WALKER, Minn. — Brody Robison and Peyton Sorrow have come close to winning B.A.S.S. events before, only to fall just shy of the goal. After two days of competition at the 2026 Strike King Bassmaster College Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops, the University of Montevallo duo finds themselves in the driver’s seat at Leech Lake, just five more bass away from hoisting the trophies.
Adding 20 pounds, 8 ounces to their Day 1 total of 24-1, Robison and Sorrow lead the three-day championship with a total of 44-9, 1-7 ahead of the Carson-Newman duo of Nicholas DellaPorta and Drew Pitts.
“We are covering the whole lake,” Robison said. “We are trying to move a little faster and a little more efficiently than everyone else. We only want to drop the trolling motor around the highest percentage stuff in the lake, even if it means driving 7 miles and then making another 5-mile drive immediately after.”
If they win tomorrow, Robison and Sorrow will punch their tickets to the College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s, Robison for the second time and Sorrow for the first. Finishing their final season together on top would be icing on the cake, Sorrow said.
“This won’t be our last time fishing together, but it is going to be sad once this one is over when we look back at what we’ve done together,” Sorrow said. “It has been an unreal two years.”
Leech Lake continued to be unpredictable on Day 2 as the wind shifted and blew harder than many anglers expected. While this hurt many teams, six brought in limits of smallmouth weighing 20 pounds or better.
Robison and Sorrow continued their hunt for better than average smallmouth on Friday, employing a run and gun strategy that took them through some rough conditions. Although it has taken much of the day to catch their weight, the strategy has worked to perfection so far.
Several different depth zones have come into play, but Robison and Sorrow have narrowed down which boulders hold the better quality smallmouth and thrown one lure to those targets. How the smallies set up on that cover depends on the sun and the water movement.
“It’s not just any rock,” Robison said. “We have spent a lot of time acknowledging what shape of rock we are fishing. It is a very specific type of rock we find on our side scan. Once we find that, that is when we lock in. (The smallmouth) also use different types of rocks during different weather conditions. Sometimes they want a lower rock, sometimes they want a taller rock.”
Regardless of the type of rock, only a few smallmouth occupy the best pieces of cover. On Day 1, Robison said they saw as many as five bass on a particular boulder. On Day 2, the most they saw on any one piece of cover was three.
With calmer conditions to start the morning, Robison and Sorrow saw more boat traffic in their starting area and struggled to generate bites early on.
“It is dwindling as we go along, but that is mostly due to pressure,” Robison said. “We got in a bad rotation this morning, but we were able to recover, run some new water and it panned out. We’ve done a lot of experimenting.”
As they moved around, they picked up a quality bass here and there until they reached the 20-pound mark. From there, they were able to find a few more new spots before check-in time.
“We had a lot of solid ones today,” Sorrow said. “Only one under 4 pounds, and that was a high 3. So, you can’t complain when you have a high 3 in the box on a tough fishery like this. We had the chance to find some fish for tomorrow. Not many, but it should be enough if we can get them in the boat,”
It’s been sporty in certain sections of Leech Lake throughout the tournament, but Championship Saturday forecasts are calling for 10-15 mph winds out of the NW as a front moves through. Practicing efficiency has made life a little easier on the Montevallo duo, and that should also help them navigate the final day.
“We didn’t have any strong preconceived notions. We have just been able to fish with what the weather tells us,” Robison said.
DellaPorta and Pitts, meanwhile, caught 20-15 on Day 2 to jump from third to second with a two-day mark of 43-2.
“We had to work for it, but we were blessed with two big bites,” Pitts said. “I’ve never been in this position before, but I’m excited to get back out there. I never thought we would be here, especially on a lake like this. Being from Florida, this is totally out of my ballpark, but I love it up here.
“I’m going to sleep well tonight and hopefully we can catch them tomorrow.”
After catching much of their 22-3 Day 1 limit before 10 a.m., it took much of the day for the duo to reach their final total on Friday.
“Wind direction is everything on this lake,” DellaPorta said. “It changes every single day, so we have to stay on our toes and figure out how it’s blowing and then come up with a gameplan from there.”
Pitts and DellaPorta are targeting rocks and boulders anywhere from 4 feet of water out to 15 feet of water. One presentation has coaxed most of their bass into biting.
As previously mentioned, wind direction plays an important role in how the smallmouth will position. For them, rougher conditions produced fewer quality bites while calmer conditions improved the bite.
“We did catch some in some pretty gnarly waves, though,” DellaPorta added.
McKendree University’s Ethan Fields and Lane Stephens are third with a total of 40-12. The duo landed 19-7 on Day 1 before catching 21-5 on Day 2, anchoring their bag with a 5 1/2-pounder. The weather was much improved in their best areas, allowing them to fish effectively.
“We put most of our weight in the boat around 10 or 11 o’clock,” Stephens said. “We started a lot slower but put three good ones in the boat and built the bag from there.”
Smallmouth have been the ticket for Fields and Stephens this week, targeting rock structure in shallow water with a jighead minnow.
“We’ve been sticking it out shallow and trying to run as many boulders as possible,” Fields said. “We did a good job during practice of marking fish and shaking some off. We are running around in those areas and some of them are reloading. The bigger the boulder the better.”
Peyton Harris and Dalton Head caught the Big Bass of the Day, a 6-0 smallmouth they both thought was a walleye before it surfaced. That bass anchored a 23-0 limit that vaulted the Montevallo duo into fourth place with 39-9. Chase McCarter and Easton Drennon are fifth with 38-1.
The Top 12 teams will launch from the Walker Public Dock beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in at 2:30 p.m. The winning team will punch their ticket to the College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s, an event where the winner will earn a spot in the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour at Lake Hartwell as well as entries into the 2027 Bassmaster Opens.
Stephen F. Austin’s Grant Pursifull and Ben Burns claimed the Team of the Year title, earning 975 during the regular season and Championship to win. The rest of the standings are unofficial until the end of the tournament.
Live weigh-in of Championship Saturday will begin at 2:30 p.m. CT on Bassmaster.com.
The Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting this event.