COLUMBIA, S.C. — Day 1 of the 2026 Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship at Lake Murray presented by Native Watercraft was the best day of kayak bass fishing Jacob Berryhill has ever experienced.
In his first trip to the National Championship, the Tennessee native caught a five-bass limit measuring 98.5 inches to take the lead over the field of 154 qualified anglers. Berryhill, a student-angler at Carson-Newman University, anchored his bag with a 22-inch largemouth and added a 20-inch, 19.75-inch, 18.75-inch and 18-inch bucket mouth to his tally.
“This is the first time I’ve made it to the National Championship,” Berryhill said. “So far, so good. It has been a great tournament so far. Today was the best day of kayak fishing I’ve ever had.”
His lead over second-place Ewing Minor, the new head coach of the Carson-Newman Kayak Fishing team, is only a quarter inch. Eric Hawks and Wyatt Hammond are tied for third with 95.75 inches while Carson Holbert is fifth with 94.5 inches.
It felt more like summer than fall during the opening round of competition at Lake Murray for the first standalone Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series presented by Native Watercraft Championship. Temperatures exceeded 90 degrees, and a light breeze was hard to find. After reports of a tough practice, only 61 anglers landed limits on Day 1, with many anglers lamenting multiple lost bass.
Still, the Top 10 anglers eclipsed the 90-inch threshold.
Although this is Berryhill’s first trip to Murray, he has been to Lake Hartwell many times during his college career in bass boat events. At Hartwell, he tries to avoid spotted bass and focuses only on largemouth. Those Hartwell largemouth have helped him decipher how these Lake Murray largemouth are going to act.
He looked more than he fished, but Berryhill did not have a great practice. One 6-pounder on the final day of practice, however, gave Berryhill the clue he needed to succeed on tournament day.
“It was probably 4 or 5 o’clock. I was fixing to get off the water when I stumbled on this area. I caught one there, but it was 6.06. I caught it, and saw a lot more with it,” he explained.
In this area, Berryhill is targeting largemouth suspending under big wads of blueback herring. A lot of the bass he is catching are either singles or in wolfpacks of three to five. While he tossed more than seven baits throughout the day, only one triggered strikes.
Not only is there a lot of life in the area, but he is also one of only a couple people fishing there.
“All of the big ones I’ve caught are in groups of five or smaller. I lost one that was 6 pounds and that was by itself,” Berryhill said. “Singles and doubles will either eat it or they don’t. They will run up there and smoke it or run up there and turn around. The groups will bum rush it and one is going to blow it out of the water.”
When he arrived at his starting spot, Berryhill discovered his forward-facing sonar wasn’t working properly. As he trouble shot the issue, a 13-incher surfaced in front of him, a sign of things to come. Not too long after, he fixed his LiveScope and began combing the area for quality largemouth.
“I eased around real slow looking for them,” Berryhill said. “I threw at them all day and picked through little ones to get to the big ones.”
He caught his 22-incher as he tried to expand on his primary area with an hour left to fish. As he was scanning, he located a group of five swimming together.
“I’d say that was the biggest one of them, and it came up and ate it,” Berryhill said.
Minor, who entered this tournament leading the Pro-Guide Batteries Bassmaster Kayak Series Angler of the Year standings, caught a limit measuring 98.25 inches. All five of his largemouth were between 19 and 20.75 inches. Much like his proteges, the multi-time Kayak Series champion harnessed his Lake Hartwell experience to excel on Day 1.
Unlike the rest of the field, Minor enjoyed a productive practice. In fact, he knew exactly how he would spend his tournament after the first 30 minutes of the warm-up period.
“I had a productive practice,” he said. “I thought everyone was lying about the lake fishing tough. I was very fortunate to be in school with Caz Anderson for four years. He taught me a lot of herring secrets. There’s a lot of nuances.”
Minor spent the day point hopping, trying to cover as much productive water as fast as possible. Most of the bass he is catching are high in the water column chasing bait. Some of the forage is blueback herring, but Minor has noticed a plethora of threadfin in the area too. Six baits have produced bites.
The morning started slowly, but as the sun rose, Minor logged a 20-incher and then a 20.75-incher. From there, he built a quality limit running and gunning around his primary region.
“I caught a bunch of quality fish today,” he said. “I went and did some practicing too. At the end of the day, I returned to the area and made a small cull. I’m looking forward to the rest of the event.
“There’s no telling how many spots I hit today,” Minor added. ”The Newport NK300 was huge today. I probably covered over 20 miles today.”
The wind is supposed to pick up as the tournament progresses, which Minor believes will improve his bite.
Hawks junk fished his way through Day 1 and managed to catch 95.75 inches, anchoring his total with a 23-incher. The Georgia angler targeted shallow cruisers with a topwater to start the morning before bouncing back and forth from the shallows to schooling bass.
“I caught them several different ways. I didn’t get that many bites,” Hawks said. “I had a lot of fish that wouldn’t commit but just happened to put it together.”
Even though he had an impressive total, Hawks isn’t sure how consistent he can be if he returns to the area he fished today.
Virginia’s Casey Reed caught the Big Bass of the Day, a 23.5-inch largemouth. Anglers who catch an hourly big bass throughout the tournament earn a $100 bonus. Those results can be viewed on Bassmaster.com and TourneyX.
The full field of anglers will launch from any approved public launch on Lake Murray and begin fishing at 7 a.m. ET. Throughout the day, about a dozen anglers will have live cameras streaming to Bassmaster.com. Fishing will conclude at 3 p.m. before the results are revealed at JC Outdoors at 4 p.m. Weigh-in will be streamed live on Bassmaster.com.
Click here to view the full results from Day 1 of the 2026 Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship presented by Native Watercraft.
Capital City/Lake Murray Country is hosting the tournament.