Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
There are a lot of loose standards you could use to figure out whether a tournament was easy (a “slugfest”) or difficult (a “grinder”). Most of them are nothing more than guesswork.
You could ask the anglers … but the ones who finish near the top mostly enjoyed good fishing, and the ones who finished near the bottom always struggled.
You could count the number of fish weighed in or their cumulative weight, but you’d also need to factor in how many anglers were in the field.
You could look at the weather. How cold or how hot was it? Did it rain … or snow?
Let’s break down some actual numbers and try to determine the NPFL’s toughest tournament ever.
If you’re interested in sheer physical discomfort, you might classify Lake Pickwick or Lake Murray in 2024 as the toughest ever. Highs at Pickwick (July) were in the mid 90s and lows at Murray (December) were below freezing. That’s enough to make anyone look forward to getting off the water. Then there was Wright Patman Lake in Texas in 2023. It rained 2 1/2 inches on Day 2. I don’t care who makes your rain gear, you and all your stuff are going to be soggy at the end of that day.
Those events were endurance tests. And even though the anglers fishing those days are professionals, extreme weather tests everyone. Even at the highest level, a certain number of anglers will mentally check out when the weather works against their strengths or plans.
But the fishing wasn’t all that bad at those three events, and I think we should determine “toughness” by the actual fishing rather than the weather or the attitudes of the anglers. For that, we’ll need to look at some catch data.
And when you look at the catch data, it’s pretty easy to see which NPFL tournament was the toughest ever.
I’ll start by telling you that it was also the shortest event in NPFL history. As you know, NPFL tournaments run three days, but occasionally the weather interferes, and an event must be shortened. It happened at Lake Murray in the 2024 finale, and it happened at Lake Cumberland in Kentucky for the 2022 season opener.
The cancellation of the first day at Lake Murray made it a two-day tournament. But Cumberland was much worse, and it earns my vote as the NPFL’s toughest event ever.
How tough was it? Let’s set the stage.
Cumberland was the kickoff to the 2022 season in February of that year. The weather was harsh. Air temperatures were around the freezing mark, and water temperatures were in the 40s. Heavy rains before and during practice caused the Corps of Engineers to raise the water level 11 feet over a three-day period.
That’s right. Eleven feet.
If you want the recipe for brutally tough fishing, it’s simple. Take cold water and make it muddy. If you want to make things epically bad, raise water levels quickly so things that were safely on the shore or on boat docks are instead floating and drifting around the lake—logs, deck chairs, dock floats, basically anything that’s not tied down. Navigation hazards just add to the fun!
That was the situation at Lake Cumberland in February of 2022.
How bad was the fishing?
Well, 121 anglers weighed in just 173 bass. That’s an average of just 1.43 keepers per angler day—worst in NPFL history. Forty-six anglers zeroed.
Those 173 bass weighed 409 pounds and 4 ounces—the lightest tournament catch in league history.
The average angler weighed in 3.38 pounds—also worst in NPFL history.
Were there some bright spots at Cumberland? Of course there were. There are bright spots at every tournament, no matter how tough it is.
Taylor Watkins won the event with an astounding 23-06. He also had the tournament’s big bass at 5-07. His fish came on a 3/4-ounce Booyah Covert spinnerbait and Zoom Split Tail Trailer.
The other bright spot is a historical note. For his efforts, Watkins earned $50,000 and the total payout was almost half a million dollars. That’s likely the biggest payday in bass tournament history for a one-day event.
And it happened in the NPFL.