Elite

A look at Lake Tenkiller 2025

Stop No. 7 of the season takes the Elites to Oklahoma where rains are ripping down the plains.

Posted on
Captions by
Mike Suchan
The seventh stop of 2025 sends the top B.A.S.S. series to Oklahoma for the Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller, June 12-15.
This will be the Elites’ second visit to Tenkiller, where multiple patterns are expected to be in play for the lake’s largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. The region has experienced high water this spring, and the forecast calls for more storms this week.
Officially named Tenkiller Ferry Lake, the reservoir was formed by the damming of the Illinois River that finished in 1952. Named for a prominent Cherokee family who owned the land and ran the ferry, Tenkiller is the state’s sixth largest lake based on water capacity.
Tenkiller is a 12,900-acre impoundment in the Cookson Hills of the Ozark Mountains about 75 miles southeast of Tulsa. The lake, which has 130 miles of shoreline, is popular for recreation, including scuba diving to ruins of inundated communities. The lake has 10 marinas, 14 parks, 24 boat launches and numerous islands, including famed Goat Island inhabited by … you guessed it … goats.
The 102 Elites will take off each morning at 7:30 a.m. ET from Chicken Creek Boat Ramp in Cookson. The full field weigh-ins will be held there at 3:30 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday.
The field is then cut to 50 for Semifinal Saturday then 10 for Championship Sunday, and those 4 p.m. ET weigh-ins move up the road to Cherokee Casino Tahlequah, 3307 Seven Clans Ave. in Tahlequah.
The split weigh-in venues accommodate the Weekend Expo at Cherokee Casino, where family-friendly activities open at noon both days. All B.A.S.S. events are free to attend.
The Elites last competed on Tenkiller in 2019. Originally set in the spring at Fort Gipson Lake, the event was postponed due to dangerously high water then moved to nearby Tenkiller. Carl Jocumsen won that regular-season finale to become the first Australian Bassmaster champ. His title added a second international locale after numbers of Japanese winners.
Committed to fishing offshore in the late September event, Jocumsen found a single submerged tree near an island on Day 3 and had a hunch it would remain productive. He went into Championship Sunday in third place, 4 pounds, 8 ounces off the lead. Jocumsen took the lead early with four hefty largemouth, including three caught in a span of seven minutes.
After a long dry spell, Jocumsen landed a smallmouth he said could be “a $100,000 fish.” He added a 5-pounder to weigh the largest bag of the event, 19-12, and total 54-15 to win by 3-10. It came on his 35th birthday, with his wedding to Kayla Palaniuk two weeks away. It was quite the life-changing month.
Elite rookie Blake Capps, who lives in nearby Muskogee, said to expect a tight tournament this time, with the winner averaging about 18 pounds per day. As seen in last week’s Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series, the water level was up, presenting different conditions for this time of the year.
Anglers will be vying for the heaviest five fish that measure 12 inches or more. In the stingy fall event in 2019, when just over half the field caught limits each day, Caleb Sumrall weighed the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the tournament, a 5-7 largemouth on Day 1.
 
“It is hard to win on smallmouth alone,” Capps said. “You need a largemouth or two in your bag to win. The guys with mixed bags or just largemouth are hard to beat.”
“This is the smallest lake we are going to this year, and having the water up will help spread us out,” Capps said. “I have been over there plenty of times with the water up, and you’ll be flipping trees and catching smallmouth. That’s not something you see all the time.”
Water levels have fluctuated wildly this spring. In the past two months, the lake rose to 640 feet above sea level three times and dropped back around 633. “The rain and current will be our biggest curveballs,” Capps said. “It has been a roller coaster.”
Capps said the area is expecting another 10 inches of rain before the tournament. The three-day practice period began Sunday with storm threats — Wednesday is an off day — and the forecast calls for storms during competition. “They have had current running through the lake for a month straight now,” Capps said. “I don’t know if they will be as deep as they normally are. We don’t normally have this much current this late in the year.”
Capps said he expects bass can be caught in buckbrush and flooded wood on topwaters and creature baits. He also expects a good offshore bite on rockpiles and brushpiles.
As conditions change, Capps said he expects the winner will most likely execute several patterns. “I don’t think anyone is going to win it on one spot,” he said. “It will be the guys who move around and change it up. Things are changing, and it is going to be a tournament where you need to keep an open mind.”
Jay Przekurat of Plover, Wis., leads the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race with 544 points. If he holds on through the final three events, Przekurat, who turns 26 a week after Tenkiller, could supplant Brandon Palaniuk as the youngest AOY. Reigning Angler of the Year Chris Johnston stands second to Przekurat, 42 points back, and Kyoya Fujita is third with 494 points.
Paul Marks, who edged Tucker Smith at Lake Hartwell before they switched spots at Lake Fork, leads Smith in the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year standings. Marks, of Cumming, Ga., has 435 points, 17 more than Smith, his road roommate. Since winning the Classic, Minnesota’s Easton Fothergill has climbed from last in points to 19th overall, and his 403 points put him third in ROY.
Live coverage from Lake Tenkiller will be available on Bassmaster.com Thursday and Friday beginning at 8 a.m. ET until 3 p.m. ET. Roku will have coverage on Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and noon to 3 p.m. Coverage on Saturday will be available on FS1 from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. before moving to Bassmaster.com from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday’s coverage will be available on FS1 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. before FOX takes over from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. 

Related