz is third with 31-8.

 

“I’m just the clueless leader out there,” Palaniuk said. “I’m 100% in disbelief. The fact I was able to fish for all of those fish the first day blew my mind. The fact I went back there and caught 16 pounds today blows my mind, too. I’m going to have to go again tomorrow because I don’t know what is going to happen. I might have another 15 or 16.”

 

Palaniuk has been maximizing one specific area of Lay Lake and has had to adjust to the conditions every day. Even though thunderstorms moved through the area Thursday night, the water had dropped a couple of inches when he arrived Friday morning. As the day progressed, it began to rise again.

 

“It is almost like a tidal fishery this week,” Palaniuk said. “They keep bringing the water up and down, up and down, so it has been hard for me to get dialed in to any one thing. You can see the water clarity change and you can see the current move in one direction and then back the other. It definitely changes everything.”

 

Friday morning when the water was at its lowest, there was very little activity in the area. The shad were stagnant and the bream beds were not active. But once the water rose, activity increased and the bite improved.

2023 AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes: Robertson Claims Lead!

Canadians: Chris Johnston 15th, Gustafson 48th, Gallant 60th &  Cory Johnston 67th

Matt Robertson of Kuttawa, Ky., is leading after Day 1 of the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes with 28 pounds, 1 ounce. ( Photo:Seigo Satio) 

BASS PRESS RELEASE

CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — Capitalizing on an early start, Matt Robertson of Kuttawa, Ky., caught a five-bass limit of 28 pounds, 1 ounce to lead Day 1 of the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes.

 

Coming off a Top 30 finish at last week’s Elite Series event at Lake Murray, Robertson heads into Friday’s second round leading rookie Bryant Smith of California by just over a pound.

 

Noting that he's fishing the way he likes to fish, Robertson said he focused mostly on postspawn bass. He spent time in Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie and caught bass in two different areas.

 

“I’m running a shad spawn early and then later in the morning, I’m going fishing for postspawners,” Robertson said. “I was done by about 10:30 or 11.”

2023 Marathon Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray Day 3: Fujita Vaults into Lead!

 Canadian: Cory Johnston 41st

BASS PRESS RELEASE

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Kyoya Fujita has been a star in Japan for several years, winning four Angler of the Year titles in his home country. Now, the 27-year-old is starting to make a name for himself here in the United States.   Fujita caught 20 pounds, 12 ounces on Day 3 of the Marathon Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray — and with a three-day total of 65-8, he became the event's third leader. He also guaranteed his second-straight Top 10 finish after a second-place showing at Lake Seminole in February.   After catching 22-6 each of the first two days, Fujita is now the only angler to top the 20-pound mark each day this week. Tennessee pro Hunter Shryock is in second with 64-3 and South Carolina’s Patrick Walters is third with 62-8.   While the rain and storms were not as heavy as expected, clouds and wind were more prominent Saturday morning than they were on Days 1 and 2. As Semifinal Saturday wore on, the clouds cleared and sunny skies prevailed. That led to a great day of bass fishing, as 48 of the 50 anglers competing caught limits.   With several different LiveScope transducers, Fujita has been picking out bass that are suspended in open water near a creek channel in 6 to 18 feet. He said he has been using one bait primarily, a Jackall RV DriftFry with a 1/8-ounce Keitech jighead.   “The LiveScope wasn’t showing me fish,” said Fujita, who added through an interpreter that he will not make a cast unless there is a fish on the screen. He said he is also seeing a lot of stripers swimming around his area. He can tell the difference between the two if they are sitting still, but if the fish is swimming he cannot tell which species he is seeing.   “I am still figuring out the difference,” he said.   Fujita was hampered by boat problems to start the morning and the fishing wasn’t stellar when he got to his first spot. Although he caught one over 5 pounds around 8:30 a.m., he was not seeing a lot of activity on his Garmin LiveScope and changed areas.

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.

Ott DeFoe Wins Bass Pro Tour Event on San Rayburn!

3rd Texas Win for DeFoe

By Manson Prince

BASS PRO TOUR

It came down to the final 30 minutes on a stingy Sam Rayburn Reservoir, but for the second time in as many years in the state of Texas, Ott DeFoe is a Bass Pro Tour Stage champion. DeFoe won the Toro Stage One Presented by Power-Pole by narrowly edging out Luke Clausen by 2 pounds, 13 ounces with a total weight of 13 bass for 30-2. The win is DeFoe’s third MLF win in the state of Texas after he won Stage Three of the Bass Pro Tour in 2020 at Lake Fork and the 2021 Heritage Cup in Waco, Texas.

