Elite

Big bass of Lake Fork 2025

Tucker Smith finds the winning rotation to win a shootout where all the finalists once again earn Century Club belts.

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Captions by
Mike Suchan
The Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork was once again remarkable. Lake Fork again showed out, producing 100 pounds in each of the six Elite visits. For the second successive visit, all 10 finalists earned Century Club belts. And again, a rookie won the title. Tucker Smith rallied from 8 pounds back to win with 127-8, the seventh best total of all-time. Let’s look back at the big bass and bags at the crown jewel of Texas bass fishing.
Buddy Gross set off the Skeeter Boats Big Fish Alert (BFA) early on Bassmaster LIVE with this 9-11. In the weigh and release format, anglers could only bring in one fish measuring longer than 24 inches, but this fatty came up short. Gross did not as he also had 6-8 and a late 6-11 in his Day 1 leading limit of 33-9. The two-time Elite winner rode that to his first cut of the year, however, he dropped to 41st after not filling his limit the next two rounds.
First-year Elite Dakota Ebare of Brookeland, Texas, got off to a great start in hopes of making his first two-day cut. With 7-6, a 7-5 and a late 6-12, the 32-year-old totaled 30-1, the last of six anglers with Dirty 30 limits on Day 1. Only one bass for 1-9 on Day 2 saw Ebare plummet to finish a disheartening 75th.
Two-time Fork winner Lee Livesay had a slow Day 1, highlighted only by this 7-6. The Fork guide averaged almost a pound better when he caught the third-best limit of all-time, 42-3 on Day 4 in 2021. Saying it was his worst practice and he never found the bite, Livesay started 83rd with 14-5 then dropped to 90th with only two fish on Day 2. Only two of the six Texans in the event, Brad Whatley and Chris Zaldain, made the 50 cut.
Randy Howell brought this 8-3 “over” to the Elite stage, helping him weigh one of the 50 limits topping 20 pounds on Day 1. The veteran from Guntersville, Ala., stood 44th with 20-5. He added 18-15 and 17-10 to finish 43rd, and he moved up two spots to 52nd in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings.
A Guntersville transplant from the West Coast, Andrew Loberg’s best was this 8-2 in a 23-0 limit. After a slow start, the 31-year-old rookie was looking to build momentum after a solid 15th-place showing at Lake Hartwell.
Tennessee’s John Garrett caught a pair of bigs, including this 8-8, as he stood 10th after Day 1 with 28-12. With only three fish on Day 2, he was last man in the 50 cut with 38-10 then moved up to finish 48th. The AOY leader after two events, Garrett is now 16th in the season-long point standings.
Scott Canterbury was among the 90 Elites who caught limits on Day 1, when the average fish weighed just over 4 pounds. The 2019 AOY champ from Odenville, Ala., started 31st with 22-8, but three fish saw him fall to 74th and lose three AOY spots to 64th.
Rookie Emil Wagner brought in an 8-13 that bolstered his 27-4 Day 1 limit. With only 10-8 on Day 2, the 27-year-old from Marietta, Ga., dropped about a pound outside the cut to finish 52nd. After climbing to 31st in AOY with his ninth-place finish at Hartwell, Wagner fell back six spots.
With a Day 1 LIVE camera, Jay Przekurat was in the hunt with an early 7-10 catch and some friends. He briefly took over the lead with this 9-14, the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day. It helped him post the third-best limit of 31-2. The two-time Elite winner added 27-7, 23-2 and 24-12 to take ninth. His third Top 10 of the year increases Przekurat’s lead in the AOY race from 28 to 45 points.
Looking to repeat at Fork, Trey McKinney didn’t have an over but caught consistently larger bass to weigh 32-5 and stand second to Gross. Last year, McKinney was 1-9 shy of setting the all-time weight record when he became the youngest Elite winner at 19 years, 1 week. On Day 2, McKinney posted his sixth consecutive 30-pound limit at Fork to move up to second place.
Three 6-pound-plus bass gave Brandon Lester 29-5 to start Day 1 in ninth, and behind this 8-9 he weighed 22-9 on Day 2. Without it, he would have dropped more than one spot. The Fayetteville, Tenn., angler finished 13th with 23-0, which improved his AOY standing 18 spots to 41st. The projected cut to make the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic is 40th.
Loberg was on the big bite again, this 8-13 helping him weigh 23-13. With 22-3 on Semifinal Saturday, Loberg wound up 18th. Coming on the heels of a 15th at Hartwell, Loberg has climbed out of the AOY cellar to 69th.
Patrick Walters, the 2020 Lake Fork winner, caught a late 8-14 that helped him weigh 26-4 and stand eighth with 53-13. He was one of 10 anglers on pace to bust 100 pounds, but 21-10 on Saturday had him finish just outside the cut in 12th. The perennial AOY contender moved up seven slots to 12th in points.
Alex Wetherell had the second-biggest bass of Day 2, a 9-11, but he needed some grown-up friends to go with it. The Middletown, Conn., pro missed the cut with just 18 pounds both days, leaving him 60th.
Kyle Norsetter took Day 2’s Phoenix Boats Big Bass bonus with this late-day 9-14, and it put him inside the money. The Wisconsin pro weighed 25-5 to jump from 74th to 45th, and he added 19-3 to finish 37th. The 39-year-old has made all but one 50 cut over five events and stands 21st in AOY as he shoots for his second Classic. Last year, there were four double-digit bass at Fork, led by Justin Hamner’s 11-7. Norsetter and Przekurat shared the event’s overall Phoenix Boats bonus with their 9-14s.  
