While Bassmaster Elite pros strive for excellence throughout each event, the right combination of variables occasionally aligns to create the opportunity for superlative performance. Success hinges on seizing the moment, rising to the occasion and turning in a truly memorable performance. Here’s an example from Wisconsin pro Caleb Kuphall.
Event: 2021 Bassmaster Elite at Guntersville
Scenario: This late-May event saw a largely postspawn effort with fish making the predictable transitions from spawning areas to staging locations en route to their main lake summer haunts. Kuphall hung his hopes on two key spots that served the fish’s seasonal needs.
“Most of the fish were done spawning and a lot were on bluegill beds,” Kuphall said. “My first area — a milfoil flat on a point with a good hard spot outside a spawning bay — was the perfect stopping place for fish moving out,” Kuphall said.
His secondary spot, an island located below the B.B. Comer Bridge (State Road 35), held two particular stretches of matted weeds with patches of floating vegetation. Although he did not push into the shallows during practice, Kuphall said reports of abundant bream beds clued him in on the area’s forthcoming appeal.
“I think what happened was when all of those bluegill got done spawning, they moved out to the mats,” Kuphall said. “Every day I’d hear bluegill eating insects in the mats, and I’d see bass blowing up on them. Those bass just stayed under those mats and ate bluegill all day.
“They just happened to move out at the right time. That’s why nobody else found them.”
Noting that his lifetime of fishing shallow milfoil on the Upper Mississippi River had prepared him for what he’d encounter on this Alabama fishery, Kuphall said the key to his success was favorably positioning himself along the supply line.
“In both areas, I had new fish coming to me throughout the tournament,” Kuphall said. “Having only two areas, you really need to have fish coming to you or you’re gonna (exhaust) that spot in a hurry.”
This truth would play a prominent role in the event’s unfolding. But before we look at how Kuphall strategically leveraged his options, consider the numbers.
We throw the word “dominant” around a lot when more realistic terms like “solid” or “impressive” would better fit. But Kuphall clearly dominated this event. Any doubts? Consider the numbers:
On Day 1, his limit of 27-10 — the event’s heaviest sack — established a lead of 6-7. In the second round, even his smallest limit of the week — 15-10 — kept him on top by 4-9. Adding a third-day limit of 23-9 rebuilt his advantage to 11-8.
With a Championship Sunday bag that went 19-1, Kuphall surged across the finish line by a margin of 17-14, the second largest in Bassmaster Elite Series history — behind South Carolina pro Patrick Walter’s 29-10 margin at last year’s the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest Benefitting Texas Parks and Wildlife Department on Lake Fork.
“Area is everything in a tournament like that,” Kuphall said. “I had two spots that I feel were the best two spots in the lake. Judging by what everyone else was catching, the areas I had were producing bigger fish at that time.”
The decision: It did not take long for anyone monitoring BassTrakk to see that Kuphall’s starting spot possessed home-run potential, as the (unofficial) online standings showed him with a Day 1 limit of approximately 19-4 by 6:58 a.m. Putting on a shallow flipping clinic, the northern pro outpaced several southern hammers with combined decades of TVA experience.
While his starting spot certainly set the pace, Kuphall said a gutsy call ultimately allowed him to seal the deal and claim his first Bassmaster Elite trophy. At a pivotal moment, deciding to gamble on that spot by the bridge unleashed his tournament’s potential and cemented the one-two punch he needed to secure the win.
“I only caught one fish there in practice, but it was a 6-pounder,” Kuphall said. “I almost didn’t go there in the tournament because it wasn’t that productive in practice.
“Those fish must have started moving into that area; it was perfect timing. I pulled in there on the first day (of the tournament), and they were just there. They just kept moving out there throughout the tournament.”
Following a windy, cloudy practice, tournament days saw a mostly sunny, hot complexion. That told Kuphall the fish utilizing either of his spots would be tucking into and under cover. On spot No. 1, that dense milfoil was money. Spot No. 2, it was all about isolated clump of thicker mats with lily pads.
On his spot by the B.B. Comer Bridge, Kuphall punched the vegetation with a Texas-rigged Zoom Z Hog in the green pumpkin and California 420 colors rigged on a 4/0 extra with a 1-ounce tungsten weight, as well as a 1-ounce Dirty Jigs No Jack Punchin’ Jig with a Bass Pro Shops twin tail trailer.
“That first day, I went to my starting spot and caught a big bag right off the bat, but I decided I didn’t want to catch anymore fish there, so I was like, ‘Where do I go?’
“I had a swim jig spot way up the lake, but the fish weren’t that big, so it probably would have been a waste to go up there. I knew if I was going to upgrade at all that day, I needed a big fish.”
Leaving his milfoil flat about 10 a.m., he finished his day near the bridge. Adding a 4 1/2 and a 5 1/2 validated his decision.
Game changer: An oddly astute angling witticism, “dance with the one that brought you to the dance,” applied in some degree for Kuphall. However, when his dance partner started losing steam, he invited another to the dance floor and and regained his rhythm.
There was a point on the second day where the bite slowed down in his first spot. He had been catching all of them on a Texas-rigged Zoom Z Hog in the green pumpkin and California 420 colors on a 4/0 extra wide gap hook with a 3/4-ounce tungsten weight. He switched to that 1-ounce Dirty Jigs No Jack Punching Jig with a Bass Pro Shops twin-tail trailer.
“After making that switch, I started getting bit right away,” Kuphall said. “I think it was showing them something different caused some reaction strikes I wasn’t getting from the Texas rig.”
Takeaway: Kuphall knows he could have stayed on that starting spot, beat it up for four days and hoped enough fish would replenish for a solid finish. He also knew winning would require a complementary option.
His bridge spot surely did scream victory in practice, but the whisper of potential was just enough to convince him to take a chance.
“Pay attention to really small clues, like catching one fish during practice that clued me in on what turned out to be the winning area,” Kuphall said. “Every fish means something.
“On that bridge spot, if I had not gotten that one bite in practice, I never would have gone there in the tournament.”
