Norfork Lake EQ: Day 1

2 p.m. -- One late bite was huge for Kollin Crawford. The 21-year-old from Broken Bow, Okla., was sitting with three fish totaling under 5 pounds when he doubled up. His 5-2 catch at 1:41 p.m. took over as Phoenix Boats Big Bass and catapulted him to 16th with 9-12. In flight 4, Crawford has until 3:45 to fill his limit, which could put him in the Top 10.

Jaron Burr finished off his limit with a 3-0 to jump to third with 11-14, while Peyton Harris’ 3-pounder gave him 11-2 to tie for seventh.

Only the top 15 anglers on BassTrakk have eclipsed 10 pounds, but with only halve the field reporting, the 3 p.m. weigh-in should reveal plenty of surprises.

12:48 p.m. — North Carolina's Kaden Buchmann just made a significant cull with a 4-4 to put his limit up to 14-6 which is enough to give him the lead unofficially on BassTrakk. He's 5 ounces ahead of Brennan Flick, who is checking in early.

Cody Ross is holding third with 12-8 while Chris Miller (11-5) and Garrett Smith (11-2) moved to fourth and fifth, respectively. Nathan Reynolds popped up to seventh with 10-11.

Fred Roumbanis is now leading the charge of the dozen former Elites looking for a return engagement to the series. With a 2-13, Boom Boom moved into eighth with 10-10.

Longtime Elites Mike McClelland and Mark Menendez stand 17th and 18th, respectively, each with just over 8 ½ pounds but on three fish. The last hours of the afternoon will be critical for their hopes. McClelland is in flight 3 with a 3:30 p.m. check-in, while Menendez has until 4 p.m.

Alex Wetherell is the next former Elite on BassTrakk, tied for 20th with 8-6. Jonathon VanDam (27th), Randy Howell (28th) and Chad Pipkens (42nd) have limits, while Garrett Paquette (58th), Darold Gleason (60th) each have two fish.

The former Elites not reporting on BassTrakk include Stephen Browning, Charlie Hartley, Brett Hite, Jonathan Kelly and Casey Scanlon, who won last year’s Open on Norfork.

12:13 p.m. — Blog from Christopher Decker:

Cody Stahl has been towards the top of BassTrakk all morning long and has been consistently getting bites on isolated pieces of shallow cover. Size is hard to come by, and as the morning has continued, the bass have started to push his baits rather than eat them. A restock of jig trailers might be in order after today.

While he has stayed shallow in off-colored water, Stahl does plan on moving offshore at some point in hopes of getting one of those 2 1/2 or 3 pound bites.

12:05 p.m. — Blog from Dalton Tumblin:

Jaron Burr was nice enough to hold up a couple of his keepers from the livewell for a quick photo. Speaking of the livewell, it seems he has a bit more weight that what BassTrakk is reporting. So, catching one more fish to fill his limit will certainly go a long way. Burr is using a different approach from what I’ve witnessed so far this morning. He’s fishing very slow, not moving around a whole lot and focusing mainly on brush piles.

11:50 a.m. — Blog from Chase Sansom:

Brennan Flick has decided to come in early. He can’t technically check his fish in until 2:00 p.m., so he has opted to just stay inside the dock and try to keep his fish cool and alive for weigh-in.

Click here to listen to an update from Brennan Flick.

11:23 a.m. — After boating the unofficial Phoenix Boats Big Bass early this morning (4-8), Nate Caldwell has filled his limit and has 10-1 in the livewell. This has him unofficially in fourth place on BassTrakk.

Cody Ross, a 26-year-old from Livingston, Texas, landed a 4-0 around 10:40 and recently filled his limit to jump into second place with 12-8. He’s 1-9 behind leader Brennan Flick and only one of five anglers who’ve topped 10 pounds.

Kaden Buchmann, a 22-year-old from Troutman, N.C., moved into third place with 11-10 after catching a 2-12 and 2-10 in the past 20 minutes.

There are currently 15 of the 132-man field with limits on BassTrakk, the smallest of which is Willie McMullen’s 4-11 that has him tied for 32nd. Fifty-eight anglers have posted at least one catch.

10:50 a.m. — Blog from Dalton Tumblin:

Mike McClelland has had a decent start so far in terms of quality, but he's still looking to fill his limit. "The wind has been my friend so far this week, but I think we’re about to lose it,” said the Arkansas pro. Considering that, he says has some smallmouth schools he may pay a visit to in order to fill his limit, and then return to what he’s doing right now. At the moment, he’s fishing shallow down a rocky bank alternating between a glide bait and a soft swimbait. 

10:17 a.m. — Bass Talk Live host Matt Pangrac just registered catches on BassTrakk. The Oklahoma angler has a solid limit for 9-2. As an Eastern Oklahoman, Pangrac is no stranger to fishing highland reservoirs such as Norfork Lake.

10:07 a.m. — Blog from Christopher Decker:

Figuring out bite windows will be essential as this tournament rolls along. Kindy said there are place he will go and not get a bite and then return an hour later and catch multiple fish. Landing on those spots when the bass are biting can be difficult, which is why so far there is a lot of running around the lake. 

