Winning the 2026 Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Lake Norman presented by Battery Tender was such an achievement. It is so hard to win an Open, so it is special to have that trophy in my house. I’ve looked at it every day and will probably look at it each day for a long time to come.
I’ve always been close to a win here on my home. I never had the lead or a big push to have a really good shot at a big win until this tournament. It all came down to the final day weigh-in. When they said I had won, I couldn’t believe it.
Norman is a special lake. I’ve fished here basically my whole life, and if you talk to any of the pros who live around here, they’ll tell you it’s a conditional lake. And it fools a lot of people. Unless you get one of those crazy weather systems, you have to figure it out as the tournament goes along and run new water.
I finished third in the 2021 Open at Lake Norman. Cody Hoyle had a big lead, and I just couldn’t climb over the hump. It wasn’t mine to win, but I think it helped prepare me mentally for this opportunity. The more events you fish, and the better results you get, you learn you can only control what you can control. You see guys who win multiple times, and I think it is because they never let the moment get too big.
I knew going into the tournament I was going to fish docks. I saw some bass spawning in pockets but knew it was the tail end of that deal. On Norman, you have to fish really shallow or in the mid-depth range. When the pressure gets to these fish, they slide out just a little bit. The bite windows get smaller when that happens, and you have to be willing to run good water that you feel confident in and keep putting your bait in front of those quality bass.
Day 1 of the tournament, I started out doing what I traditionally do at that time of the year when the shad are spawning. It should have been wide open, but the low water made it extremely tricky to find places you could get a topwater bite. I ran that for a little bit, caught some momentum builders and lost a big one. Around 9:30, I felt like I was behind and started running boat docks and immediately started getting bites.
I had around 10 or 11 pounds pretty quickly, but there were two decisions I made that salvaged the day. I ran into a pocket and caught a 3-pounder that was locked on the bed in 10 casts. I put it in the box and ran out of there, saw a community hole dock with no one on it, stopped and went back-to-back casts on 3-pound largemouth. That saved my day.
I improved on Day 2. Based on what I saw, I wanted to keep everything honest. I ran the topwater stuff for 30 minutes, then went straight to my more productive pattern — the docks from the mouths of pockets to halfway back in the pockets. I felt like that was where the majority of the bass were stopping and congregating. It really started ticking that day, and every dock I was going to, I was catching them. I caught some good fish between the docks that were in wolf packs later in the day too.
It’s hard to catch 15 pounds on Norman, so I was very happy coming back to weigh in with that. Then Cody brought in 19 pounds, and Kyoya waxed them too. I was frustrated because I thought I didn’t have a chance. It was a little deflating, but conditions were changing, so I just went out there on Day 3 trying to see how high I could climb. I went out there with a positive attitude to be fishing on the final day of an Open.
After trying the topwater deal in one place, I pulled up on a stretch and caught a 3-pounder and a 2 3/4-pounder, my best start to a day I’d had all week. With the wind, cooler temperatures and the clouds, I could already tell the fish were acting differently. I ran water I had fished the previous two days and caught two smaller keepers, and at that point I decided to run new water. That was the decision that changed the whole tournament for me. I was running down the main channel, and the wind was blowing across the lake. I pulled over to a main lake stretch of docks I hadn’t made a cast at all week. I caught a 3-9 spotted bass and a 3-13 largemouth, which jumped me up to 14 pounds at that point with a small one.
I told my AmBassador, “If I don’t catch another bass, I had a great tournament. But, if I can catch another 3-pounder, I could have a shot if the guys struggle ahead of me.”
The rest of the day, I fished for big bass. I decided to fish a pier, one I had already fished a couple times. I threw a variety of baits but didn’t get a bite. I strapped the rods down on the left side of my boat, but before I left, I picked up my Neko worm and fired it up under the dock and caught the winning bass. It was a big, spawned-out 4-pound largemouth.
That moment was so special.
Part of getting that bite was presenting it correctly with the given conditions. The wind was pushing through the pier, so I had to let my bait drift with the wind and current, not against it. I had already made six casts at it, but once I left it drift, I got that bite.
As the day ended, I was fishing a stretch of docks before I had to check in. With five minutes to go, I saw Cody run into a pocket close by and thought, “Man, that’s cutting it close.” And in the time between then and check-in, I put my bait in front of multiple big fish. They didn’t commit. The opportunity was there to have a really giant bag, and I thought it just wasn’t my time to win.
I knew I had done my job, and when I pulled in, everyone started telling me I had a shot. Cody even came up to me and told me, “You got this.” Weigh-in was still super stressful. It started to set in that I had a shot, but I didn’t want to have false hope. My family was there, and I had been close before in big events and came up short. I was looking at my wife the whole time. It was an emotional roller coaster because it was such a big tournament to win.
As we move into next year, I want to start fishing more Opens and see if this bass fishing thing is what I’m meant to be doing full-time. I want to capitalize on the potential sponsors and endorsements this win brought my way. That is pushing me towards fishing the Opens next year for sure.
Fishing the Opens will be a lot, but if everything keeps moving in the right direction, I feel like I have to take the bull by the horns.
