One Yeti Hot Seat. Unused.
Give the second through ninth place finishers another day to fish and it still might not get a set of butt imprints.
Kyle Welcher extended his lead of 34 pounds 14 ounces to an even more incredible record-setting 45-7. To put that in perspective, 35 anglers who fished the first three days did not amass 45-7 in that time.
He had the biggest weight each day, by a margin of somewhere between 5-14 and 9-5. To put that in perspective, even under a “best ball” format in which the best daily limit from the rest of the field could go up against the winner, he still would have won by over 29 pounds.
He also caught the biggest fish of the event, a 10-8. I guess if you want to pick nits, you could say that he didn’t catch the biggest fish of the young season. He didn’t set an all-time weight record. He didn’t hit 30 every day. He didn’t negotiate international trade deals with even one country.
Still, as someone who’s watched a lot of Elite Series tournaments over the past 19-plus seasons, and lots of Bassmaster events before that, for me this goes down as a most memorable one-of-a-kind. There have been wire-to-wire wins, but this was like Welcher was fishing a totally different body of water than everyone else.
I just hope, for his sake, that he’s getting a royalty on those CrushCity Bronco Bugs. Even if it’s only pennies, it’ll likely finance his son’s college education.
Here’s what I saw, heard and thought as I watched, riveted, as an exceptional tournament meandered toward its entirely predictable ending:
Kyle Welcher, idling toward the ramp — “I don’t believe it until I get the trophy.”
Top Dog – Welcher’s 118-12 is the 13th highest weight in Elite Series history. The only weight above his that’s not from Texas is Steve Kennedy’s 122-14 from Clear Lake, ranked #11.
Margin Call – Welcher’s margin of victory (45-7) destroys the previous record set by Patrick Walters at Lake Fork by 15-13. This was the 18th Elite Series tournament where the winner had a margin of 10 or more pounds. Only two anglers have done it twice – Brandon Palaniuk and Patrick Walters.
Ups and Downs – As Shane LeHew (9th, 64-14)said onstage, “The Angler of the Year points always come down to one or two points for somebody.” There’s never a huge amount of room for jockeying among the top ten, but there’s almost always some movement. The top three heading into today – Welcher, Brandon Lester and Trey McKinney – all held position and several others went up or down a point or two. The big movers were Tyler Williams (7th, 66-2), who fell three places, and Keith Combs (5th, 67-5) and Justin Hamner (6th, 67-2), both of whom rose four spots. It may be particularly meaningful for Combs, who’s lived LeHew’s statement. In 2018, 2020 and 2021, he finished 43rd, 43rd and 47th in the AOY race, just a few spots out of the guaranteed Classic bubble.
A Vote for New Venues – I’m a big advocate for BASS visiting new tournament waters. For a variety of reasons, it may never be feasible to have more than a few new locations on the Elite Series schedule, but there are enough lesser-known gems that there should always be at least one or two. Of course, the worst thing that can happen when visiting a new locale is for the fishing to stink. Sometimes it’s not the fishery’s fault – unusual weather, a nasty cold front and many other factors lead to tough days on the water. That in turn leads to griping from the fans and from the anglers, which is why we were especially fortunate to have Welcher’s great performance occur this week. No one would’ve blinked if he’d done it on Guntersville or Rayburn, but now in some categories the Pasquotank sits above those two storied fisheries in the record books – and with far fewer visits. For better or for worse, it’s unfair to judge a body of water on a one week snapshot, but we got a flattering pic of the Albemarle Sound this time around. It might not produce another Century Belt catch in the future, but I have a feeling that if the tour comes back again, given decent conditions we’ll see more 70- to 80- or even 90-pound catches.
Highs and Lows – None of the ten anglers competing today produced their best bag of the tournament, but seven, including Welcher, had their worst. No one got stronger every day but none of them went down every day, either.
Shane LeHew – “I’m not going to use any expletives because there are kids in the crowd, but I am pretty dang proud to be a North Carolinian.”