10:00 a.m. — Blog from Chase Sansom:

Brennan Flick is putting on an absolute clinic this morning.

“I’ve burned a lot of gas this week just idling around this place and this is the only spot I found that has fish. I was boat 80 this morning so I was really happy to see no one here when I pulled up,” he said.

Brennan has caught around 14 pounds but he claims the morning isn’t nearly as good as the afternoon bite here. He is about to leave them alone for the day, go elsewhere and give them another run this afternoon. No need to burn them up on Day 1.

9:45 a.m. – Blog by Mike Suchan:

All five of Brennan Flick’s catches came into BassTrakk at the same time, putting the West Monroe, La., 37-year-old atop the unofficial standings with 14-1, a solid bag at Norfork.

Flick’s biggest was his first, a 3-7, and he had three more just under 3 pounds. Flick, who finished ninth in Division 2, overtook Cody Stahl, who won January’s first Open on the Kissimmee Chain with 74-6. In that event, Stahl, the Opens Division 1 AOY, set a record margin of victory by topping Stephen Browning by 21-14.

Stahl didn’t post individual catches today, but had a limit for 10 pounds even.

9:38 a.m. — Blog from Christopher Decker:

2024 Ouachita Lake Open champion Jeremiah Kindy has had a productive morning so far, landing a limit weighing just under 8 pounds which includes a 2 1/2 pound smallmouth. He said he’s been catching a lot of bass, but the size has been hard to come by so far. Although an Arkansas native, Kindy has only been to Norfork once prior to this week. He’s been rotating between a jig and a drop shot, a jig for bass sitting on the bottom and a drop shot for bass he can see on his 2D sonar that are chasing bait.

9:25 a.m. — Blog from Mike Suchan:

Nate Caldwell sent a shot across the bow with an 4-8 on BassTrakk just before 9 a.m. The Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day could go a long way for the 51-year-old from Fort Collins, Colo., who added a 2-0 moments later to climb inside the Top 10.

Caldwell, whose best in 22 Bassmaster entries is a third-place finish in the 2019 B.A.S.S. Nation Western Regional on California’s Shasta Lake, is competing in the EQs for the first time after finishing 47th in Open Division 2.

A fast start and maintaining it through the three-event EQ sprint is critical. Last year, Fisher Anaya averaged ninth-place finishes to win the EQ Angler of the Year while the final angler to advance to the top B.A.S.S. series was Brock Reinkemeyer, who averaged 23rd.

After Norfork, the anglers head to Many, La., for the Toledo Bend EQ, Oct. 21-23. After the Nov. 11-13 finale at Lake Guntersville, the Top 10 in points punch their tickets to the 2027 Elite Series.

9:13 a.m. — Cody Stahl is the first angler to reach double digit weight on BassTrakk with a limit worth 10 pounds. The Georgia pro has had an incredible season in the Opens this season. In four events, his lowest finish was 33rd place and also notched a win in the first Open of the year at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes.

8:48 a.m. — Blog from Christopher Decker:

You would think that Fred Roumbanis is fishing a big bass lake if you looked at what he’s been throwing so far on Day 1. A glide bait and a bigger paddle tail swimbait have been in rotation this morning as the veteran tried to capitalize on the best perceived bite window.

So far, he has missed one big one, but that's a good sign he’s around bass. Shad jumped around his swimbait as he brought it back to the boat and a family of bald eagles are flying close by. One giant bite will go a long way in this tournament, so if he can get one to fire the rest of the job becomes a little easier.

8:26 a.m. — Blog from on the water photographer Chase Sansom:

Robison boats number one for the day, while it’s no giant he’s just getting started. He claimed earlier that he was going to wait on his schooling fish until about 8:30-9:00 and give them a go as the sun gets higher and the bait moves up the water column. He’s working an area in a back of a creek now winding a chatterbait and plopper.

8:15 a.m. — Blog from on the water photographer Dalton Tumblin:

“Well that was the craziest start to a tournament I’ve had in a long time," said Bo Thomas. He explained that he found this area in practice and called it his second or third option to fish throughout the day, until noticing some fish blowing up on it as he was running past it this morning. He said he spun the boat around, made his first cast at them, and hooked into the 3-8 that’s now sitting in his livewell. First cast of the day. “That right there to start the day really calms the nerves," he said. Thomas is going to stick to this area for just a little longer before heading to his initial starting spot. He’s working the bank, throwing mostly topwater baits.

7:58 a.m. — Mike McClelland is making the most of starting the EQ season near home. The Arkansas pro currently has two keepers in the boat for roughly 5-15 which is a great start. McClelland is one of the best on the planet when it comes to fishing White River lakes.

7:15 a.m. — While the "Postseason" of bass fishing is three tournaments through the fall, it has been far from fall weather this week in North Arkansas with warm temperatures every single day of practice. However, the EQ anglers were greeted with a nice morning with lows hovering around 60 degrees.

7:00 a.m. — Day 1 of the 2026 Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier at Norfork Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops is officially underway! Norfork Lake is expected to be a grinder of a tournament. To see the winning weight predictions from the EQ anglers, click here!