I’d earned a Top 10 finish when the Bassmaster Elite Series visited Lake Tenkiller in 2019, but nevertheless when it showed up on the 2025 schedule I was a little bit worried how it would play out. Last time was a grimy fall tournament, and I covered tons of water. Still, it’s a small lake, and with a larger field this time around I figured it would be crowded and would likely be won by a scoper out in open water.
To be honest, I was kind of dreading it, but it turned out I was very much wrong. I’m glad I kept an open mind because it produced my second Top 10 finish of the year and was one of the most memorable events in recent history.
If you didn’t pay close attention because there weren’t a lot of big fish or big limits, I’d suggest that you go back and watch some of the Bassmaster LIVE coverage. It was exactly what a tournament should be. All of the top finishers, including eventual winner Wes Logan, put on masterful performances. The fish were biting, but things were changing so fast that if you didn’t adjust you’d get left behind.
Practice was nothing but rising water, but during our off day it started to fall. That was the first wrench in everyone’s plans. Then we got more rain after the second day of the tournament, and it started to rise again in a hurry. On a small lake like that, a 1 or 2 foot difference can be huge when the fish are shallow. It was a complete mental game.
On the first day of practice, I started up in the river but the water color was terrible. I started to pull the plug and ran down the lake, but I kept noticing white birds feeding on every point. I’d figured by June the shad spawn would be done in Oklahoma, but it was still going on the first few hours of each day. Fishing a Strike King squarebill and a Tungsten Thunder Cricket I could get healthy in a hurry.
After that, I thought things might get tough. I was a little scared to rely too heavily on flipping bushes because if the water fell out that bite could evaporate. I tried forward-facing sonar and brushpiles, but I couldn’t really get anything going on them, either.
Fortunately, the shad spawn worked out on Day 1, and I had 14 pounds in the boat pretty quickly. I was going to flip bushes, but then I got a hunch to fish an area up the lake that had produced for me before. It had been too muddy in practice, but it kept gnawing at me. I listened to that idea and smashed them there.
In turn, following my gut allowed me to explore more places like it. I’d fish a KVD 1.5 or 2.5 and because the places had looked bad during practice I had them all to myself. As long as the water kept falling, they’d keep coming my way.
As I said above, eventually the water started coming up again and the bite was never quite as good. After really dialing it in and catching 19-2 on Day 2, my weights dropped each of the final two days. Obviously, I would’ve liked to stay in contention for the win, but this was a particularly gratifying Top 10.
Again, my hat is off to the guys who stayed consistent for four days, and especially the ones who got better as the tournament went on. This was an event where you had to approach every hour by the seat of your pants, and there was little margin for error. That’s what makes the Elite Series the true test of the best.