DeFoe’s Drama-Filled Victory

DeFoe started out his morning like he had every day of competition thus far—on fire. The Tennessee pro landed 10 bass for 22-8 in Period 1, but his pace slowed dramatically in the afternoon. DeFoe went more than five hours without a scorable bass and fell into second place behind Luke Clausen because of it.

“I had to work for every fish I caught today,” DeFoe recapped. “I had to use a crankbait, spinnerbait, bladed jig, wacky worm, and a swim jig. It was a grind and I thought I had other places that would be productive. But there was a ton of boat traffic up by the river, so I just decided to go fishing.

But DeFoe never panicked. DeFoe went back up the river, found more laydowns, brushpiles, and current. He caught them when he needed them the most. In the final 15 minutes, as he was in an area with poor connectivity, DeFoe landed a 2-12 to tie Clausen and then a 2-13 to pass him for the top spot. The 2-13 margin of victory is the closest in Bass Pro Tour history, and DeFoe is glad he can finally catch his breath out of one of the more stressful days of his career.

“All of the stress you could ever imagine, I was feeling that last hour,” DeFoe expressed. “I knew we were going to have poor connectivity so my official was going to make me move with five minutes left. I didn’t know if Luke had caught another and I knew we were close. Just that feeling of relief when I knew that I had it was amazing.”

DeFoe is no stranger to winning in Texas and he has now won the last three MLF events held in the Lone Star State. When asked about what exactly it is about Texas that makes it like a second bass-fishing home to him, DeFoe had a simple answer.

“When you come to Texas, bass act like they’re supposed to,” DeFoe stated. “I tell everyone who asks me that same question that answer. I’ve won here on three completely different fisheries but caught them the way I knew they should be caught at that time of year in that particular environment. They eat shad, they live around cover, and they like current.”

Ott DeFoe Wins Lake Fork/Lake Athens MFL Event with 57-4lbs!

Last Period Charge Secures Win

By Tyler Binks

MLF Press Release

After five days watching the field battle with big bass at the General Tire Stage Three Presented by TrueTimber on Lake Fork, the Championship Round moved to Lake Athens.

Athens set up much differently than Fork and was a complete unknown to nearly every angler in the field. And while very little was known about this 1,799-acre lake located an hour south of Lake Fork, the day developed into one of the closest races seen in the final round of a Bass Pro Tour event.

That was until Ott DeFoe caught fire and turned a close tournament into an all-out blowout. His ascension to the top was quick and unrelenting.

With just over an hour to go, DeFoe found himself in fifth place with less than 20 pounds for the day, trailing then-leader Mark Daniels, Jr. by over 15 pounds. That’s when he turned things on and left the field in the dust.

In the end, he won by over 28 pounds.

DeFoe Rallies to a Landslide Win

DeFoe did most of his damage a short idle from takeoff, fishing near a bridge. He put on a clinic in the final 75 minutes of the day with a flotilla of bass boats, kayaks and pontoon boats getting a front-row seat to watch one of the best anglers in the world dominate the competition.

DeFoe’s fishing spot was so close to the ramp that he was easily the first angler back; when he put his boat on the trailer a few short minutes after lines-out, he was still trying to process what just happened.

This was surely what the other nine anglers were feeling.

DeFoe finished the day with 23 bass for 69 pounds, 12 ounces.

“That last hour was one of the more special hours that I have ever had in all of my time bass fishing,” DeFoe said.

He discovered his honey hole by watching his electronics, specifically side imaging.

John Cox Win 2019 Bassmaster Eastern Open on Lake Chickamauga with 66lbs!

2nd Chick Win in Weeks for Cox!
By David A. Brown
BASS PRESS RELEASE

John Cox goes wire-to-wire to win the Bassmaster Eastern Open with 66-05lbs!

Carrying a nearly 8-pound lead into the final round, no doubt, builds confidence, but John Cox readily acknowledged the good fortune that enabled him to slam the door on a wire-to-wire win in the Basspro.com Bassmaster Eastern Open on Lake Chickamauga with a three-day total weight of 66 pounds, 5 ounces.

