APPLETON, Wis. — Timed competition usually rewards action, but pausing and observing led Guillermo Gonzalez to the lightbulb moment he needed to tally a two-day total of 188 inches and win the Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series at Wolf and Fox Rivers presented by Native Watercraft.
“I feel so blessed right now,” the pro from Fort Worth, Texas said. “When the Wolf and Fox Rivers event was on the calendar, literally, this was the Number 1 tournament that I was excited to come fish.
“It feels fantastic. I’ve come close a great number of times. I’ve worked very hard and I’ve had a number of events, where I felt like I had an opportunity to win and it hasn’t ever really panned out. To have it pan out this time around, I’m absolutely stoked.”
With three prior Top 10s, Gonzalez notched his first win. Fishing out of a NuCanoe unlimited Max with a Newport NK 300 HD motor, he placed second on Day 1 with 92.25 inches. On Day 2, he turned in the event’s biggest total — 95.75 — and collected the $4,900 top prize.
“On Day 1, I spent a lot of time targeting outside cut bank and it seemed like a lot of the higher class fish seemed to be holding on that cut bank,” Gonzalez said. “That was mostly in the afternoon, but I never really figured out what they were doing in the morning.
“I had a slow morning on Day 1, but this morning, I saw a couple of fish blow up off of a sand bar drop and I decided to just sit there for a little bit and kinda observe. While that was happening, I just started to catch them and after that, I started looking around for more of that.”
With each new stop, Gonzalez would patiently watch for any indication of feeding fish and then target the active area.
“I was looking for any little swirl near a sand drop,” he said. “It seemed like the fish that were really feeding were hanging in the holes off of these sand drops.
“I was initially planning to start somewhere else, but on my first sand drop, when I saw what was going on, I decided to just sit there before I moved and that ended up being the right decision because I caught a limit in 15 minutes.”
Gonzalez also fished cut banks later in the day and added two of his 5 biggest fish on that pattern. He threw 5- and 6-inch harnessed swimbaits at the cut banks and fished a 5-inch Bucca Baits Trick Shad over the sand breaks.
“I was using the harnessed swimbaits primarily on the cut banks because I was able to skip it into the undercut area,” Gonzalez said. “When my bait would hit the water, they would eat it immediately. I would get maybe two or three cranks on my reel.
“With the glidebait, it was important to work the bait naturally with the current. I was essentially walking the dog over those sand drops and it was calling those fish up from the bottom.”
Launching on the Wolf River, Gonzalez started fishing about 5 miles from where he started. Covering an area of about 4 miles, he caught fish on 10 to 12 spots.
On Day 1, Gonzalez recorded the largest bass for hour 5 with a 19.75-inch smallmouth. In Sunday’s championship round, he recorded the top bass for hours 1, 5, and 7, with bass measuring 20.75, 19.50 and 19.75 inches, respectively. Each of those hourly achievements earned a $100 bonus.
Gonzalez also won the $500 Big Fish standings with his 20.75-inch smallmouth.\
“I want to thank my fiancé (fellow competitor) Kristine (Fischer),” Gonzalez said. “She gave me a lot of encouragement and made me feel like I can really win. And here we are.”
Day 1 leader Aiko Vang of Plainfield, Wis., finished second with 183.75 inches. He lead the field on Day 1 with 92.75, which gave him a 1/2-inch margin over Gonzalez. His second-round total was 91 inches.
Drew Gregory of Ravenna, Ohio, who won the 2025 the Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series at Lake Havasu presented by Native Watercraft, Jordan Westerman of Plover, Iowa and Rus Snyders of Pegram, Tenn., all finished with 178.75 inches. Ties are broken by each angler’s biggest fish. Gregory’s was 20.50, with Westerman and Snyders posting 20.25- and 19.25-inch fish, respectively.
87 anglers from around the U.S. competed in the final event of the 2026 Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series presented by Native Watercraft regular season. With the tournament following a catch-photo-release format, competition waters included Lake Butte des Morts, Lake Poygan, Lake Winneconne and Little Lake Butte des Morts.
Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau hosted the event.