Twenties – Obviously Welcher topped 20 pounds every day. The only other angler to do it even twice was Trey McKinney (3rd, 72-1). He did it on days one and three. Seven of the top ten had at least one 20-pound bag, while Keith Combs (5th, 67-5) was the highest-ranking angler to not bring a 20-plus catch to the scales. He topped out at 18-15 yesterday. Of course, Combs is certainly happier than the five anglers who produced a 20-pound bag but did not crack the top ten.
Strong Starters – Through 12 Elite Series tournaments, Trey McKinney has made the top 50 on 10 occasions, has been in the top 25 nine times, and has made six top tens. Similarly, Tyler Williams has made the top 50 nine times, has been in the top 25 eight times, and has made four top tens. Meanwhile, Kyle Patrick has fished into the top 50 on eight occasions, made the top 25 six times, and the final day cut three times.
Looking Ahead to Hartwell – The South Carolina pros hope to feast on home cooking in the upcoming event on Lake Hartwell, because their neighboring state to the north was not kind to them. JT Thompkins was the only South Carolina pro to make the 50 cut at the Pasquotank, and just barely, finishing in 46th. Meanwhile, Jason Williamson, Patrick Walters, Bryan New and Brandon Cobb finished 53rd, 65th, 88th, and 97th, respectively.
Looking Ahead to Fork – After Hartwell, the anglers will have a couple of weeks off and then head to famous Lake Fork in Texas, where Lee Livesay and Keith Combs will be among the pre-tournament favorites. Both are inside of the Classic cut, with Livesay well-positioned to make a run at his first AOY title. They’ll have to be sure not to look past Lake Hartwell, where they’ve had mixed results. Livesay finished 19th there in the 2022 Classic after finishing 62nd in a regular season tournament in 2019. Combs fished two Classics there and finished 25th and 40th, and was 44th in the 2019 Elite.
Lee Livesay on the Halftime Show – “I caught a 7-11 on Day Two and I was counting the big fish money.” He earned a check for his 18th place finish, but got edged out for any big fish bonus bucks. Today’s big fish was Welcher’s 7-3, the smallest of the four days but his second of the event.
Early AOY Watch – Don’t sleep on Jay Przekurat. He’s finished 30th, 13th and 15th in the first three events of the season. No one who follows him doubted he could do that, but with two events in Florida and one on a new body of water, there were many opportunities to slip up. There’s only one true northern offshore smallmouth event – St. Clair – but he won an Open there in 2024. He came in 12th in his one previous Elite out of La Crosse, Wisconsin. The young pro has finished 10th, 6th and 7th in the past three AOY races.
Tyler Williams on Why He Prefers to Fish Without Socks and Shoes – “The shivering helps you shake your jig the right way.”
Fishing His Way Through It – It may seem hard to fathom, but this is the first time Keith Combs has made consecutive Elite top 50 checks since the first two tournaments of the 2023 season.
Classic Champs – Granted, there’s a lot of fishing left to go, but after three Elite Series events Jason Christie is the only past Classic champ inside the 2026 Classic cut right now.
Ronnie Moore describing a solid cull for Justin Hamner – “That’s like the Luka Doncic trade.”
Where are the Rookies? – Currently, there are only two rookies inside the Classic cut – Tucker Smith and Paul Marks. Beau Browning is just a few points outside of it.
Justin Hamner – “That’s the only thing this town is missing, a little pop-up massage stand, and we’d be in business.”
Century Club – Welcher became the 52nd angler in Elite Series history to join the Century Club. There have been 70 of them altogether, from 11 different bodies of water.
Seth Feider After Catching a Fish to Cull With — “There’s a bunch of these down there. They’re just not biting my junk.”
Harry and Charlie Disapprove – The anglers spread out on distant rivers including the Alligator, Chowan, Roanoke, but I was disappointed not to hear about the Scuppernong River, on the southern end of the Albemarle Sound to the west of the Alligator.
Turkeys beware. Seems like that’s where just about everyone is headed. See you at Hartwell.
