Elite

Buddy Gross, hometown hammer

Catch up with the hometown hammer, Buddy Gross, as he attempts to dominate Day 1 of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Chickamauga Lake.

Posted on
Photography by
Dalton Tumblin
Catch up with the hometown hammer, Buddy Gross, as he attempts to dominate at the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Chickamauga Lake.
Buddy Gross started his morning in deeper water, making long casts into open water.
Gross is covering a large area below the surface and interchanging baits as he makes his rounds.
Another lure change as he attempts to dial in on what the fish will react to this morning.
Gross continues to cast around this area without much luck. The morning is starting out a little slower than he’s wanting.
Time to make a move. Gross decides to head to his next spot and try something a little different.
Immediately after arriving to this spot, Gross is hooked up.
And it’s definitely a keeper.
In the boat and going in the livewell. Being that we caught up to Gross a little late in the morning, he already has fish in the livewell and is close to a limit.
In good spirits, we get in a couple casting shots as he trolls to his spot.
Gross is now finding more consistent bites. After trolling to his next spot, he hooks up almost immediately.
And it’s another keeper for the livewell.
After his move to shallower water, Gross is finding more bite and decides to stick with it for a while.
A short time later, Gross has another one on the line.
And in the boat, it goes.
Gross holds up all five fingers, confirming he now has a limit.
Gross continues to spend more time in this shallow water area. Now having a limit, he’s on a mission to find some bigger bites.
Later in the afternoon I caught up with Chris Zaldain, who at the time, is sitting in the top ten according to BASSTrakk.
But we’ll have to chase him down first to see how his day is unfolding.
Zaldain stops along a bridge. And you probably called it, he breaks out a massive swimbait.
It being late in the day with a good limit already sealed, we didn’t see any fish catches with Zaldain. But, watching him toss around a big swimbait sure is a site to see. Enjoy…
After his quick stop at the bridge, Zaldain loads up to make a long run in search of upgrades. 
Stay tuned to see how it all plays out on Day 1 of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Chickamauga Lake.

Related