PARIS, Tenn. — Adam Nieman and Charlie Mcmahon were randomly chosen to fish as partners during the Colorado B.A.S.S. Nation Junior qualifying tournament last September. It turned out to be the perfect stroke of luck.
Nieman and Mcmahon won the 2026 Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Junior Championship at Kentucky Lake with a two-day total weighing 26 pounds, 2 ounces, earning $2,000 in total scholarship money.
“It means the world (to win). This has been a dream for me since I first started fishing,” Nieman, a rising high school freshman, said. “I worked so hard to do this and this is the best thing ever. I’m so happy.”
Mcmahon, a rising seventh grader said, “I couldn’t be here without Adam and (boat captain) Sam (Ausbrooks). I can’t believe we won it. We had a rough start a couple of days, but it all ended well.”
The Front Range Bass Club duo caught 13-11 on Day 1 before landing 12-7 the final day to unseat Day 1 leaders Brooks Beaty and Caleb Coburn.
None of three teams that qualified for Colorado had boats of their own, so several student-anglers from Wabash Valley College’s fishing team volunteered to be their boat captains. Ausbrooks, a recent graduate, said it was an eye-opening experience.
“This was super cool. They put in the work all week,” Ausbrooks said. “I had to drag them off the water every day right before dark. It was super fulfilling on my part. I’m not that much older than they are and it was awesome to see how much the next generation loves this sport. It reassures me that tournament bass fishing isn’t going anywhere.
“You’ll see (these two) very soon at the higher levels.”
Hailing from the Denver metro area, Nieman and Mcmahon had never been to a lake this big and so well.
“This week has been the best bass fishing I have ever (experienced),” the 14-year-old Nieman said.
Donovan’s Pond, the fishery that hosted the qualifying event, was small enough that parents and adults could watch their kids from the bank as they made circles around the lake. Taking on the massive Tennessee River reservoir was a daunting challenge, but their home state prepared them for a potentially tough late summer bite.
“Colorado is tough fishing. We are used to catching one 1-pound bass every five hours,” Mcmahon, 12, said. “So, this week was absolute madness.”
After practicing daylight to dark every practice day they could, Nieman and Mcmahon moved between shallow and deep sections of Kentucky Lake during the tournament, but their best spot was a shallow shellbar located in 4 feet of water.
Along that bar, the duo threw ChatterBaits and mixed in a 6th Sense Bodega as well as a football jig.
“We really adapted to the conditions. We threw the ChatterBait when it was raining and then threw slower baits when it was sunny,” Nieman said.
On Day 1, the duo caught the bulk of their weight during the morning hours. On the second day, they only caught two keeper bass during the morning. With a little under two hours to go before check-in, they moved back to the shallow bar, caught their third keeper, and culled out several times before weigh-in time.
“We did terrible to start. We caught a 3-pound largemouth and a 2 1/2-pound smallmouth, but couldn’t catch any keepers after that,” Nieman said. “The decision that saved our day was going back to that bar and throwing the ChatterBait.”
Beaty and Coburn wrapped up the tournament with a two-day total weighing 24-9. The Northwest Louisiana Bassmasters opened the tournament with a 15-3 limit before catching 9-6 on the final day.
“It feels good to bring home a trophy,” Beaty said. “I wish we could have gotten first, but second is a start. Maybe we will get it next year.”
Targeting offshore bars in 6 to 10 feet of water, Beaty and Coburn tossed the Alpha Angler Ouchie, an urchin-style bait, as well as a drop shot with a morning dawn Roboworm and a magnum worm at isolated stumps.
A change in conditions hurt their bite on Day 2, Beaty said.
Griffin Wilson and Aiden Alexander from the Denver Bassmasters finished third with 21-5 followed by Anderson Weaver and Lawton Cantrell from the Blue Ridge Tiger Fishing Team in fourth with 21-1 and Parker Smith and Cooper Anderson from the Scotts Hill High Junior Team in fifth with 20-12.
Camden Baker and Asher Hart from the Hartley’s Hawgs Piglets fishing team caught the Big Bass of the Tournament, a 6-9 largemouth they caught on Day 2.
The Henry County Tourism Authority hosted this event.
