GROVE, Okla. — Oklahoma pro Austin Cranford hasn’t been pleased with his results on the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series tour four events into his rookie season, so he jumped into the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees presented by Battery Tender hoping to get back on track. Through Day 1, it seems to have worked, as the 30 year-old weighed in 21 pounds 3 ounces of bass to lead New Mexico’s Rick Harris Jr. by an ounce.
“It’s no secret that I’ve had a rough year this year,” Cranford said. “I’ve been looking for that one day to get my mojo back. I was in a funk and needed something to finally go right and that starts with just one bite.”
Thursday’s first day of competition proved to be a battle with Mother Nature. Prior to the event, Cranford stated that he expected the water to be in Grand’s bushes, leading to an old-school bush flipping tournament. Instead, the bottom fell out and once-flooded cover sat high and dry. On top of that, the wind blew consistently from the south at 20 miles per hour today, with gusts at time of at least twice that much.
“We’re just getting ready for Buffalo if you’re in Division 1,” Tournament Director Hank Weldon joked.
While Cranford had hoped for rising water that would send big bass rushing to the shallows, once he realized that wasn’t going to happen, he changed course and practiced with the intention of finding where those fish would go. His bag included a 5-8 bass, and he said that it’s hard to amass 20 pounds without at least one of those big bites. He tried to save as much as he could today, and “bailed out” once he had that big bag, partially because he didn’t want other competitors to see where he was fishing. He hopes that the wind will kick up again on Friday, although it’s not supposed to do so.
“I hope that it blows 100 miles per hour,” he said. “The bigger the waves the better. It makes them bite, but I’m afraid that it won’t actually blow tomorrow.”
Harris agreed that the wind “helped a lot” and noted that the falling water moved bass from the willow bushes he’d been fishing onto rock cover.
“I had one big 6-pound bite in practice that keyed me in,” he said. “Those types of fish aren’t random.”
He culled multiple times throughout the day, including one close to check-in time that helped him substantially and said that his prime areas still have lots of quality fish. While he now resides in New Mexico, he cut his teeth fishing and guiding in Texas, most notably on Lake Amistad, and is therefore no stranger to big fish. Earlier in his career he won another AAA tournament on Lake Texoma.
“I’d say Oklahoma has been very good to me,” he said.
Former Elite Series pro Casey Scanlon is in 3rd place with 20-14.
“The fish are biting,” he said. “But in practice I intentionally avoided a bunch of stuff and felt like I was going to catch a 12-pound limit. I started over in the changing conditions and fished new water all day. It’s always good any time we’re in Missouri, Arkansas or Oklahoma. I feel right at home.”
Scanlon competed in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic on Grand and finished 44th but didn’t get a shot at Classic redemption until last month in Knoxville. He qualified for his second bite at the apple by winning last year’s Bassmaster Open on Norfork Lake in Arkansas. It was his second career Open win, both in the Ozarks region. If he can make it three, he’ll get a chance to compete in Greenville next March.
Alabama’s Wyatt Burkhalter is an ounce behind Scanlon. He said that after a tough practice he “would have taken 13 pounds and been happy with it.” After today’s washing machine ride, he was glad he didn’t make that deal. It’s his first time at Grand, but he’s hoping that his pattern holds up for two more days.
“I’m good buddies with Justin Hamner, who won the 2024 Classic here,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll get some of that Classic juju.”
Kristine Fischer, a noted kayak angler and BassmastHER Ambassador who has added the Opens to her schedule in recent years, sits in 6th, with 20-4. She admitted that she’d struggled in making the switch to a larger boat and was concerned that she’d bitten off more than she could chew, but today’s catch had her ebullient on the stage.
“This is what I really needed,” she said.
If she can rise a few spots in the standings over the next two days, Fischer has a chance to become the highest-finishing female angler in Bassmaster Opens history. That high water mark was set in 2013 by Christie Bradley of Virginia, who finished 4th in an Open at Tennessee’s Douglas Lake. Bradley has been one of Fischer’s mentors.
“Women’s fishing can be tough,” Fischer said. “There’s a lot of gatekeeping. But Christie is one of the ones who has helped me a lot. I’m so blessed to have her in my life. She’s an absolute inspiration.”
While the anglers were understandably tight-lipped about locations and patterns, it appears that in this event where forward-facing sonar is prohibited, most are power fishing. Many went true Oklahoma old school today with big spinnerbaits to take advantage of the windy conditions.
Overall, despite or perhaps because of the conditions, Grand Lake showed why Bassmaster returns again and again. It’s simply loaded with quality bass. Seventy-eight competitors weighed in 13 pounds or more, and a remarkable 146 out of 195 brought 10 or more pounds to the scales. That means it’s a wide-open tournament in terms of who will push through to Championship Saturday.
Jonathan Pimentel of Missouri caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, a 5-14 largemouth.
The full field of anglers will launch from Wolf Creek Park beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in starting at 2:30 p.m. The Top 10 anglers after Day 2 will compete on Championship Friday and the winner will earn a spot in the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour.