Starting Day 2 in 20th after 25-4, Tucker Smith had a best of 8-1 in his limit, totaling 34-5, the best after two days. Smith jumped from 20th to fourth with his total of 59-9.
Kyoya Fujita opened with 31-0, then took over the lead with his Day 2 limit of 34-0, which included an 8-2 and 7-14. The two-time Elite winner from Japan held a 2-4 lead over McKinney with an even 65-0. On Day 2, there were 80 limits, including eight over 30 pounds, and the average fish weight dropped to 3-10.
Bryan New was among those making big moves on Semifinal Saturday. The 35-year-old from Leesville, S.C., caught this 8-4 just after noon to total 31-3 and catapult 15 places to 14th. His best finish this year and fourth cut moved him off the Classic bubble to 25th in AOY.
Will Davis Jr. of Sylacauga, Ala., started Day 3 in 43rd, but this 9-0 helped him jump to 26th with 24-13. Davis’s kicker tied for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, splitting the $1,000 bonus. The 9-0 helped Davis, who led AOY after three events, salvage points and stay second behind Przekurat, 45 points back.
Easton Fothergill continued his roll at Fork. With a 7-11 and a 7-10, the rookie from Grand Rapids, Minn., weighed 33-2 on Saturday to climb back into the Top 10. After 29-3 for ninth, Fothergill slipped to 14th with 19-4. Fothergill, who turns 23 on May 31, finished eighth, his third Top 10 after winning the Lake Ray Roberts Classic. In that stretch, he’s moved from last in AOY to 35th.
Second-year Elite Tyler Williams climbed from 12th to sixth with a 32-13 limit aided by this 8-5. The 23-year-old added 28-0 on Championship Sunday to take sixth with 110-9, earning his second Century Club belt at Fork in as many visits. His second Top 10 of the year bumped him 20 spots up AOY to 24th as he shoots for a third Classic berth.
JT Thompkins caught big cookie-cutter fish offshore at Fork, starting 11th with 28-4. With 30-9, he moved to fifth, then added 28-11 to reach his first Top 10 of 2025 after making three last year. The 23-year-old from South Carolina went into Championship Sunday fourth with 87-8.
Tucker Smith kept in the hunt, this 8-12 helping him weigh 33-1 on Day 3. He went into Championship Sunday in third place with 92-10, needing just 7-6 for a Century Club belt. However, he had bigger goals.
Smith’s road roommate, Paul Marks, was also putting on an offshore show. Just two weeks after he edged Smith by 14 ounces for the Lake Hartwell title, the rookie from Cummings, Ga., caught quick limits where he often took over the lead. His Day 3 of 33-4 moved Marks to second with 95-11. Marks, who turns 24 on Saturday, added 31-0 to finish second with 126-11, 13 ounces behind Smith. He was the only angler to post Dirty 30 limits each day of the event. The runner-up finish bumped him nine spots to ninth in AOY, but he actually lost a point to Smith in the ROY race.
On Saturday, Fujita and Marks traded leads until the 29-year-old landed this 9-0 lunker that tied Davis for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day. The big catch at 1:27 p.m. gave Fujita the day’s big bag at 35-10 and put his three-day total at 100-10.
Fujita became the first Elite to earn a Century Club belt in just three days. It was his third belt after 102-5 gave him third in the 2023 St. Lawrence Elite and winning Toledo Bend last year with 100-13. Leading by 4-15, Fujita added 21-3 Sunday to finish fourth with 121-13, jumping nine spots to seventh in AOY.
It was belts all around, from first to 10th-place Seth Feider. Fishing mostly shallow, Feider posted rounds of 27-10 and 28-4 to make Sunday in ninth. The 2021 AOY champ caught 21-13 to total 101-8, and he was proud to finally earn a belt. His second Top 10 of the year moved him nine spots up AOY to 11th.
Standing 26th after two days, Wesley Gore caught a 7-11 in Saturday’s 34-11 that jumped him into 10th. On Sunday, the 24-year-old from Clanton, Ala., caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of 8-7, helping him weigh 29-13 to finish seventh with 107-6. Gore also finished seventh last year at Fork, when he weighed 115-9. His second consecutive Top 10 has pushed him from 86th to 38th in AOY.
Thompkins had a 7-6 in Sunday’s third-best limit of 32-12. Despite losing a spot to finish fifth, he was all smiles with his first belt for totaling 120-4. After a slow start to the season, Thompkins has made four consecutive cuts to get healthy in AOY, including a 21-spot improvement to 30th from his Fork finish.
On Saturday, McKinney’s streak of 30-pound bags at Fork ended with his 21-5 limit. He was fifth with 84-1, 16 pounds from the lead. On Sunday, McKinney was back to his old self. His five bass went 8-5, 8-4, 7-6, 7-2 and 7-1 for the Rapala CrushCity Monster Bag of 38-2, moving him to third with 122-3. After an 89th at St. Johns, McKinney has three Top 10s and an 11th, moving from 90th in AOY to third.
Tucker Smith was also in rhythm on Championship Sunday. “I think finding my rotation every day was the biggest thing,” he said. “It seems like those offshore fish especially have bite windows, and I found the bite windows on the five best places I had and ended up pulling up to them at the same time every day.”
With a best of 7-14, the 23-year-old from Birmingham, Ala., weighed his heaviest limit of the week at 34-14. His four-day total of 127-8 ranks seventh all-time. “It’s unbelievable; I feel like I’m in a dream right now,” he said. “This was one of the best days I’ve ever had on the water. It’s really special to win on Mother’s Day with my mother (Mallory) here.” Smith moved up nine places to fifth in AOY.

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