MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Blake Wilson has yet to make it to his primary fishing spot in the T.N.T. Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional at Arkansas River.
But no worries. His secondary spot has been good enough for first place so far.
Wilson, a 41-year-old Benton, Ark., resident, has the lead here in the Sooner State with a two-day total of 26 pounds, 6 ounces. He followed Wednesday’s 15-2 limit with an 11-4 sack on Thursday, giving him a 33-ounce cushion on Missouri’s Cole Findley, who’s second with 24-5.
A total of 160 competitors (80 each in the angler and co-angler fields) began the three-day tournament. The top 16 in each field, plus top anglers from each of the eight competing states not in that number, advanced to Friday’s final round.
A total of 40 anglers will fish on Day 3 for a share of the $34,500 total purse.
Wilson began Thursday in second place but was able to move atop the leaderboard when Day 1 leader Kris Bosley weighed only one bass on Day 2.
“I locked down and fished the same 100-yard stretch I did yesterday,” Wilson said. “The fish were a bit more scattered today because of cloud cover, I think. But the fish are there. My weight tomorrow really will depend on what size fish are in there, because I’m definitely heading back to that spot.”
Wilson said he’s fishing shallow water and finding bass in a couple phases of the spawn.
“This pocket is holding different fish,” he said. “There are some cows in there and some are chasing shad. I’m not sure they know what they want to do.”
Wilson said he’s employing “typical river fishing” methods to catch his best bass.
“I’m flipping shallow-water stuff, and mixing in some moving baits,” he said. “They’re shad-colored or white if I’m moving the bait, and then greens and blacks/blues if I’m flipping.”
Findley was in fourth place after Day 1, but he vaulted into second with a 12-15 limit on Thursday.
“Today was actually tougher for me,” the 39-year-old Forsythe, Mo., resident said. “I only had five keeper bites today, but they were heavier. Yesterday I had seven keepers. Nothing has been easy.”
Like Wilson, Findley is locking downriver, though he said he’s fishing reeds rather than wood and rock structures.
“I think it’s a bit different than what anybody else is doing,” Findley said. “I’ve caught some off wood, but I struggled doing that in practice. When I caught some off the reeds, I decided to stick with it.”
Rounding out the Top 5 anglers heading into the final day are, third, Colorado’s Nate Caldwell, 23-12; fourth, Andy Gill of Kansas, 23-4; and fifth, Oklahoma’s Tyler Ramsey, 23-2.
Kansas’ Jesse Jordan caught a 5-4 bass on Day 2, the biggest in the angler field.
Arkansas’ Jeremiah Proulx took the co-angler lead with a two-day total of five bass that weighed 13-9. Louisiana’s Jason Campbell is second with 12-13 and Oklahoma’s Colten Hutson is third with 12-6. Kansas’ Parker Welch had the big bass among co-anglers (also 5-4) which jumped him to fourth place with 11-9.
The Arkansas River continued to be stingy Thursday for both fields. Only 27 anglers caught a limit on Day 2 after 17 anglers did so on Day 1.
Kansas won the team portion of the tournament, which ended Thursday, with a total of 71 bass over two days that weighed 172-2. That was good for a $5,000 first prize for their Nation team. Team Louisiana finished second (77 bass, 166-12) and won $3,000, while Team Oklahoma (67 bass, 155-13) was third and won $2,000.
Rounding out the team competition were fourth, Arkansas (59, 137-8); fifth, New Mexico (56, 135-7); sixth, Missouri (55, 133-5); seventh, Texas (52, 113-8); and eighth, Colorado (44, 99-14).
Three other B.A.S.S. Nation Regionals are on this year’s schedule — on Tennessee’s Douglas Lake (May 24-26), the Potomac River in Maryland (June 7-9) and Wisconsin’s Lake Winnebago (June 28-30). The top anglers from each of the four regionals qualify for the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, which will be held at South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell on Oct. 18-20.
The Top 3 anglers in the championship will land a spot in the 2024 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota scheduled for March 22-24 on Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees in Tulsa, Okla.
The final day of this week’s Central Regional on the Arkansas River begins Friday with a 6:30 a.m. CT takeoff from Three Forks Harbor. Weigh-in is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the harbor and will be carried live on Bassmaster.com
The Muskogee Tourism Authority is hosting this week’s tournament.
