MANY, La. — Riding the strength of back-to-back 30-pound bags, Andrew Rickman has put himself in prime position to win the Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier at Toledo Bend Reservoir presented by Lowrance.
Rickman, a 24-year-old angler from Canton, Texas, caught a limit of five largemouth bass weighing 34 pounds, 2 ounces and pulled into the lead Thursday on Day 2 of this three-day derby. That tremendous haul, Rickman’s personal best in tournament competition, gave him a two-day weight of 66-5.
Rickman was in second place after Day 1 with a 32-3 limit (a monster bag by any standard), and then he went bigger. It was a heck of a show from a newcomer to the massive 185,000-acre reservoir that forms a portion of the Louisiana-Texas border.
“Monday’s practice was the first time I’ve ever been to Toledo Bend,” Rickman said, chuckling. “I didn’t know much of anything about it, but it’s worked out well so far.”
Rickman said he’s using a particular technique to excel on a fishery that was unknown to him four days ago. Understandably, he wasn’t quite ready to talk specifics of his lure or presentation just yet, but he noted that everything must be “perfect” to get the biggest Toledo Bend bass in the boat.
“I’ve got the right bait in my hand in front of the big ones,” he said. “They’re not dumb. They’re very smart, really, and you have to make sure everything is 100-percent perfect. The bait’s gotta’ be perfect, the line’s gotta’ be perfect. If you’re using a leader, that’s gotta’ be perfect.
“It’s not like I’m seeing a lot of huge bass,” he added. “But I’ve been blessed to catch the big ones that I have seen.”
Some of those bites have been opportunistic, Rickman said. Others have come in the early morning when Toledo Bend’s legendary largemouth are gorging on forage throughout the fishery.
“There seems to be a couple bite windows in the day, and the main one is first thing in the morning,” he said. “As soon as you can start casting, you’re catching fish. The bluegill are wanting to spawn. The shad are spawning and the bass are following all of it. I caught one on Wednesday that spit up a bluegill that weighed 1/3 of a pound. It’s crazy out there right now.”
Rickman credited some of this week’s success to experience he’s gained the past two years guiding on Lake Fork. He considers Fork home water and it, like Toledo Bend, is renowned for lunker largemouth like the 9-2 he caught Thursday, the heaviest weighed on Day 2.
“I caught that one about 12 o’clock,” Rickman said, “and when I did, she just lost it. She jumped three or four times. She dove underneath the boat and went almost all the way to the other side. After a good amount of scares and near heart attacks, we got her in the boat.”
Rickman said catching 30-pound limits is not for the faint of heart, but he welcomes the nerves that come with a big tournament title within his grasp.
“Thirty pounds, that’s a mega-stringer,” he said. “I don’t know if I have another bag like that out there, but I’m gonna’ do my best to make it happen. I’ll probably be fishing all new water again on Friday. It’s hard not to do that, because everything here is new to me.”
Day 1 leader Trace Antunes III dropped to second overall with a two-day total of 64 pounds. After weighing a tournament-best 36-3 limit on Wednesday, he caught 27-13 on Thursday.
“I pulled up to my starting spot, and the fish had moved out,” said Antunes, 20, of Henderson, Texas. “I left there with about five pounds and I’d already missed three fish. I ran to some other spots I thought would be good and I caught two 6-pounders. That was encouraging, but then one about the same size jumped off. And then right next to it, I worked a bedding fish, a 6- or 7-pounder, for about 30 minutes before she broke off. I tried her about 20 more minutes, but got nothing.
“I had a lot of low 4-pounders today, some 2s and 3s. Then my lower unit went out, and I came in about 30 minutes early … It was just an off day. I don’t think there will be two off days in a row here, but we’ll see. We’ll have less pressure out there, so that can’t hurt.”
Antunes was referring to the cut that took place after Thursday’s weigh-in. The field of 267 anglers (170 boaters, 97 nonboaters) was narrowed to the Top 20 in both divisions, and they’ve already clinched part of the $78,000-plus cash purse. The top boater will win $11,130 and the top nonboater claims $3,853.
Rounding out the Top 5 on the boater side are, third, Georgia’s Daylon Milam, 58-12; fourth, South Carolina’s Peyton Sorrow, 56-14; and fifth, Texas’ Wyatt Frankens, 54-8.
Tyler Gautreaux, a 34-year-old from Houma, La., caught a 10-2 largemouth on Day 1 and remains in the lead for the tournament’s Big Bass Award.
Oklahoma’s Matt Edwards leads the nonboater field with a pair of three-bass limits totaling 19-2. Texas’ Arron Slaten is second with 15-14, and Oklahoma’s Matt Manners is third with 14 pounds.
The Top 18 in each division at Toledo Bend will advance to the 2026 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Lowrance when it’s held Nov. 18-21 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, S.C.
Follow along with all of the action from the Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier at Toledo Bend Reservoir presented by Lowrance on Bassmaster.com.
This event is being hosted by Toledo Bend Lake Country.