MANY, La. — Ethan Fields came to the dock convinced he had blown it. An hour later, he was holding the first-place trophy at the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier at Toledo Bend Reservoir presented by Bass Pro Shops.
Following two consistent days with limits of 28 pounds, 2 ounces and 27-4, which put him in fourth place, then first, the pro from Carlyle, Ill., entered Championship Friday with a 3-6 lead.
After two days of showing off its impressive quality and quantity, Day 3 saw Toledo Bend feeling the full effects of a lake turnover that started with a pre-event cold front. With the fish clearly having a bad hair day, Fields managed only 17-13, but that was enough to tally a winning total of 73-3, that edged Buddy Benson of Dahlonega, Ga., by 2-7.
For his efforts, Fields won the $71,317 top prize. He also received an invitation to fish the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour, March 19-21 at Lake Hartwell.
“I was confident that I didn’t have it; 17 pounds on this lake — there’s no way,” Fields said of his unexpected win. “My family left at 4 in the morning and drove down. This is so special. I can’t believe it.
“With these guys in the Top 10, I thought there was no way I could keep up with them. I don’t know what to say, this is so incredible.”
Fields caught all of his final-round fish in the same area where he caught his first two days’ limits. Working a creek north of the Pendleton Bridge, uplake from the tournament site, Fields fished a variety of habitat features including timber flats and docks.
“I was just doing big circles in there,” Fields said. “I only left the creek twice to go try some new stuff and it wasn’t working, but that was one place where I knew there was fish. So, I went back to that creek, hunkered down and got it to work.
The first two days, Fields also caught fish cruising the bank and hunting big gizzard shad. On the final day, however, his bank fish were nowhere to be found.
“I had a really slow day, it was really tough on me,” Fields said. “The conditions didn’t bother me until today. The lake finished turning over and the fish were running from my baits. They did not want to eat today.
“It’s a good thing the tournament started a couple days earlier or it might have been a really poor tournament for Toledo Bend.”
Fields caught most of his fish on a Hideup Coike Fullcast rigged on a 1/0 BKK Hyperlatch treble hook with a 1/8-ounce weight. He also caught fish on a jighead minnow with a Big Bite Baits Spotlight Minnow on a 1/4-ounce head or a larger minnow on a 3/8-ounce head.
With either bait, precision casts and quick retrieves were the key ingredients.
“It seemed like you had to hit these fish right on the head this week,” Fields said. “With the docks, I was staying a couple of feet out in front of the docks, because the closer you are, the better you can see them on forward facing sonar.
“Even if I was fishing super shallow, it seemed like they wanted the bait moving quickly past them.”
At the Day 2 weigh-ins, Fields stated that he felt very confident throughout his day. Suffice to say, Day 3 brought a very different vibe, as his bites were less frequent, and he never found what Toledo Bend standards would call a big bite — something 7-plus.
Fortunately, Fields started his morning with a 5-pounder 30 minutes into his day and quickly followed with one about 2 3/4. After that, his day yielded only four more bass, but one of them was another 5.
Benson enjoyed a strong start with a Day 1 limit of 30-3 that put him in third place. Adding 21-13 in the second round kept in the No. 3 spot, but Benson gained one notch on Championship Friday by adding 18-12 for a tournament total of 70-12.
“I felt like I kinda fumbled today, but I came in and checked BassTrakk and I was like, ‘Wow, everybody kinda struggled,’” Benson said. “The first day, I could do no wrong and the last two days, it just got tougher and tougher.
“Today, it was hard to see one on the screen to throw at. It seemed like they were leaving me by the minute.”
Benson caught one of his fish on an urchin bait and the others on a jighead minnow. For the latter, he used a 1/8-ounce jighead with a 7-inch Deps Sakamata Shad to weed out smaller fish and appeal to the big ones that were eating gizzard shad.
Jace Lindsay of Beckville, Texas finished third with 69-1. His daily weights were 28-1, 19-11 and 21-5.
Lindsay said he caught all but one of his 15 tournament weight fish on a Deps Sakamata Shad with a 1/8-ounce head. A Hideup Coike Fullcast rigged on a quad hook with a 1/16-ounce weight produced one of his limit fish.
“They weren’t really set up on the spots like they normally are, so I was just trolling around good areas and (using forward facing sonar),” Lindsay said. “Maybe a wolf pack chasing gizzard shad would roll through and I’d catch one on the minnow.
“Once the sun got up, I’d rotate brushpiles and timber stretches that I know are good.”
Ty Faber of Pagosa Springs, Co., won the $500 Phoenix Boats Big Bass award with a 9-0.
Kaden Buchmann of Troutman, N.C., leads the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops standings with 244 points. Brody Robison of Dawson, Ala., is in second place with 239, followed by Brennan Flick of West Monroe, La., with 223, Peyton Harris of Birmingham, Ala., with 221, and Cody Abbott of Woodruff, S.C., with 220.
A field of 131 anglers competed in the second of three “EQ” events. The series began at Norfork Lake (Sept. 23-25) and concludes at 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.
Toledo Bend Lake Country hosted this event.
