The Sooner State has suffered drought for months and the legendary bass bite on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees has struggled because of it.
A veritable deluge — 9 inches of rain — fell here earlier this week, however, which was a shake to the picture for Day 1 of the 2024 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Lowrance. Wednesday’s weights were closer to what’s expected here in early November and definitely an improvement on what locals had been catching in recent weeks.
Alex Goff, a 27-year-old resident of Clendenin, W.V., led the way on Day 1 with a limit of five largemouth bass totaling 15 pounds, 15 ounces. Goff qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship after winning his state’s Nation tournament, and he previously won the Bassmaster Junior World Championship on Alabama’s Lake Wilson in 2012 when he was 15.
Goff shined again on the big stage Wednesday, making the most of rapidly changing conditions on 41,000-acre Grand Lake. Anglers reported catching fish via various methods, but one similarity among the early leaders was they covered plenty of water and used just about everything in the tackle box to find the best bites. Finding rainwater draining from Grand’s backwaters also proved successful for some near the top of the leaderboard.
“I haven’t had a chance to make this tournament before,” Goff said. “But I have a good job now that gives me the opportunity to come out here and take a shot at maybe fishing for a living. Catching what I did today was a blessing.”
Especially so, he said, considering how much he struggled during practice days.
“I had one 3-pound keeper the first day of practice and that was it,” he said. “I was hoping the bright sun today would make the bite better, and it did. I went shallow and ended up catching some fish later in the day. They moved up just like I thought they would.”
Goff caught a 4-9 heavy in the final half-hour of his day, boosting him into the early lead.
“I was fishing some points and throwing this little squarebill — cranking it,” he said. “I thought it was a catfish at first, the way it hit. But he rolled and I saw it was a bass. That made my day.”
Blake Capps of Muskogee, Okla., is in second place with a 15-2 limit. He too struggled in practice but pieced together a good bag on Wednesday.
“I really didn’t know what to expect, but I had a game plan, and I stuck with it,” the 28-year-old said. “It wasn’t easy by any means.”
James Biggs, of Comanche, Texas, is in third place with a 15-1 limit. He said his catch was a study in “Junk Fishing 101”.
“I missed a 3 ½ early and we got a late start … It was a hectic morning for us, but we turned it around. We caught an early limit and just kept things steady from there,” he said.
Biggs, 44, has won on Grand Lake previously (in the 2014 Bass Federation Championship), and he still fishes the area regularly. That familiarity and previous success boosted his confidence heading into Day 2.
“I’m doing a little bit of everything with different baits, but I finally was able to funnel into what’s actually going on. And I like the high-pressure, bluebird conditions we had today. It can make it tough, but I don’t mind that. I want the weather to change every day because it will make everyone re-pattern every day. I think that’ll benefit me.”
Rounding out the Top 5 boaters are Oklahoma’s Chris Jones with 14-14 and North Carolina’s Carson Orellana with 14-13. Orellana had the Phoenix Boats Big Bass (6-3) on Day 1.
Two-time defending champion Will Davis Jr of Alabama lurks just behind in sixth place with 14-9. Davis won the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship on Alabama’s Pickwick Lake in 2022 and became the only angler in history to defend his Nation Championship when he won on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina a year later.
Adam Marceaux of Morgan City, La., leads the non-boater division with five bass weighing 13-1. Delaware’s Jacob Muir is in second with 12-15 and West Virginia’s Mark Moran is third with 10-15. Emery Gray of South Carolina weighed the Big Bass of the Day (5-3) among non-boaters.
A total of 482 anglers are competing across boater and non-boater divisions on Grand Lake for a cash purse of approximately $225,000. The winning angler will collect $50,000, an invitation to compete in the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series and a Nation’s Best boat and truck combo to use for the year.
The Top 3 anglers on Grand will earn berths into the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic to be held March 21-23 on Lake Ray Roberts in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition, the second-and third-place anglers will receive paid entry into the Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers field for 2025, circumventing the need to qualify via one of the two new divisions the St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by SEVIIN will debut in the 2025 season.
The full field will fish again Thursday, and the Top 20 boaters advance to compete on Friday. The non-boater leader after the Day 2 weigh-in also will fish on Friday as will any other non-boater whose total weight ranks among the Top 10 boater weights.
Take-offs for the 2024 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Lowrance are scheduled for 6:30 a.m. CT from Wolf Creek Park in Grove. Weigh-ins begin at 2:15 p.m. CT.
The Grove Convention and Tourism Bureau is hosting this week’s events.