When Blake Capps was in first grade, he and his classmates were asked to write down what they wanted to be when they grew up. The scraps of paper then went into a time capsule that was opened a dozen years later when they were high school seniors.
“I wrote that I wanted to be a professional fisherman,” Capps said.
After winning the 2024 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Lowrance, Capps can officially say his wish has come true.
The 28-year-old Capps weighed a three-day total of 42 pounds, 14 ounces to win the championship that concluded Friday on Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees, less than 100 miles from his home in Muskogee. Capps had the heaviest bag of the day (14-14) which propelled him to a 14-ounce victory in a tournament that featured nearly 500 of the best B.A.S.S. Nation anglers from around the U.S. and several foreign countries.
The victory at Grand Lake comes with a wealth of riches, among them a spot in the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic which will be held March 21-23 on Lake Ray Roberts in Fort Worth, Texas. Capps also collected $50,000 cash, an invitation to compete in the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series, and a Nation’s Best boat and truck combo to use for the year.
After hoisting the Bryan V. Kerchal Memorial Trophy that goes to the B.A.S.S. Nation Champion each year, Capps (who works as a petroleum operator at a nearby power plant) reflected upon the time capsule that was cracked open back in 2015.
“I haven’t had a chance to do a lot of competitive fishing because of work and the cost that goes with being a tournament fisherman,” he said. “But I’m definitely gonna have to sit down and think about (accepting the offer to fish in the Elite Series).
“And I can tell you, I’m leaning really heavy toward it,” he said, chuckling. “I may go out there and get my butt whooped. But somewhere down the road I can look back and say I was a Bassmaster Elite one day. It’ll be almost impossible to pass up this chance.”
Living close to one of America’s premier bass fisheries didn’t hurt Capps’ chances on Grand Lake, but he noted he’s never fished the reservoir at this time of year. With temperatures warmer than usual, though, he figured bigger bass would be feeding in shallow water. They were, but the bites were scarce enough that each one was precious.
“I don’t know if anyone covered as much water as I did this week,” he said. “I ran constantly, and it was all for five, six, seven bites a day. It was work, but it paid off.”
And when most anglers were throwing myriad lures trying to entice the fickle Grand Lake bass to bite, Capps settled into a winning pattern amidst his run-and-gun routine.
“Out of my 15 fish, I think I caught 14 on a simple white spinnerbait,” Capps said, adding that he rotated between War Eagle and BOOYAH Covert lures throughout the championship.
“I was catching behind boat docks or by shallow logs,” he said. “If you could find floating wood, that was a big deal. But the key really was getting the spinnerbait behind boat docks. I was using Falcon rods, and I put them through some abuse this week — banging them on cables and docks. They really held up doing the kind of fishing I was doing this week.”
Day 2 leader Connor Jacob of Auburn, Ala., wound up second in the championship with 42 pounds of bass in the three-day derby. Jeremy Knepp of Montgomery, Ill., finished third with 41-13.
Both Jacob and Knepp also won spots in the 2025 Bassmaster Classic, as well as paid entry into the Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers field for 2025. The latter ensures neither will need to qualify via one of the two new divisions that will debut in the 2025 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by SEVIIN.
Jacob, 24, previously fished for Auburn University in the Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops. He entered his first B.A.S.S. Nation event earlier this year on Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula, finishing third. He said he put some of the knowledge he learned there to use at Grand Lake this week.
“I threw a drop shot pretty much exclusively, and it was good for about 90 percent of my fish,” Jacob said. “I’d run down to the dam and get a limit of spotted bass and largemouth bass for about 10 or 11 pounds. Then about 11 o’clock, I’d come up here, north of Horse Creek, and I was able to pick up a nice fish every day. Those later catches really helped me this week.”
Knepp, 45, was fishing Grand Lake for the first time, and he said it “set up perfectly for what I like to do.”
“Junk fishing,” said Knepp, who works for the U.S. Navy. “I caught a lot of fish shallow on topwater baits. I caught some offshore in 6 to 8 feet of water, and I made some crucial culls late today that made the difference.”
Knepp threw a Citrus Shad Rapala crank bait for his biggest bites on Grand. He caught two key bass (including the one that earned him a podium finish at the championship) at Sailboat Bridge, located near Wolf Creek Park where take-offs and weigh-ins were held this week.
“I had a limit when I got to the bridge, but I culled three times there,” he said. “I probably gained 3 or 4 pounds … And now, the Bassmaster Classic. It’s been a lifelong dream, and it’s for real right now.”
Jacob earned $14,000 for finishing second and Knepp netted $13,000. The Top 40 boaters won cash prizes, splitting a purse of $121,500 among them.
A total of 482 anglers started the tournament on Wednesday, and the Top 21 (20 boaters and the victorious non-boater) survived the Day 2 cut.
Carson Orellana caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament — a 6-3 largemouth he hooked on Day 1. That catch was good for a $500 cash prize.
Jose Munoz won the non-boater division of the championship Thursday with a two-day total of 18-10. He was the only nonboater to qualify for Day 3, and he finished with 26-9 overall. The Illinois resident won $10,000 cash for finishing first among the 239 nonboaters competing on Grand Lake.
The Grove Convention and Tourism Bureau hosted this week’s events.