Story by Justin Brouillard | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Here’s a closer look at how each event shaped Kyle Welcher’s incredible 2024 AOY season.
Lake Logan Martin – 7th Place
While each event presented its own challenges, Kyle Welcher approached the season with an open mind, rarely leaning heavily on his practice period to kick off an event. Instead, he spent his time covering water, searching for potential, and keeping an eye on key factors like water temperature and clarity.
“I knew coming into this event that temperatures had been in the teens just days prior, with some ice on the lake,” Welcher explained. “That alone told me things would change as the water warmed, so I had to stay open-minded—no set game plan based on practice.”
On day one, Welcher started on the most obvious spots in his “areas,” just trying to get a bite. He landed a keeper early and adapted his strategy as the water warmed. Throughout the event, he targeted both shallow rock and wood, as well as deeper brush and hard spots.
“You never want to go all-in on anything when the lake sets up like that,” he said. “I tried to keep everything honest. I barely fished during practice, but by day three, I felt dialed in for 12 pounds or more—which, on that body of water, is above average. It’s tough to catch 3.5-pounders or bigger bass out there.”
Tackle Warehouse Key Baits: Rapala Shad Rap & Rapala Crush City Pig Stick
Lake Hartwell – 3rd Place
Similar to Logan Martin, Kyle Welcher left Lake Hartwell a bit disappointed despite cracking the top three. The event, held in mid-May, caught the tail end of the bass spawn and the near conclusion of the herring and shad spawn. With that in mind, his plan was to sample everything Hartwell had to offer.
“Hartwell is so full of fish, I wanted to keep everything honest,” said Welcher. “I started day one on the shad spawn before moving to some herring spawn spots. After that, I went bed fishing for the remaining spawners and then targeted cane piles, brush, and blow-throughs for suspended fish. Each day, I started with options, and when I found something working, I stuck with it.”
As luck would have it, early on day one, Welcher connected with a true game-changer: a 6-pounder, along with another solid keeper while fishing the shad spawn. His bait of choice was a small Rapala Crush City Mayor swimbait rigged on a Gamakatsu Weedless Swimbait Hook. That strong start set the tone, allowing him to shift focus to spawning fish on day two.
“After a good start, I focused on bed fish, but it was a tougher day,” he explained. “I caught some decent fish but lost three big ones, which hurt my chances in the event. On the final day, I adjusted my rotation and caught another big bag to close out the tournament.”
On the last day, Welcher spent a brief period on the shad spawn before quickly transitioning to his herring spots, where he secured a solid limit. He then returned to targeting spawning fish with a Rapala Crush City Clean Up Craw, making a few key culls, including a big largemouth that helped him lock in his second consecutive top ten finish.
Tackle Warehouse Key Baits: Rapala Crush City Mayor and Rapala Crush City Clean Up Craw.
Pickwick Lake – 5th Place
While Kyle Welcher will rarely argue with a top-five finish, Pickwick is one event he wishes he could have back. When you get the bites to win and still come up short, it stings. For Welcher, the misstep began in practice when he misjudged how the TVA lake would fish and chose to ease off his spots on day one.
“I really didn’t think the field was going to catch them as well as they did,” he admitted. “By July, the fish have been pressured all season, seen every bait, and usually move off the obvious spots. There were some big schools on sneaky places, and I found a few of those, but not a lot.”
Throughout the event, Welcher rotated between five or six key areas, relying on his experience with ledge fish. He focused on picking off bigger, actively feeding bass early with aggressive tactics before slowing down and cleaning up with finesse presentations.
“Like most, I was getting the bigger fish with a big spoon and a big crankbait,” he explained. “Once the school started breaking up into smaller groups of scattered fish, I swapped to the Crush City Freeloader and was able to generate four or five more bites throughout the day. That adjustment was the key to staying competitive in this event.”
Tackle Warehouse Key Baits: Big Spoon, Big Crankbait, and Rapala Crush City Freeloader.
Saginaw Bay – 18th Place
To start the second half of the season, Kyle Welcher entered the Saginaw Bay event leading the AOY race. While he doesn’t fixate on standings with multiple events left, he understood the growing significance of each decision as the season wound down.