Cox, who won an FLW Tour event on Chickamauga three weeks ago, took the early lead with a Day 1 limit of 26-11. Adding 21-12 on Day 2 gave the Debary, Fla., pro a 7-pound, 13-ounce lead going into the final round. Today, Cox sealed the deal with a five-bass limit that weighed 17-14 and gave him a winning margin of 4-11.

“It was an amazing week,” Cox said. “So many of my fish catches were so special, and it seemed like luck played into a lot of them.

“Today, I didn’t see one of my key fish — a 5-pounder — until the last second. He didn’t see me, for some reason. I flipped over to the fish and it ate my bait. When I got it into the boat, I realized I was on its blind side; it was missing his eye. If it had been any other direction, I wouldn’t have caught it.”

Cox caught all of his bass in shallow water, including bluegill beds, banks with deeper water adjacent and docks. Although he had planned to fish offshore shellbeds and bars in 8 to 14 feet of water, Cox found his areas too congested with other anglers on Day 1. Snooping around in the shallows quickly convinced him that’s where he needed to remain.

“The first day, I caught a couple good ones out there, but then it got really crowded in those areas,” Cox said. “I didn’t feel comfortable being around all those people, so I said ‘I’m just going to do what I like doing,’ so I got up shallow.

“Once I saw fish swimming around up there, I got sucked into it and I never went back out to those shellbars.”

Cox said his top baits were a 1/2-ounce Dirty Jigs swim jig in the tactical shad color with a white Berkley Max Scent Meaty Chunk trailer, a wacky-rigged 5-inch Berkley Max Scent General (stickbait) in the green pumpkin party color.

For his efforts, Cox won $43,800 and earned a berth in the 2020 Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods. This win, he said, elevated Chickamauga to the top of his personal list.

“I don’t know what to say; this used to be my second-favorite lake, but after this one, it’s definitely my favorite,” Cox said. “I love it when we get to come here, I love all the people and I hope we get to come back.”

Chris Peters of Birchwood, Tenn. finished in second place with 61-10. After tying for 28th place on day one with 14-9, the local fireman who left the weigh ins to start his weekend shift, rose to fourth on Day 2 after catching 20-3. Adding 26-14 today moved him up two notches.

“It took me a little while to get dialed in,” Peters said. “On Day 1, I ran a lot of spots. I had about 30 places I wanted to try. I got them dialed in yesterday and got them dialed in better today. Everywhere I stopped today, it was (catching) one after another.

“I was throwing a big jig, but the deal was the Trixter Custom Tackle Rowdy Craw trailer. It’s a hand-poured plastic so it’s a lot softer and has a lot of action. I think that played a key role today and all week.”

Buddy Gross of Chickamauga, Ga. finished third with 58-10. Gross placed second on Day 1 with 23-8, slipped to third on Day 2 after the lack of current limited him to 15-12 and settled in the No. 3 spot after adding 19-6 in the final round.

Gross caught several of his bass this week on swimbaits and crankbaits, but today, he tempted his biggest fish on a 3/4-ounce green pumpkin Nichols casting jig with a green

John Cox Wins 2019 FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga with 83-9lbs!

Spawners, shad spawn and swim jig key to win!

by Justin Onslow

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Shallow water spawners key to Cox win!
(Photo: FLW)

John Cox considers Lake Chickamauga his favorite lake in the country. On Sunday, it cemented itself as the lake that gave Cox his favorite and most memorable win.

With 21 pounds on Championship Sunday and 83-9 for the tournament, Cox won the FLW Tour event on Chickamauga, presented by Evinrude, thanks in big part to a couple trees the nine-year Tour pro forgot about until the waning moments of day four.

“I’m telling you, it was an amazing day,” Cox says. “I can’t believe this. All day I kept going and going. Right at the end… the last ten minutes was just unreal.

“It was last-minute. I don’t know why, it just popped into [my] head, ‘Go to the trees,’ and I went to them and it was unreal. It was the first cast to them.”

The first cast he’s talking about is the cast that almost broke his heart. Cox pulled up to the pair of trees he’d fished so many times before – but not once during this tournament – with the clock ticking on the end of his day. He hooked a big fish and lost it. It might have been a $100,000 fish.

Cox then went to the next tree and landed a 4-pounder. And then right back to the previous tree, where he’d just lost a big one, to land another 4-pounder, which ultimately sealed the deal on his tournament-winning bag.

“I’m not going to lie, when I caught those two fish real quick in the last 10 minutes, I got all worked up,” he admits. “I’m running back and tears are coming out. I felt something. It felt better than any other tournament any time I’ve won before. It was overwhelming. I’m getting chills thinking about it. I’ve never felt like that before.”

