Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Bailey Gay had never seen Lake Murray before official practice started. At the end of three practice days, he was scrambling and just hoping to cobble together a modest limit. That’s when the weather changed everything!
Backstory
“I had no experience on Lake Murray before official practice started,” the 21-year-old pro from Kentucky said. “But I do have a lot of experience on Lake Hartwell, and I thought they might fish similarly.”
Practice
Gay started the first day of practice hoping to find quality roaming fish using his forward-facing sonar. He located some baitfish but struggled to find areas with lots or bait or lots of quality bass. So, he changed tactics and began looking for bamboo cane piles that anglers often sink on waters with blueback herring.
Cane piles are more vertical than conventional brush piles and are designed to provide cover higher in the water column where roaming bass often suspend. Gay was able to catch one keeper largemouth and several stripers off cane piles but had most of his success fishing a shaky head worm on the bottom of points.
The second day of practice saw Gay targeting more points in hopes of expanding his pattern. He caught some bass in shallow water on a jerkbait, including his first Murray bass over 3 pounds. He also continued his search for roaming fish to no avail. The few bass he caught that day all came off points and in less than five feet of water.
Instead of getting better, things actually took a turn for the worse on the third and final practice round. Gay gave it one last try at locating some quality roaming fish with his live sonar. Nothing. So, he shifted to the cane piles but found nothing much there. He tried some shallow crankbaits and caught a small bass or two, but not enough to give him confidence heading into competition.
At the end of practice, Gay had little to go on. He’d start the tournament with lots of rods on his deck, ready to fish whatever was in front of him. Since he was already safely inside the cut to qualify for the 2025 NPFL Championship, he just wanted to avoid a disaster and maybe find a way to finish in the money.
Any loftier goal would have been unreasonable.
Competition
No one wins a major tournament without catching a break or two, and Bailey Gay caught his break at Lake Murray when the opening round of the event was cancelled due to high winds and dangerous boating conditions. A front blew through and dropped temperatures.
“It turns out that it was just the change I needed,” Gay said. “It activated the fish I had found in the grass and turned it into a two-day tournament.”
Because points on the lower end had served him best in practice, Gay naturally decided to start there. He ran to a small pocket south of Dreher Island State Park where he had found some lethargic bass in the grass. But on this day, they were roaming around, not hunkered down in the cover. In his words, the bass in the grass “revealed themselves” after the front … just in time for the tournament.
“I chose a drop shot rig because the fish were not on the bottom,” Gay said. “I had about a foot long leader between my 3/8-ounce sinker and a No. 1 Owner Cover Shot hook. I was using a 6-inch Roboworm in Aaron’s Morning Dawn.”
Pretty quickly, Gay caught a 4 1/2 pounder on the drop shot—the best bass he had seen all week. Maybe things weren’t going to be so tough after all!
“It was important to keep the bait up off the bottom,” Gay said, “and I held it as still as I possibly could, though current will always make a drop shot worm move some. If I didn’t get but after a little while, I’d ‘pop’ the bait sharply to get their attention.”
A limit of solid fish proved easy. In fact, grassy pockets gave him 25 keepers on Day 1. After that, he slowly worked his drop shot up and down a couple of nearby points and was able to cull his two smallest bass.
When he got on stage, Gay weighed in 18 pounds, 12 ounces of Lake Murray bass. It was a lot better than expected and good enough for fifth place with one day to go. He trailed the leader—South Carolina’s Dustin Williamson—by 17 ounces and figured he’d need 21 pounds on the final day to close the gap, leapfrog over the other three anglers ahead him, and take home the trophy.
Gay’s confidence was strong on Day 2. He knew he could catch a limit in the grass … until he couldn’t. The pattern that had been so good on Day 1 was failing him on Day 2. By 9:30, he had just one fish.
That’s when he made the decision that saved his tournament. Gay picked up the trolling motor and ran to the two points that had produced fish on Day 1.
“The bass on the points ranged from 40 feet deep to less than 10 feet deep,” he explained, “and they were so tight to the bottom that it was challenging to see them on my electronics or to tell bass from other species.”
Using the same drop shot rig on the points that worked so well around the grass, Gay would start at 40 feet deep and painstakingly inch his way toward the shallows, following the contour of the point. There was little or no cover.
“The bass were just swimming very slowly,” Gay said. “If they hadn’t been moving, I might not have seen them. I wouldn’t drop the worm to them until I saw a fish.”
Gay was beyond meticulous in fishing those lower end points. His attention never wavered as he scrutinized each rock and any little movement he could detect.
“It wasn’t any fun to fish that way,” he said, “but that’s what it took.”
In all, Gay caught about 10 hard-fought keepers on Day 2—all quality fish—and he got his 21 pounds almost exactly! Twenty-one pounds, 3 ounces to be exact for a two-day total of 39-15. It was good enough for first place, a big trophy, and $100,000.
Brock Bila finished second with 37-08. Patrick Walters was third with 35-09 and Day 1 leader Dustin Williamson slipped to seventh with 34-02.
Takeaways
“It doesn’t matter who you’re fishing against in a bass tournament. If you can catch what you set out to catch — the weight you targeted for that day — nothing else matters.”
With the win, Gay became the youngest winner in NPFL history at 21 years, 6 months, 28 days, eclipsing the mark set by Will Harkins in the season opener by nine months.
The win also moved Gay into 10th place in the Progressive Angler of the Year standings and cemented his spot in the 2025 NPFL Championship, though a berth was already certain through his consistent success throughout the season.
Gear
All of Gay’s bass came on a drop shot rig:
Bait: 6-inch Roboworm Straight Tail Worm in Aaron’s Morning Dawn
Line: Main line was 10-pound-test Sufix 832 braid; leader line was 10-pound-test Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon
Rod: 7-foot-2 medium action Shimano Expride B spinning rod
