Elite

Big bass of Lake Hartwell 2025

Paul Marks’ familiarity with the fishery's offshore bass haunts help him overcome those targeting bigger bedding bass.

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Captions by
Mike Suchan
With numerous patterns in play and everyone catching a limit each day, bedding females were among the biggest bass landed in the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell. In the end, it was rookie Paul Marks and his offshore experience on the fishery that prevailed. Let’s take a look at the big fish, and big days, that made a difference.
Randy Howell created a stir with his early post of a 6-pound, 6-ounce catch on BassTrakk. While others caught quick limits targeting bass feasting on blueback herring, Howell rose atop the unofficial leaderboard around midmorning with a second oversized largemouth at 4-6. On Day 1, the 102 anglers brought in 510 fish weighing 1,489 pounds, 15 ounces, for an average weight of just under 3 pounds.
Wesley Gore of Clanton, Ala., brought in two above-average bass that helped him weigh one of three 18-12 bags on Day 1, when there were 20 ties. Gore’s weights dropped each of the next three days, but his big first day helped him finish eighth. In his first cut of the year, Gore climbed 26 spots in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings to 60th.
Chad Pipkens displays a couple nice keepers, which included the 5-6 bass that helped the Dewitt, Mich., pro weigh 17-15 to stand 11th. Without a kicker, Pipkens followed with 11-13 then busted 15-5 to finish 30th. It was his first cut of the year, which helped him climb the first few steps out of the basement in AOY points.
Apparently, it was bring your kids to work day. Austin Felix holds two that made him smile big, including a 6-0 on BassTrakk in his 18-12. The pro from Eden Prairie, Minn., also couldn’t add any more big bites and finished 43rd, which bumped him up two spots to 36th in AOY.
Trey “Kid” McKinney brought himself and his fish-catching prowess to Hartwell. A pair of grown-ups bolstered his 17-10 Day 1 limit, which had him tied for 15th. After 16-2, which included an 8-ounce penalty for two dead fish, the 20-year-old added 14-2 on Day 3, but he lost the tiebreaker to reach his third consecutive Top 10. Taking 11th did continue McKinney’s climb from 90th in AOY after the first event to eighth.
Winner at the St. Johns River this year, Bill Lowen landed a 5-11 that helped the veteran from Brookville, Ind., stand 18th with 17-5. With 12-10 and 10-5 limits, Lowen dropped to finish 48th, but he maintained the 10th spot in the AOY standings. And he again picked out a kid in the crowd to give a B.A.S.S. membership.
Sight-fisherman extraordinaire Drew Cook coaxed this pair of big females off their beds as he posted 18-12 on Day 1. The 30-year-old from Cairo, Ga., provided a clinic for Bassmaster LIVE viewers on bedding bass behavior all week.   
It wasn’t surprising that Marks, who lives just two hours from Hartwell and has enjoyed great success there, was in the hunt after Day 1. Posting a 5-0 early – Marks said it was his only bed fish of the event – the 23-year-old from Cumming, Ga., stood third after bagging 19-7.
Off BassTrakk all day, third-year pro Kyoya Fujita brought in the surprise 20-9 limit that included a 6-0, which took the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass. Without another kicker, Fujita finished 23rd with 13-0 and 12-6. After a slow start, the Japanese pro is 16th in AOY.
Everybody howled for Howell’s 7-15 lunker in his leading limit of 21-11. Other anglers had marked the bedding female, but Howell was first to it and caught it on his first cast. Howell rode his big day to a sixth-place finish. The Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the event and the Rapala CrushCity Monster bag added $5,000 in bonuses for Howell, who improved 29 spots to 56th in AOY.
It was limits all around again on Day 2, and there were 16 ties, including four at the 50 cut, and the average fish decreased to 2-12. Caleb Kuphall turned around his fortunes with a 5-0 that helped him total 17-11 and jump 24 spots to 20th. Unfortunately, he caught the smallest limit at Hartwell on Day 3, his 6-12 dropping him to 50th. The pro from Mukwonago, Wis., has made all four 50 cuts on the season and sits 17th in AOY.
Another known spotted bass stick on Hartwell was Emil Wagner, and he proved it on Day 2 with 18-2, minus a 4-ounce penalty. That lifted the Marietta, Ga., rookie 22 spots to eighth, and he wound up ninth. It helped the 27-year-old jump 26 places to 31st in AOY.
Tucker Smith of Birmingham, Ala., is another who favors Hartwell, and the rookie showed out on Day 2 with 18-9, moving from 24th to sixth. Heading into the event, Smith led the Dakota Lithium Rookie of the Year standings and had eyes on the event title as well as moving up from 29th overall in AOY.  
Jay Przekurat was fourth after 18-15 on Day 1, and he kept that spot with 16-9 on Friday. The pro from Plover, Wis., closed the event with two 14-pound days to finish fifth. Coming into Hartwell just two points back of AOY leader Will Davis Jr., Przekurat added 100 points for a total of 368, 28 up on Davis, who finished 35th. Przekurat said he realizes it’s early and there are five events left, but AOY is now on his radar.   