“The fewer tournaments you have left, the more control you have,” Welcher explained. “Fishing has so much variance, but when you’re down to just a couple of events, every day matters more. If you do your job, you can keep the race in your hands.”
Welcher knew that focusing on smallmouth would be the key to both a strong finish at Saginaw and maintaining his AOY lead. He started with a bang, putting over 22 pounds on the scale on day one without even touching his best spots.
“I started day one on a community hole and caught a big bag quickly,” Welcher said. “I didn’t even need to go to my best areas.”
But the momentum shifted on day two. Returning to the same community hole, he caught just one small fish before equipment issues and rough conditions cut his time on the water short.
“I only fished for about an hour and a half that day,” he said. “I had some gear problems and handed my fish off to another angler to bring back for me.”
Day three didn’t go much better. Battling big water on Lake Huron with a borrowed boat, Welcher’s trolling motor gave out early, forcing him to adjust on the fly. With his smallmouth bite fading, he turned to largemouth fishing to salvage the event.
“I just drove to areas, used the poles to stop the boat, and fished without a trolling motor,” he said. “I culled once and salvaged what I could, but the event was a train wreck, and I dropped in the AOY standings.”
He relied on a drop shot setup, featuring a 1/0 Gamakatsu hook and the Crush City BLT. Switching between 1/8-ounce and 1/2-ounce weights depending on depth and wind, he leaned on the soft plastic’s unique floating action.
“The BLT is perfect for windy conditions,” Welcher explained. “Its softer material lets it float naturally, and I like giving it slack to keep the presentation more subtle. On slack line, it hovers and doesn’t move too much—it’s deadly for finicky fish.”
Despite the challenges, Welcher managed to minimize the damage, keeping himself in contention as the AOY race heated up.
Tackle Warehouse Key Baits: Rapala Crush City BLT and other Dropshot style baits with a Gamakatsu 1/0 hook.
Lake of the Ozarks – 11th Place
What was expected to be a better event overall turned into a grind at Lake of the Ozarks. Fortunately for Welcher, his only other trip to the Missouri lake came during the exact same time of year for another tournament.
“I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, and that helped me a lot,” said Welcher. “I knew it might be tough. In practice, I found a decent topwater bite where I could get a couple of bites, and I located some deeper fish on hard spots. Most of the schools I found were full of non-keepers, though.”
Welcher leaned on his deeper patterns throughout the event, with over half his fish coming on the Crush City Freeloader around brush piles and hard spots.
On day two, his four-fish limit was anchored by a 6-pound largemouth that helped salvage the day, and the event. True to form, on day three, Welcher scrapped his initial plan and went exploring, running way up the river to adjust on the fly.
“I decided to make a big change on the final day after struggling to get a limit on day two,” he explained. “I ground it out with the Crush City Pig Stick and caught one big fish in 6 feet of water using Livescope. That fish saved my event.”
The adjustment paid off, giving Welcher a respectable finish that kept him in the hunt heading into Lake Murray.
Tackle Warehouse Key Baits: Rapala Crush City Pig Stick & Rapala Crush City Freeloader
Lake Murray – 4th Place
At the final event of the year, Welcher came in trailing Drew Cook. Like he made note of earlier, with less events, and now down to the final event, he had a shot at winning the AOY if he came in and did his job.
“Murray sets up very similar to how I fish at home,” he said. “I found small zones of stained water, and a section of the lake with bigger fish and cleaner water. For this event I did a few different things over the two days of competition.”
On day one, he started out by cranking rocks and wood in dirty water. Despite a catching a solid keeper and having high hopes for the pattern, it faded. Next, he ran to the ditches where he worked over two hard spots in 5 to 6-foot of water. The hard spots help schools, and he was able to get a bite “now and then.”
“The third thing I did, where most of my fish came from, was the deeper ditches with bigger schools of fish,” he added. “It didn’t matter; you could pull in and catch one or two. They would get deep on the threadfin, in 30-to-40-foot, big wolfpacks of fish. That is where most of my good keepers came from – 2.5 to 3.5-pound fish.”
In addition to the schooling fish, Welcher also kept the grass fish honest. Working a mix of hydrilla and pond weed, he caught an important fish each day from the vegetation.
Key Baits: Rapala Crush City Mooch Minnow fished on ¼ and ½ ounce heads & Rapala Elite Shad Rap
