JASPER, Texas — On a day marked by chaotic drama, Aiden Phillips and Weston Mullins of the Scotts Hill Student Anglers sacked up a five-bass limit of 17 pounds, 4 ounces to win the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Junior Series at Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
Finishing with a winning margin of 1-9, Phillips and Mullins made a 20-minute run north of the take-off site at Umphrey Family Pavilion.
“We fished shallow pockets in 5 feet of water,” Phillips said. “We focused on the ditch and got all of our fish in one spot.”
Mullins added this: “We were catching prespawn staging fish. They were moving up because the water was warming up.”
Around noon, Phillips hooked his team’s biggest bass — a 6-3. After a tense battle, the eighth grader brought their kicker to the net.
“It was very exciting,” Phillips said. “That fish was very strong and it was ripping a lot of drag.”
Prior to boating their day-maker, Phillips and Mullins successfully navigated a challenging moment, with help from their boat captain, Jared Phillips (Aiden’s father).
“At one point, Aiden hooked a 3-pounder and I’m trying to help them dip it and the net broke,” the elder Phillips said. “The net was floating and he just gently put the fish in the net, so I dropped the handle and dipped the fish.
“Weston’s in the back yelling, ‘I got one!’ so I’m trying to get treble hooks out of the net and get back there to help him. We got them both in. I broke a net and I broke a rod tip today by kneeling on it, but it was worth it.”
The winners caught eight keepers and made their final cull shortly after noon. They fished watermelon Rapala Crush City Mooch Minnows weightless and on a Carolina rig, but they caught most of their fish on a Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait.
“I was popping the jerkbait really hard and fast,” Phillips said. “I’d pop it two times and pause. The bites were extremely aggressive.”
Drought conditions have Rayburn’s water level approximately 9 feet below normal. Phillips said he and Mullins saw this as an advantage.
“I think it helped us, because the fish had less water to hide in,” Phillips explained. “We used Garmin LiveScope the whole time and we made our range longer so we could see the fish from farther away. We set it at 200 feet.”
The victory earned Phillips and Mullins a spot in the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Junior National Championship, July 24-25, 2026, at Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tenn.
“It means a lot that we qualified for the National Championship early in the season,” Mullins said. “This takes the press off of us.”
Hunter Beach and Austin Jefferson of the Fighting Fishsticks Jr. Bass Club finished second with 15-11.
Brooks Beaty and Caleb Coburn of Nwla Bassmasters placed third with 15-6.
Phillips and Mullins won the $500 Big Bass award for their 6-3.
This event was hosted by Jasper Development District No. 1.