Australian Carl Jocumsen opened in 70th place with 13-5 but a late 6-5 on Day 2 helped him total 17-9 to catapult up to 30th. Just 10-12 knocked him back to 44th, but he climbed five spots in AOY to 39th, just inside the projected cut to make next year’s Classic.
Jacob Powroznik, who still laments the cold delay that hurt his chances of winning the 2015 Hartwell Classic, made a major move with the third 20-pound bag in the event. The 45-year-old from Virginia caught 20-6, zooming 35 spots to fifth. That big bag was his tiebreaker to get into the Top 10 after tying McKinney’s three-day total of 47-14. Finishing 10th gave Powroznik a 20-spot AOY improvement to 24th.
Targeting big bedding females and trying to shake off smaller males, Cook was catching up with the herring chasers who quickly caught their limits. He was in the hunt with a pair of 4-pounders. After LIVE ended, Cook brought in his best, a 4-8 that he spent several hours attempting to entice. That fish helped him weigh 19-9 and take the two-day lead with 38-5.
All 50 caught limits on Day 3 when the average was 2-13. Hawaii’s Matt Wong was excited for two fish way above that mark in his 16-6 stringer, which saw him finish 28th. Friday’s 15-7 was worthy of a shout, too, as it put Wong in the four-way tie at the cut with Bryant Smith, Bryan New and Scott Canterbury, all with 28-14. Consistency hurt Canterbury this time as the others all had bigger single bags, the tiebreaker.
Bryan New of Leesville, S.C., started well with 16-0, but his love/hate relationship with Hartwell continued when he fell with 12-14. He was loving the fishery again on Semifinal Saturday with a 6-14, the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day. That helped him weigh the second-largest bag of the day, 17-7, and finish 20th. New moved up 20 spots in AOY to 40th.
Bryant Smith, who got the kids day memo two days late, was pretty much on the same path as New. He started 26th with 16-3 then fell back with 12-11 before posting the best limit of Day 3 with 18-13. That moved the Roseville, Calif., angler to 12th, just 4 ounces from making Championship Sunday. That finish bumped Smith from 11th to third in AOY, 31 points behind Przekurat.
First-year Elite Cody Meyer was consistent with 16-5 and 15-3 to make his third cut of the year and stand 24th. On Saturday, the veteran angler from Eagle, Idaho, landed his smallest limit of 14-3 to finish 27th, but this 5-4 surely prevented a bigger drop and saw him climb two spots to 12th in AOY.
Classic champ Easton Fothergill enjoyed the clear water fishing on Hartwell, busting bags of 17-6 and 15-3 to stand 17th. A 5-11 on Semifinal Saturday helped the 22-year-old rookie from Grand Rapids, Minn., weigh 17-5 to climb into the Top 10. He finished seventh, continuing his climb from the AOY cellar. After starting the season with two Florida bombs, the Classic weight record-holder has three consecutive Top 10s.
Cook continued to show his bed fishing proficiency, weighing 17-3 to go into Championship Sunday with 55-8 for a 2-8 lead. Already nearing the tail end of the spawn, Cook would make a risk/reward move on Day 4 in his attempt to win.
Oklahoma’s Luke Palmer, who won his only Elite title on Santee Cooper Lakes in South Carolina, started the event in fourth with 18-15. He dropped to 10th with 14-15 that included 12 ounces of penalties, and on Day 3 caught 17-0 to start Championship Sunday with 50-14, just 4-10 from the lead. With an afternoon bite, Palmer culled to 15-12, the biggest on the day. He finished third with 66-10, 1-14 from the winning total, and improved 14 places in AOY to 13.
Tucker Smith also made a run at the title, needing only a 4-pounder to make up his deficit on the winning weight. Smith had the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, a 3-13 that edged Fothergill’s 3-12 and Palmer’s 3-11. Smith weighed 15-11 to total 67-10 and finish runner-up, 14 ounces from the lead. The 23-year-old leads ROY with 294 points, with Marks 10 back and Wagner third with 249.
Cook had an intriguing Championship Sunday. Accidentally catching the smaller male off a bed that filled his limit, he decided to throw it back when the estimated 7-pound female acted disinterested in his bait. It was like taking the tying field goal off the board to go for the winning touchdown. The line from “Dodgeball” came to mind, and Cook soon uttered it, “That’s a bold move, Cotton.” Cook fans hoped it would pay off but were disappointed when the big gal never bit. Cook caught another small fish to fill his limit, but with only 9-15, he finished fourth with 65-7, 3-1 back. That 7-pounder would have given Cook his second Elite title.
Running around the lake he knew so well, Marks hit offshore spots he said just felt right, including a cane pile he helped place years ago. He culled nine times on the day, mostly by 4 ounces but a 3-4 gained him a pound. Marks finished with 15-8 for his winning total of 68-8.
“I never let off the gas today; I ran so hard. It was a long day for me. I really didn’t think I had enough. Somehow, it worked out,” said Marks, who moved up 21 spots in AOY to 18th. “I don’t know what to think; it’ll probably take a week to set in — maybe a month. I think I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little kid.”

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