And Cox has had some amazing wins. He already has more hardware than he knows what to do with, including trophies from FLW Tour wins on Hartwell and the Red River, as well as an FLW Cup win on Wheeler. But this one just felt different.

2019 FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga Day 2: Matt Greenblatt Leads with 43-2lbs!

Canadians Richardson 83rd & Sim 109th

by Justin Onslow

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Spawning bass and wacky rig Senkos key to leaders!
(Photo: FLW)

Matt Greenblatt was one of the few pros fishing the FLW Tour’s Lake Chickamauga event this week who didn’t let off the accelerator on day two. With weights down across the board, the Port St. Lucie, Fla., pro brought 19 pounds, 13 ounces across the weigh-in stage and jumped day-one leader John Cox to take the lead with 43-2 overall.

The tournament, presented by Evinrude, hasn’t quite lived up to expectations to this point, due mainly to the odd transitional period into which it falls. Some fish are still moving up to bed, but the big ones don’t seem to be all the out to the ledges yet – a summertime staple for Tennessee River fisheries – and they haven’t been all that easy to catch up shallow, either.

Greenblatt seems to have found the magic formula, or at least the magic spot, where some big ones have been hanging out. He isn’t catching giants, but he’s been hauling in enough quality fish to put together a bag that only needs one kicker to do some damage.

The six-year Tour pro didn’t change anything up from day one, which produced 23-5 of quality Chickamauga largemouths. He simply found a great spot that’s been holding a ton of fish and went to town.

“[It was the] same thing as yesterday,” he explains. “Same spot. Same everything. That slope, I milked her for everything she was worth. Yesterday, I was hoping I was going to get decent weather [on day two]. We were expecting rain and nasty stuff.”

With rain in the forecast for day one (rain that never ended up coming), Greenblatt hammered on that spot pretty hard, but his fish seemed to replenish overnight, and even with some extra fishing pressure on it Friday, it produced nearly as well.

“Of course, you get a little bit of company, too,” he adds. “I had two other boats in there with me: Lendell [Martin Jr.] and John Hunter. John got a 3-pound average out of there. We’re hitting it pretty hard, all three of us.

“We’ve got hopefully two more days in here, and I don’t know what she’s got left.”

Should Greenblatt’s spot dry up or the weather muddy up the water enough to turn off the bite, he has a backup plan in mind.

TOP 10 BELOW

Andrew Upshaw Wins 2019 FLW Tour Cherokee Lake with 67-10lbs!

Spawning smallies tie to wire to wire win!

by Justin Onslow

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Targeting cracks in boulders key to win.
(Photo: FLW)

Going wire-to-wire to win an FLW Tour event, especially on a fishery like Cherokee Lake, isn’t something that happens by accident. It’s not all luck. It’s not all happenstance. What Andrew Upshaw did was a combination of skill, tenacity and mental toughness, plain and simple.

The Tulsa, Okla., pro won his first-ever Tour event this week, and he did it on Cherokee Lake, amidst a true slugfest, with haymakers coming from every angle. During the tournament, which was presented by Lowrance, 90.7 percent of the field turned in a five-bass limit over four days. All 30 anglers weighed in five fish on Saturday and all 10 of the finalists brought five fish to the scale on Championship Sunday.

Simply put, everyone caught fish this week. No one caught them better than Andrew Upshaw.

The 32-year-old eight-year Tour veteran didn’t find a magic stretch filled with big fish and he didn’t have a secret bait no one else was throwing. What he did have was a solid game plan, a belief in himself and a strong support system that included his wife, Valerie, and son, Cain, who made the trip from Oklahoma to be there throughout the final two days of the tournament and by his side when he raised the $100,000 check and winner trophy above his head Sunday afternoon.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but when my family got here, I knew what I needed to do and that was just to calm down,” he admits. “This morning I got to skip rocks with my kid…”

At that point, Upshaw welled up with emotion and paused for a brief period to reflect on what he had accomplished and what it meant to have his family there every step of the way. Those emotions stayed with Upshaw long after the weigh-in had ended, as fans asked for autographs and photos, and friends, family and competitors congratulated the two-time FLW Cup qualifier on his first-ever Tour win.

