Ever since I qualified to fish the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series through the 2024 Bassmaster Opens, the St. Lawrence River was the event I most looked forward to fishing. My first year on the Elites, I was kinda disappointed when St. Lawrence wasn’t on the schedule, so I was super excited to see it on this year’s lineup.
I grew up in Pickering, Ontario, which is about two hours west of Kingston, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. The fishing there is not as good as where we fish in Bassmaster events, so I’ve only been fishing Lake Ontario about four or five years.
Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time learning the lake. Even though I didn’t know I was going to win the Elite event, I knew in my head that if there was one I had the best shot at winning, it would be the St. Lawrence.
Especially after how this season had gone, I needed a good tournament to survive the year. So I couldn’t have been happier than going to a place I know so well. And with the automatic 2027 Bassmaster Classic qualification, this was a great way to end the year.
I think this win was sweeter because a lot of my family and friends got to watch it. The first few days, it was just my girlfriend, Jill, and her family, but the third day my mom came down. By the last day, I had more than 20 of my family and friends watching the weigh-ins.
That was all very encouraging, but one of the most memorable moments took place before the tournament in the service yard. When I saw Bryan Schmitt, I congratulated him on his win at Lake Champlain. He responded by saying, “I’ll be congratulating you after this one.”
That gave me confidence that other Elites thought I had the potential to do well — or even win.
The other thing that made this event special was winning with a bait I helped design. I caught most of my fish on a drop shot with a Great Lakes Finesse Vibra Bug. We worked on that bait for about a year, and I got a bunch of the prototypes just before the tournament.
This bait has a matte finish and a neutral buoyancy that allows it to sit horizontally. With any current or any subtle movement in your line, the little appendages will move. It just looks really natural in the water, and it gets super-pressured fish to bite.
The Vibra Bug isn’t really designed to look like anything specific. It’s like the urchin — the fish don’t really know what it is, so they have to eat it to see what it is. It was super cool and special to know I had input on that lure, and it gave me enough separation in the field to beat these guys.
Looking back on a season that had a lot of ups and downs, finishing with a win was pretty crazy, but it was just what I needed. I had some tough events this year, and I started having some of those thoughts where I doubted if I could compete at this level.
Winning a blue trophy gives me a lot of confidence going into next year knowing I can compete with these guys.
