GROVE, Okla. — Wyatt Burkhalter of Alabama didn’t get the weather he wanted on Day 2 of the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees presented by Battery Tender, but he nevertheless got the desired results. With a 24-pound catch added to his Day 1 weight of 20-13, he’s tallied 44-13 over two days. That’s an average of almost 4 1/2 pounds per fish, which is somehow only good enough for a slim lead of 7 ounces over Wesley Baxley of Texas.
Burkhalter was in 4th place after Day 1 and Baxley was in 5th.
“I have not stopped shaking since blast-off,” Burkhalter said. “It was fish after fish after fish, cull after cull after cull. Every decision was the right decision. I could pull up behind people and catch bass they’d missed. I culled almost all day and had three 5-pounders in my bag.”
He said that he “locked a spinnerbait in my hand,” but so did most of the rest of the field, without producing quite the same level of results. He wouldn’t disclose anything about his presentation or the particular spinnerbait he’s employing but suggested that he’s doing something slightly different that is producing more and bigger bites.
During a lackluster practice, Burkhalter didn’t land a bass over 3 pounds but said that he got a glimpse of a potential pattern on the final day on the water. He has steadily built upon that clue during the competition days.
After a brutally windy Day 1, it appeared that the Chamber of Commerce dialed up different conditions today. There were strong overnight storms but the wind laid down and by 9 o’clock there was bright sun overhead. Those are normally not the best spinnerbait conditions and Burkhalter — who has one prior top 10 in 21 Bassmaster Opens — said that it wasn’t the weather that produced a better bag today, but rather the fact that he covered more water, including new areas.
Baxley is the only other angler who has topped 20 pounds each day. With 20-7 and 23-15, he’s been 6 ounces and 1 ounce behind Burkhalter on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Not surprisingly, he wants the same conditions that the leader prefers.
“I want wind,” he said. “I don’t care which direction it blows as long as it blows.”
While he said that his Day 2 weight in particular looks good on paper it was a day filled with frustration.
“I just keep on losing big fish,” he explained. “The only thing that’s going right is that I’m catching a lot of them. I think that the changing conditions resulted in less fish but more big ones. The calm weather turned off the smaller fish.”
Justin Layton of Missouri accumulated a limit weighing 15-2 on Day 1 to land temporarily in 31st place. Fishing only his first Bassmaster Open, the 43-year-old put together what is so far the best bag of the tournament today. It weighed 24-13 and rocketed him up 28 places into 3rd heading into Saturday.
Day 1 leader Austin Cranford of Oklahoma stumbled a bit, adding 15-14 to his Day 1 catch of 21-3. That dropped the rookie Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro into 4th place, 7-12 out of the lead. He was dismayed that the areas he’d had to himself on Thursday were covered up with other competitors’ boats on Friday. Finding only frustration there, he called an audible, switched both baits and locations, and held onto a position in Saturday’s reduced field.
He plans to switch up patterns again and sight fish all day on Saturday in the hopes of piecing together a 25- or even 30-pound bag.
“It’s Grand Lake,” he said. “It definitely possible.”
Tomorrow’s weather is expected to once again be warm, with light and variable winds and occasional clouds.
Yesterday there were six catches over 20 pounds, with none of them managing to hit the 22-pound mark. Today the field of 195 anglers compiled eight limits over 20 pounds, with five of them exceeding 22.
It took 34-12 — an average of 17-6 per day — to squeeze into the top 10. Kristine Fischer, who occupied 6th place after the first day of competition, fell to 11th, missing her first Opens Top 10 by a mere 3 ounces. Three other anglers missed the cut by less than a pound.
This tournament paid down 45 places, and it took 28-12 to meet that mark. Ten anglers missed the money by a pound or less.
The top 72 finishers all had limits both days as did over 65 percent of the total field.
Sam Ausbrooks of Indiana caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, a 6-9 largemouth.
The top 10 remaining anglers will launch from Wolf Creek Park on Championship Saturday beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in starting at 2:30 p.m. The winner will earn a spot in the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour if he competes in a full division of the Opens.
Follow along with all of the action from the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees presented by Battery Tender on Bassmaster.com.
Grove Convention and Tourism Bureau is hosting this event.