GROVE, Okla. — Wyatt Burkhalter of Alabama took a terrible practice and a lure he’d never thrown before and pieced together a masterful performance at the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees presented by Battery Tender. After landing in 4th place on Day 1, and rising into a narrow 7-ounce lead on Day 2, he sealed the deal on Saturday with his third consecutive limit over 20 pounds and won by a whopping 11 pounds 10 ounces over Wesley Baxley of Texas
Missouri’s Brock Bila, the current leader in the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops standings, rose from 10th to 3rd today with a three-day total of 54-12. Former Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro Casey Scanlon finished 4th with 53-10.
Day 3 started off with a fog delay of approximately an hour, but once Burkhalter arrived at his starting area — a series of main lake rocky points experiencing a shad spawn — the bite started immediately. There were only two problems: the fish that connected with his spinnerbait were small and the ones that missed it were large.
“I had so many 20-pound bags hitting my bait today,” he said. “But I never spun out because I only had one thing to do and that was all I was going to do.”
This is one of the two tournaments in this Opens division in which forward-facing sonar will not be allowed. That didn’t deter or discourage Burkhalter one bit. Instead he leaned into the old school narrative, catching all of his fish using an original Shimano Curado baitcasting reel — “Old Greenie” — and a 1/2-ounce spinnerbait with a gold single Colorado blade, a chartreuse and white skirt and a trailer consisting of a Zoom grub dyed red.
“I figured that everyone throws a red kicker blade here in Oklahoma,” he said. “I’d show them something just a little bit different. But that Oklahoma blade is something new. I’ve never caught a bass on one until here.”
As the day progressed, Burkhalter figured out the pattern within the pattern. The bass stayed in the same areas where the shad spawn took place during low-light conditions, but they moved to specific spots that offered a bit of shade. Once he figured that out, he still didn’t get as many bites as he had earlier in the morning, but their average size increased. Eventually he culled up to 23-14, just 2 ounces less than he’d weighed in yesterday. Those were the 4th and 2nd largest limits of the tournament, respectively, and he was the only angler to weigh in over 20 pounds each day. Baxley was the only other angler to hit the mark even twice.
He found the fish dirt shallow and watched them eat the spinnerbait “like a frog.” That required battering his boat up and into rocky areas at times, but the first prize check of over $40,000 will allow for more than a few cosmetic repairs.
Because he will fish the entire Opens division, this victory qualifies Burkhalter for the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour on Lake Hartwell near Greenville, South Carolina. He hopes to be joined by his tournament fishing mentor, Elite Series pro Justin Hamner, who won the 2024 Bassmaster Classic here in Oklahoma.
“I think I channeled that Grand Lake Bassmaster Classic energy,” Burkhalter concluded.
This was only Baxley’s second Bassmaster Open, but you wouldn’t know it from how he adjusted throughout the competition or from his near-win.
“The first day I thought I knew what was going on,” he said. “Yesterday I found out what was really going on.” After catching 20-7 on Day 1 and 23-15 on Day 2, he struggled to catch 12-11 today, which still gave him a comfortable margin of more than 2 pounds over 3rd. He focused on pre-spawn staging areas where fish were entering major creeks, using a Z-Boss square bill, a JackHammer vibrating jig and a Zaldaingerous swimbait to amass his catch.
“I ran every point between Patricia Island and Horse Creek,” he said. “It was all I knew to do. The difference was that I was fishing deeper than most of the other people around me. My fish were coming from where other people had their boats sitting most of the time.”
Third-place finisher Bila had the only 20-pound bag other than Burkhalter’s today. After catching 15-0 and 19-12 the first two days, and sliding into the overall points lead, he said he had nothing to lose. He expanded upon what had worked well yesterday and managed to locate multiple additional schools of fish. He rotated among them throughout the day.
“I was swinging,” he said. “Hoping for the best.”
That involved locking a bone-colored Clutch Swimbaits Baby Boss glide bait in his hands and fishing it deeper than other competitors using similar lures.
“I had to find a particular combination of current, wind and water color,” he said. “It couldn’t be clean but it couldn’t be dirty. Then I’d count the lure down to 10 or 12 and chop it all the way back. I was fishing it deeper than anyone else. No one was fishing it offshore. Without scope, that’s hard to do.”
Day 1 leader Austin Cranford of Oklahoma slid into 4th place yesterday, and dropped three more spots today to 7th. He weighed in over 15 pounds both of the latter days, unable to capture the 20-plus magic he’d channeled on Thursday. This marked his fifth top 10 finish in an Open or EQ, but perhaps more importantly it allowed him to regroup after a tough start to his inaugural season on the Elite Series.
“I love fishing the Opens,” he said. “No worries, not a care in the world, just go fishing. This will get me back to what I know how to do. I’m ready to roll on to South Carolina. I caught them on a shad spawn here and I’m going to catch them on a herring spawn there.”
Ethan Fields of Illinois caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass, a 7-2 largemouth. The tournament’s largest bass succumbed to a 1/2 ounce white hair jig, the only fish he caught on that lure this week.
Oklahoma’s Kollin Crawford leads the Turtlebox Bassmaster Opens presented by Battery Tender Division 2 points standings with 386 points. Illinois’ Ethan Fields is in second with 385 points, followed by Missouri’s Brock Bila (384 points), Alabama’s Wyatt Burkhalter (380 points) and Japan’s Yui Aoki (377 points).
The next Bassmaster Open will take place at North Carolina’s Lake Norman later this week. No live sonar will be allowed in that tournament. The next tournament in Division 2 will occur May 20-22 at Kentucky Lake out of Paris, Tennessee. Live sonar will be allowed in that event.
Grove Convention and Tourism Bureau hosted this event.