Story by Hunter Baughman | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Wow, what a week! I hope you were able to check out some of the coverage of the Logan Martin event last week. You might have even seen me on there! There were lots of storylines going on and a very dramatic Progressive Angler of the Year race, too. Congratulations to Scott Canterbury on his at-home win and to Patrick Walters on his long overdue AOY win.
Going into this event, I was far enough down in the standings that the pressure was off. Short of claiming a win-and-you’re-in berth to next year’s championship, I had no chance to make it. Little did I know, I would come closer to that win than I expected.
My practice was not exciting by any means. I had a decent first day of practice with around 11 1/2 pounds. The last two practice days were just average—9- to 10- pound days. Somewhere around lunch on the last day of practice I got on a swim jig bite around docks. Up to that point, my most consistent pattern was a ChatterBait on the docks. The term “consistent” was a stretch too. But even at the end of practice I didn’t feel very confident with what I had found.
When I took off on Day 1 of competition, I locked a Brazalo swim jig in my hand and started covering ground. In the first three hours I missed a few and lost one small keeper. Somewhere in the nine o’clock hour I finally landed in a pocket full of fish and quickly had a limit. From there I made a move and hit a couple more pockets. Eventually I stopped in another spot that was loaded. In that pocket I caught 20-25 keepers. Other than a single two pounder, everything else was small. Then around one in the afternoon it happened.
I caught a 4 pound, 14-ounce bass about two-thirds of the way back into this creek. That fish was roughly two pounds bigger than anything I had caught during practice and culled my bag up three pounds! Unfortunately, I never had any more quality bites and ended the day in 15th with 12-05. That night I explained to my wife that it was a random lucky bite and not to expect me to catch another that big.
On Day 2 I went way up a creek to start my day and had a quality topwater bite. Then I came out around nine o’clock, and the first pocket I fished I caught a 3 pounder two-thirds of the way back again. This was enough for me to commit solely to fishing docks in those areas hoping to generate above average bites. It worked! On my next stop, I caught a 4 1/2-pound fish and was astonished to get that large of a bite two days in a row. I stayed on that pattern all day and culled up until all my fish were over 2 1/4 pounds.
I ended the day with 14-08 and moved all the way up to fourth place! That meant I would have a camera and an outside shot to win on Showdown Saturday.
Saturday started out good, adding another solid fish on a topwater then a quick limit of small fish on the swim jig. Throughout the day I stayed the course of fishing half to two thirds of the way back in pockets. I thought if I generated two big bites there might be a chance to win. Unfortunately, the big bite never happened, and I was only able to put together 9-06. With that total I fell to tenth place … which I am completely happy with!
Here’s where it gets interesting. I haven’t really studied the weights until now while writing this column. Everyone struggled on Day 3. In the end, I only needed 14-09 to win. One ounce more than I had on Day 2! I had no idea that’s what I needed. I expected I would need 18+ to have a chance.
My two top 10s in the last three events gives my confidence a real boost. I’m excited about 2026!
I’ll check back in next week. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping up with the NPFL Championship this week at Lake Hartwell, and I hope you do too!