Upshaw acknowledged all of those people during his victory celebration on the FLW weigh-in stage, recognizing his friends (namely Tour anglers Jason Reyes and Scott Martin), competitors and family (including his father, a close friend and his in-laws, who all made the journey to eastern Tennessee). It was a classy gesture from a humble man who was just grateful and overcome with emotion after finally completing a goal that’s been with him for a long, long time.

Asked when the emotions would start to wear off and the reality to set in, he responded as anyone in his position would.

TOP 10 BELOW

Stetson Blaylock Wins 2019 Bassmaster Elite Winyah Bay with 50-15lbs!

Canterbury 2^nd & Cory Johnston 3^rd

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Big win for Blaylock a family affair!
(Photo: BASS)

Stetson Blaylock came to the Bassmaster Elite at Winyah Bay with one goal in mind: don’t finish last. He accomplished that goal — and then some.

The third-year Elite Series pro from Arkansas tallied a four-day total of 50 pounds, 15 ounces and earned a victory that was unexpected, to say the least. He capped the win with a Championship Sunday limit of five bass that weighed 9-3.

“I came here with the intentions of ‘Don’t ruin your season; don’t come here and finish dead last,’” said Blaylock, who earned $100,000 for the victory. “When I found my area, I knew it had fish, so I thought I’d get out of here with a Top 35 and roll on to the next one. I didn’t know it had winning potential at all.

“I look back at every bass I lost this week and think ‘Gosh, I should’ve caught that one.’ Today, I had one good one that jumped off that would have been another 2 pounds. When that kind of stuff happens, you’re not supposed to win, but when it’s your time, you can’t do anything wrong.”

Time management was essential throughout the week. While many of his competitors ran 100-plus miles to fish various areas of the Cooper River, Blaylock earned his first blue trophy by staying in a pond off the Waccamaw River, about 18 minutes from takeoff at Georgetown’s Carroll Ashmore Campbell Marine Complex.

Lined with overhanging trees, the area held deeper water and sprouted a few tributary canals. Here, Blaylock placed 11th on Day 1 with 11-6, rose to sixth the next day with 12-7 and surged into the Day 3 lead by sacking up a limit of 17-15, the tournament’s heaviest bag.

Today, Blaylock faced a tougher bite, but his 9-3 was enough to hold off a dramatic charge by second-place angler Scott Canterbury, who finished just 9 ounces behind Blaylock.

“I’ve never been here before, so I went to where I knew there were some fish,” Blaylock said. “That gave me the entire day to fish.”

2019 Bassmaster Elite Winyah Bay Day 3: Stetson Blaylock Takes Lead with 41-12lbs!

Cory Johnston 2nd by ounces. 

By David A. Brown

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Blaylock leads by strength of Waccamaw River.
(Photo: BASS)

Committing his day to a deeper pocket off the Waccamaw River, Arkansas angler Stetson Blaylock caught the largest five-bass limit of the week, weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces, and took over the lead at the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Elite at Winyah Bay with a three-day total of 41-12.

Blaylock said his selected area provided bass with a comfortable habitat beyond the spawn. He admitted he started the day concerned that he was running out of fish, but his persistence was rewarded with a day of steady productivity.

“I really thought that it was drying up, and I was almost to the point of thinking, ‘Okay, I’m going to end up catching five 12-inchers and wherever it happens, it happens,’” Blaylock said. “I caught that first big one — a 4-pounder at 9:50 — and that let me know that things were happening there that I wasn’t aware of.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that (the pocket) is so deep out in the middle, those fish have an opportunity to keep moving up and keep moving up. I don’t think you can fish it out.”

Blaylock caught his fish by flipping a Texas-rigged YUM Christie Craw and skipping a wacky-rigged YUM Dinger. He added a nail weight to the latter for a strategic presentation.

“I think that’s the difference between me and a lot of the guys; everyone’s probably throwing weightless wacky rigs, but it seems that putting that nail weight in it gets it down faster and maybe triggers a strike or two that a slow fall won’t,” he said.

Jacob Powroznik Aiming for Back-To-Back Wins After Knockout Round Victory!

Records falling on Chick!

Major League Fishing Press Release

Almost as soon as he drove away from Raleigh, North Carolina - a Bass Pro Tour trophy riding shotgun in his Toyota Tundra - Major League Fishing® (MLF) pro Jacob Powroznik was already talking about how much he likes to fish Lake Chickamauga. The Virginia pro, who won Stage Three in Raleigh just two weeks ago, has competed on this impoundment of the Tennessee River multiple times and identifies it as one of his favorite fisheries.