Follow along with all of the action from the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees presented by Battery Tender on Bassmaster.com.
Grove Convention and Tourism Bureau is hosting this event.“It’s no secret that I’ve had a rough year this year,” Cranford said. “I’ve been looking for that one day to get my mojo back. I was in a funk and needed something to finally go right and that starts with just one bite.”
Thursday’s first day of competition proved to be a battle with Mother Nature. Prior to the event, Cranford stated that he expected the water to be in Grand’s bushes, leading to an old-school bush flipping tournament. Instead, the bottom fell out and once-flooded cover sat high and dry. On top of that, the wind blew consistently from the south at 20 miles per hour today, with gusts at time of at least twice that much.
“We’re just getting ready for Buffalo if you’re in Division 1,” Tournament Director Hank Weldon joked.
While Cranford had hoped for rising water that would send big bass rushing to the shallows, once he realized that wasn’t going to happen, he changed course and practiced with the intention of finding where those fish would go. His bag included a 5-8 bass, and he said that it’s hard to amass 20 pounds without at least one of those big bites. He tried to save as much as he could today, and “bailed out” once he had that big bag, partially because he didn’t want other competitors to see where he was fishing. He hopes that the wind will kick up again on Friday, although it’s not supposed to do so.
“I hope that it blows 100 miles per hour,” he said. “The bigger the waves the better. It makes them bite, but I’m afraid that it won’t actually blow tomorrow.”
Harris agreed that the wind “helped a lot” and noted that the falling water moved bass from the willow bushes he’d been fishing onto rock cover.
“I had one big 6-pound bite in practice that keyed me in,” he said. “Those types of fish aren’t random.”
He culled multiple times throughout the day, including one close to check-in time that helped him substantially and said that his prime areas still have lots of quality fish. While he now resides in New Mexico, he cut his teeth fishing and guiding in Texas, most notably on Lake Amistad, and is therefore no stranger to big fish. Earlier in his career he won another AAA tournament on Lake Texoma.
“I’d say Oklahoma has been very good to me,” he said.
Former Elite Series pro Casey Scanlon is in 3rd place with 20-14.
“The fish are biting,” he said. “But in practice I intentionally avoided a bunch of stuff and felt like I was going to catch a 12-pound limit. I started over in the changing conditions and fished new water all day. It’s always good any time we’re in Missouri, Arkansas or Oklahoma. I feel right at home.”
Scanlon competed in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic on Grand and finished 44th but didn’t get a shot at Classic redemption until last month in Knoxville. He qualified for his second bite at the apple by winning last year’s Bassmaster Open on Norfork Lake in Arkansas. It was his second career Open win, both in the Ozarks region. If he can make it three, he’ll get a chance to compete in Greenville next March.
Alabama’s Wyatt Burkhalter is an ounce behind Scanlon. He said that after a tough practice he “would have taken 13 pounds and been happy with it.” After today’s washing machine ride, he was glad he didn’t make that deal. It’s his first time at Grand, but he’s hoping that his pattern holds up for two more days.
“I’m good buddies with Justin Hamner, who won the 2024 Classic here,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll get some of that Classic juju.”
Kristine Fischer, a noted kayak angler and BassmastHER Ambassador who has added the Opens to her schedule in recent years, sits in 6th, with 20-4. She admitted that she’d struggled in making the switch to a larger boat and was concerned that she’d bitten off more than she could chew, but today’s catch had her ebullient on the stage.
“This is what I really needed,” she said.
If she can rise a few spots in the standings over the next two days, Fischer has a chance to become the highest-finishing female angler in Bassmaster Opens history. That high water mark was set in 2013 by Christie Bradley of Virginia, who finished 4th in an Open at Tennessee’s Douglas Lake. Bradley has been one of Fischer’s mentors.
“Women’s fishing can be tough,” Fischer said. “There’s a lot of gatekeeping. But Christie is one of the ones who has helped me a lot. I’m so blessed to have her in my life. She’s an absolute inspiration.”
While the anglers were understandably tight-lipped about locations and patterns, it appears that in this event where forward-facing sonar is prohibited, most are power fishing. Many went true Oklahoma old school today with big spinnerbaits to take advantage of the windy conditions.
Overall, despite or perhaps because of the conditions, Grand Lake showed why Bassmaster returns again and again. It’s simply loaded with quality bass. Seventy-eight competitors weighed in 13 pounds or more, and a remarkable 146 out of 195 brought 10 or more pounds to the scales. That means it’s a wide-open tournament in terms of who will push through to Championship Saturday.
Jonathan Pimentel of Missouri caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, a 5-14 largemouth.
The full field of anglers will launch from Wolf Creek Park beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in starting at 2:30 p.m. The Top 10 anglers after Day 2 will compete on Championship Friday and the winner will earn a spot in the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour.
Follow along with all of the action from the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees presented by Battery Tender on Bassmaster.com.
Grove Convention and Tourism Bureau is hosting this event.
