WINCHESTER, Tenn. — Knowing a full day of fishing was ahead, Emmanuel University’s Dylan Akins knew he would have to take advantage of every quality bite he received on Day 2 of the Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s to advance.
By landing the tournament’s biggest bag so far, Akins did just that.
With a two-day total of 30 pounds, 4 ounces, Akins finished at the top of the leaderboard on Day 2 and earned the No. 1 seed heading into the bracket portion of the event. Adrian College angler Aaron Jagdfeld earned the No. 2 seed with 29-2 while Caleb Hudson from the University of South Carolina-Union will be the third seed with 27-1. Lander University’s Andrew Blanton claimed the fourth and final seed with 20-14.
Weights will reset, and Akins will go head-to-head against Blanton on Semifinal Sunday while Jagdfeld will face off against Hudson. The winner of the head-to-head matchups will advance to Championship Monday and the overall victor will claim a spot in the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic at Lake Ray Roberts along with paid entry into the 2025 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens.
“I’m feeling kind of confident, but I don’t have the backing like I did yesterday,” Akins said. “I think you are going to have to burn it to the ground every day. It is going to be interesting to see what the weights are when we are pushing our stuff.”
The remnants of Hurricane Helene shortened the first day of the tournament, and while rain and wind persisted on Saturday, the eight competitors were able to launch on time and enjoyed a full day of fishing.
Akins landed 14-4 on Day 1 before catching a tournament best 16-0 on the second day of competition. Along with a morning bite, he feels conditions have stabilized enough to improve the bite across the lake today.
“Today they seemed a little more active and I think you saw that in people’s bags today,” Akins explained. “Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same, so it will be interesting to see if they keep biting like this, shut down or if it gets even better.”
Tims Ford reminds the recent college graduate and Bassmaster Team of the Year champion of the upper end of his home lake of Lake Lanier, which has helped him break down the lake this week. The river sections of Lanier are full of threadfin, which is the prominent baitfish in Tims Ford as well.
Several different patterns have played out for Akins so far this week. No one thing has been better than another, but he has narrowed his rotation down to four key baits.
“I’ll go through a stretch and fish a pattern,” he said. “I’ve been mixing in a little of everything. I’m mixing it up shallow and deep. Everything I’m fishing is kind of similar, but I haven’t seen a correlation between them.”
With how deep Tims Ford generally is, Akins added it hasn’t been super difficult to switch between his deep and shallow patterns. While he has caught a largemouth or two each day, Akins has landed mostly smallmouth.
“You can see the bank, and then you can pan over with (forward-facing sonar) and there it’s as deep as 80 feet of water,” he said. “You can fish shallow points and then deep stuff; you never really know where they will be.”
After landing everything he flipped in the boat on Day 1, Akins started Day 2 by misjudging a boat flip and losing a key bass. He recovered nicely, though, landing four keeper bass before hitting a lull later in the morning.
“Today off the rip, I tried to flip one and it hit off the gunnel,” he said. “That hurt, but I pushed through it, and I knew I had to catch a limit to make it to the next day.”
The four remaining anglers will launch from Tims Ford Marina beginning at 6:20 a.m. CT on Sunday and return for weigh-in at 2:30 p.m. Live coverage will begin on FS1 at 8 a.m. ET and continue through 11 a.m. before moving over to Bassmaster.com at noon.
The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and local businesses are hosting the tournament.
