The bitter cold and whipping winds anglers endured during the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Team Championship this week on Kentucky Lake took a much friendlier turn Saturday.

Things were especially bright for Tyler Campbell, who caught five smallmouth bass weighing 22 pounds, 5 ounces — just enough to win the one-day Classic Fish-Off on this storied, 160,0000-acre reservoir in the northwest corner of the Volunteer State.

The win earned Campbell the final berth in the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour, which is scheduled for March 21-23 on Lake Ray Roberts in Fort Worth, Texas.

It also broke a string of second-place finishes Campbell has suffered the past few years, including at the Classic Fish-Off in 2022 and again in August at the Strike King Bassmaster College National Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops. Adding to the disappointment was that those derbies were held on Lake Hartwell, which is home water for the 24-year-old Martin, Ga., resident.

He spit those bitter pills, however, with the big win Saturday on Kentucky Lake.

“I’ve been second in three college tournaments, too,” the Emmanuel University graduate said. “It’s been second place so many times, just a whirlwind of near misses. To win today, to qualify for the Classic, this is a life dream. Most guys never make it. To accomplish this at a young age … I’m just so thankful.”

Campbell relied on a Zoom Winged Fluke 5-inch minnow (Tennessee Shad) throughout both the Team Championship and Classic Fish-Off this week. On Saturday, he returned to a spot where he and Lake Hartwell 5 Alive Sunday Series teammate Blake Campbell (no relation) caught a 21-13 sack and took the lead on Day 1 of team competition.

Tyler caught three big smallmouth there Saturday morning, but his bites grew increasingly difficult and he moved to a similar area of the main channel around noon.

It was a wise choice. Campbell boated his two biggest smallies of the day in new water, which provided him the weight to edge Clint Knight, a 27-year-old Russellville, Ky., resident who finished second in the Fish-Off with 21-14.

“That new spot was huge for me,” Campbell said. “It was the same kind of set-up as the spot I fished earlier this week. I saw it on my map, and it looked good. So, I wheeled in there and right away caught a 5-pounder. Current is king on this place. Anywhere where the fish can get out of it, I was catching fish. But today was harder on me than the past few days. I only had about nine or 10 bites today.”

Campbell and Campbell came close to winning the Team Championship on Friday but were nipped in the end by Knight and Noah Morgan of the National Team Bass Association. It was another second-place finish that Tyler admitted hit hard.

“I was upset,” he said. “I got back to the house, got a bite to eat, took a shower and went to bed. I didn’t want to think about it. But I had to put it behind me and get a fresh start. Clint is a good guy, and he’s the man on this lake. I knew I had to keep my head down today and get it done.”

Behind Campbell and Knight in the Fish-Off standings are, third, Fisher Anaya, Alabama Bass Trail, 20-13; fourth, Blake Campbell, Lake Hartwell 5 Alive Sunday Series, 2-10. Ryan Anaya, also of the Alabama Bass Trail, and Morgan both zeroed Saturday.

The Top 3 teams from the Team Championship advanced to Saturday’s Classic Fish-Off. The six remaining anglers had their weights zeroed and fished individually, with the angler with the heaviest one-day total sliding his way into the Bassmaster Classic.

Saturday’s weather was practically balmy, with temperatures in the low 50s and cloudless skies. That was a huge difference from the rest of the week, when temperatures were near or below freezing and winds blew steadily anywhere from 10 to 15 mph. The winds were gusting so much on Thursday, in fact, that B.A.S.S. officials canceled the day’s action and moved Day 2 of the Team Championship to Friday. That made the Classic Fish-Off, typically a two-day event, a one-day affair, and it compounded the pressure to perform with a Classic berth on the line.

A total of 217 duos from around the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and South Africa, qualified for the Team Championship, which initially was scheduled for the Ouachita River in Monroe, La. Problems with a dam there prompted B.A.S.S. to move the title tournament to Kentucky Lake only six weeks before the event was to begin, however, and the slight jog north ensured anglers would face colder climes. Approximately 140 tandems weighed fish at Kentucky Lake on Day 1, but Thursday’s cancellation winnowed the field to 114 duos when competition resumed Friday.

The Top 50 teams in the Team Championship split a cash purse of $125,000. Alex Korol and Cameron Alldredge, of New York’s Empire Team Trail, won the Big Bass Award of $500, courtesy of the 7-11 largemouth they caught on Day 1. They finished eighth overall.

The City of Paris, Tenn., hosted the event.