BUFFALO, N.Y. — Alex Korol said that he “just wanted to see how he could compete against this caliber of fisherman,” but through two days of the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Lake Erie presented by Battery Tender he’s left no doubt about his abilities on the eastern basin of this Great Lake. The 33-year-old from Fairport, N.Y., has totaled 52 pounds, 2 ounces of Lake Erie bronze and holds a lead of nearly 2 pounds over Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro Aaron Jagdfeld in 2nd.
Dillon Falardeau is 3rd with 50-5, just an ounce behind Jagdfeld.
“I really didn’t know what I was on after practice,” Korol said. “But I think the area is so strong because the bass are staying with the bait and the bait is still there. It blows my mind. With the calm conditions there were tighter groups today.”
But that doesn’t mean that amassing 27-1 and 25-1 bags has been easy. He said that the bass are extremely wary, and once he catches one or two out of a group it pays to leave and find some unmolested fish. Furthermore, he’s been sick for over a week and couldn’t celebrate his Day 1 lead because he was at urgent care.
Korol says that he’s fishing a drop shot, a common offering this week, “but the way I’m working it is extremely unique. It makes it into more of a reaction bite.”
His plans for Championship Saturday?
“I cannot wait to burn it down tomorrow.”
He’ll lead a group of 10 anglers into Championship Saturday who caught a minimum of 46-10 over two days. That computes to an average of 23-5. Ninety anglers who averaged 20 or more pounds per day failed to make the cut, with 55 of them failing to get paid. The 45th place position, the lowest that will earn a check, was 43-6.
On another atypically calm August Erie day, the overall catches weren’t quite as impressive as they were yesterday. Thursday there were 114 bags of 20 pounds or more and today there were over two dozen fewer than that. Still, it was a monumentally impressive day by any measure.
Everyone in the Top 10 has weighed in at least 22 pounds each day. Fishing fans will have to scroll down to 24th place to find an angler who didn’t hit or top 20 each day.
“It’s safe to say that Erie is on fire right now,” said Tournament Director Hank Weldon.
Jagdfeld has suffered through an inconsistent first year on the Elites, with only two money finishes heading into the season’s last event. He’d love to play the spoiler in Korol’s debut, simply to get some momentum going.
“I pride myself on being a Great Lakes smallmouth angler,” he said. “So anything I can learn this week going into the St. Lawerence River would be great.”
Like Korol, he said that the presence of bait was key to his success today. Both anglers saw their weights decrease day over day, but not significantly.
“I think that the wind pushed bait into my area,” he explained. “The fish were floating higher in the water column today.”
Falardeau would love to earn his second Open victory — he won on the Chesapeake Bay in 2025 to qualify for the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour — but he’s mostly focused on making the Bassmaster Elite Series.
“You have one chance,” Falardeau explained. “If they didn’t eat it on the first drop I moved on to the next one. I had to throw at 300 fish to get seven or eight bites.”
Garrett Smith of North Carolina caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass, a 6-13 smallmouth that ate a micro football jig and surprised him with its girth.
“It came straight at me and jumped like it was going to come into the boat,” he said. “I didn’t realize how big it was until I swung it and it was lying in the floor of the boat.”
While Korol is not qualified to make the 2027 Bassmaster Classic or Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops if he wins, for others this is a chance to further their dreams to the next level.
Falardeau looked at Jagdfeld above him in the standings and recognized that leapfrogging the Michigan pro may be tough.
“He’s still an Elite Series pro living my dream,” he said. “I’m trying to get where he’s at.”
This tournament is the final chance for anglers to move their way into the EQs for the opportunity to claim one of 10 invites to the 2027 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series. This season, 50 anglers took on both divisions, and 35 of them will advance to the Elite Qualifier round.
At the end of tomorrow’s weigh-in, the official standings for Division 1 and the combined Opens standings will be released.
Saturday’s takeoff is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. ET at Buffalo Harbor State Park. The weigh-in will be held at the marina at 2:30 p.m.
Follow along with all of the action from the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Lake Erie presented by Battery Tender on Bassmaster.com.
The Buffalo Sports Commission is hosting the event.