 

Powroznik readies for second win in a row.
(Photo: MLF)

In Saturday's Knockout Round of the Econo Lodge Stage Four presented by Evinrude, Powroznik showed why. After hovering around the middle of the Top 10 for the majority of the first two periods, Powroznik connected with 10 fish for 20-15 in the final period to finish first in the round with 67-14 on the day.

 

"I love throwing a wacky worm, I love bed fishing, I love fishing while they're spawning, and that's what's going on here right now," said Powroznik. "It would be hard for me to win a five-fish event doing what I'm doing right now, but in our format, you get to go out and catch as many bass as you possibly can. That suits my style of fishing right now. I've seen some big ones - they're just 'cranky' right now - but those 2- to 3-pounders are biting really good right now, and I'm just fine with that."

 

Powroznik will be joined in Sunday's Championship Round of 10 by: Todd Faircloth (63-12), Mike Iaconelli (59-8), Brandon Palaniuk (56-15), Andy Morgan (56-3), Luke Clausen (53-10), Keith Poche (52-3), Jared Lintner (52-1), Edwin Evers (50-15) and Michael Neal (49-11).  

 

Today's weights will be wiped clean as the finalists start the Championship Round with a zero score. 

 

Final-Period Knockout Drama  

 

The final 2 ½ hours of competition saw several dramatic stories play out, none more so than Iaconelli's. The Berkley pro entered the third period in 24th place - well out of contention for a Top 10 spot - but then connected with nine fish for 23-5 in the final 30 minutes on a squarebill to catapult him to third place.

 

"It's not a magic spot, I don't have a magic bait, it wasn't something I did or changed, it wasn't dumb luck, it was just timing," Iaconelli said. "It was just a place where they started to pull up on and started to feed, and I happened to fish it at just the right time. I've been doing this for 22, 23 years professionally, and that was the most magical 20 minutes of my tournament career."

 

Brandon Cobb Wins 2019 BASS Elite Lake Hartwell with 72-04lbs!

Sight fishing peaked as tournament progressed.
By Bryan Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Wire to wire win for first year Elite angler.
(Photo: BASS)

Many anglers have led the first three rounds of a Bassmaster Elite Series event, only to have the title slip through their hands on the final day.

More times than not, pressure was the culprit.

But if South Carolina pro Brandon Cobb felt pressure a single time during this week’s Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell, he certainly hid it well.

Cobb, who lives in nearby Greenwood, S.C., took the lead on Day 1 of the event and never relinquished it, slamming the door on his first Elite Series victory with a final-day catch of 16 pounds, 14 ounces on Championship Sunday. His four-day winning weight of 72-4 earned him a $100,000 paycheck and the iconic blue trophy that goes to every Elite Series winner.

“Staying calm definitely made the difference for me,” said Cobb, who stayed at his own house and made the 50-minute drive to Lake Hartwell each day. “I don’t do well if I get flustered. I start running around a lot, and it just doesn’t go well for me.

“Being on my home lake helped, too. I literally never ran out of places where I felt like I was going to catch one.”

Cobb caught 19-9, 17-8, 18-5 and 16-14 in four days — and he did most of his damage with two baits. He used a green pumpkin Zoom Fluke Stick when he was moving through shallow areas where he thought spawning beds were present and a 1/8-ounce Greenfish Tackle shaky head with a green pumpkin Zoom Trick Worm when he was stopped, fishing for bass he could actually see on bed.

2016 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship at Mille Lacs Lake Day 2: Swindle Banking on Point Spread!

Swindle down, but far from out. 

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Another impressive day of hefty smallmouth astonished fans during the second round of the $1 million Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship at Minnesota's famed Mille Lacs Lake.

Points gap favours G-Man.
(Photo: BASS)

On Thursday, the Top 50 qualifiers from the Bassmaster Elite Series produced 23 limits exceeding the 20-pound mark. Today's field did one better by bringing 24 limits to the scales exceeding 20 pounds.

While that's an impressive turnout yet again, the angler who catches the heaviest three-day limit of bass does not win this tournament; rather points are the key to victory this week.

Gerald Swindle of Guntersville, Ala., held onto his Angler of the Year lead after weighing 15 pounds, 13 ounces, which brought his two-day total to 25-6. He improved on Thursday's performance, but Keith Combs of Huntington, Texas, is within 28 points of Swindle in the AOY race.