MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — The second round of competition required more persistence and offered less reward, but Kayden Buchmann managed to maintain his lead on Day 2 of the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier at Norfork Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops.
Day 1 saw the pro from Troutman, N.C., take the top spot with a limit of 16 pounds, 7 ounces. Adding a second-round bag that went 14 even, Buchmann tallied 30-7.
“Every day is different out here,” Buchmann said. “I caught mine completely different today than I did yesterday, for the most part.”
Same as yesterday, Buchmann started his day looking for pockets with deer near the bank. In his experience, wildlife activity indicates an undisturbed area, as the animals will scatter when boats move in to fish.
“I spent the first couple of hours looking for deer and I caught two pretty good ones in a pocket where I saw some deer in the back,” he said. “It got slow for a couple hours, so I switched it up and just started grinding.
“At the time, I had four fish for 6 or 7 pounds. I started catching a couple more and I caught a good one and had a couple more really good bites that I didn’t catch.”
Buchmann kept his details guarded, but he noted that a distinct change in his tactics created the opportunities he needed. His change, he said, was a direct result of trial and error.
“I noticed what I wanted to do was not working at all and I completely scrapped that and fished the way I really like to back home and tried to survive for the most part,” Buchmann said.
While he ended up fishing some new areas today, Buchmann gave his better Day 1 spots another chance to produce.
“I tried to fish around big ones, and where I had caught them pretty decently yesterday, they were all little and they weren’t biting as good,” Buchmann said. “I have no idea why that changed. We can’t use (forward facing sonar) this week, so you just have to fish where you think they’re gonna be.
“I just have to figure it out again tomorrow. That’s all it comes down to.”
On Day 1, Buchmann led Mike McClelland by only 2 ounces. Today, he expanded his lead to 14 ounces over Colby Bryant, who rocked the weigh-ins with a 19-pound, 11-ounce limit — the largest bag of the event, so far.
“He’s gonna have to catch 19 again,” Buchmann said of his final-round mindset. “I’m not gonna take the hammer up, that’s for sure.”
Hailing from Houston, Texas, Bryant is in second place with 29-9. After placing 50th on Day 1 with 9-14, he made the biggest move of the day by climbing 48 spots.
Anchoring his bag with a 5-7, Bryant said today’s boat order allowed him to capitalize on an opportunity that had eluded him a day earlier.
“I found this school in practice, but things didn’t work out the right way,” he said. “I knew that being a late boat number yesterday, I wasn’t gonna get there in that early bite window.
“This morning, I pulled up and in about 30 minutes, it went down. It was an awesome day.”
Bryant got a look at his spot toward the end of Day 1 and he noticed that baitfish had moved into the area. This clued him in to the strategy that delivered Day 2 fireworks.
“After (the Day 1 weigh-ins), I went home and tied on a big crankbait that dives 25 plus feet and this morning was a magical 30 minutes,” Bryant said. “After that, I piddled around, scouted and looked, but I haven’t found anything like it.”
Bryant’s spot was a deep, offshore rock formation in the lake’s southern end. As he explained, the spot’s layout favored a feeding zone.
“The way this point sets up, it has a big saddle and they like to sit down in this saddle,” Bryant said. “A lot of the points in this lake have rocks on the edges, this one has rocks on the top, so that seems to be holding them a little better.
“I had seven different schools in practice and this was the only one that stayed. I was sitting in 28 feet and throwing to the top of it, which was in 18 to 19 feet.”
Predictably, Bryant said he’ll return to his spot on Day 3 and get all he can get.
“I’m gonna burn it down,” he said. “Tomorrow, there will only be 10 boats, so I’ll be able to get there early again and hopefully, I can get them fired up and see what we can make happen.”
Brennan Flick of West Monroe, La., remained in third place with 29-7. Bolstering his Day 1 limit of 15-14 with today’s weight of 13-9, Flick said he again glued himself to the only spot he has. Today, he said, was a test of patience.
“I sat in the same spot I sat in yesterday, for the entire day and made the same cast the entire day and never got a bite until about 12:30,” Flick said. “I didn’t have anything else to do.
“Today, the bait scattered out, so I guess they didn’t line up with the bait being scattered all over the flat. They didn’t set up to where I could get them fired up. I don’t think I got my fifth one until like 2:30.”
Flick said he caught his fish dragging, but when the football jig that produced yesterday’s weight failed to deliver, he switched to a Carolina rig with a 1-ounce weight and a Zoom Brush Hog.
Bryant holds the Phoenix Boats Big Bass lead with a 5-7.
A field of 134 competitors took to this White River impoundment for the first of three “EQ” events, also including Toledo Bend (Oct. 21-23) and Lake Guntersville (Nov. 11-13). After the final event, the Top 10 anglers in EQ points standings will qualify to fish the 2027 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series.
The Top 10 anglers will fish in Friday’s championship round.
Friday’s takeoff is scheduled for Buzzard Roost Boat Dock at 7 a.m. CT. The weigh-in will be held at the same location at 3 p.m.
Coverage of the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier at Norfork Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops can be found on Bassmaster.com. Bassmaster LIVE will be available on Friday, Sept. 25 from 8-11 a.m. ET and Noon-3 p.m. on Bassmaster.com and Roku Sports Channel.
This event is being hosted by the City of Mountain Home, Arkansas.
2026 Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers Series Title Sponsor: Nitro Boats
2026 Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers Series Presenting Sponsor: Bass Pro Shops
2026 Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers Series Platinum Sponsors: Progressive, Toyota
2026 Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers Series Premier Sponsors: Bass Pro Shops, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mountain Dew, Nitro Boats, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
2026 Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers Series Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Daiwa, Lew’s, Lowrance, Phoenix Boats, VMC, Yokohama
