HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The field of the best grassroots anglers in America hit the water this morning for the Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Hamilton, and it’s sure to be an interesting event. Today, there’s a chance of storms and muggy weather, but it should be a mostly normal, early summer day in Arkansas with the same on tap for the rest of the week. But, despite dependable weather, the bass in Hamilton won’t be giving up easy.
The final day of the All-American will be live on MLFNOW! on Saturday, and the event will be broadcast later on CBS Sports.
The practice recap from the favorite
With such a varied field, anglers have tried everything this week on Hamilton – and considering the rewards available in the event, many came and pre-practiced as well. After practice, you could find some anglers pretty excited to go fishing and others really doubting things.
As the lone Bass Pro Tour pro in the field (an extreme anomaly), Jake Lawrence is the theoretical favorite, but he’s had one of his less-productive practices.
“Somebody’s going to figure out a deal this week, but I don’t feel like it was me,” he said. “What worries me is I’m not even seeing any good ones. I guess it would be one thing to see them and not be able to catch them, but I can’t even see one to not get it to bite.”
Lawrence is supremely talented offshore, despite his historically exciting buzzbait win, and his practice might have him headed to the bank.
“I’m probably going to go fish shallow,” he said. “I’ve caught a couple shallow, and you don’t get very many bites, but when you do, it’s at least a 2 1/2 sometimes. So, I think that’s what I’m going to do a large portion of the time.”
Generally speaking, tournaments at Hamilton have not been blowouts – or, if they are, they’re by virtue of a few bites stacked over a few days. There’s never been an FLW or MLF event on Hamilton where the winner was culling bunches of 4-pounders or coming in at noon.
“It will be an interesting tournament to see how it all plays out and who figures out what,” Lawrence said. “We’re all pretty well saying the same thing, and, like, this is one of the few times you can tell there’s no BS. Everybody’s pretty well struggling.”
Of course, Lawrence hasn’t talked to everyone in the field, and there are at least a few anglers who like how practice shook out.
O’Connell looking to finally win one
Matt O’Connell doesn’t need to be reminded of it, but he’s finished runner-up in the last two All-Americans, one at Lake Hartwell and the other at Lake Cherokee. While he made pretty good money in both events, the winner took home more than $100,000 each time, and O’Connell would surely like that big check.
Fishing in the heat of summer, O’Connell is in his element, but he and others are a little off balance due to pre-tournament expectations. Theoretically, according to good local sources, Hamilton is better than it’s ever been. And, while that may be the case, the lake hasn’t really shown it for most in practice.
“I came for pre-practice,” O’Connell said. “And the first day I was here, I was like, this is kind of miserable. I did hook one of the fabled giants when I was here in pre-practice, which surprised the hell out of me. I did not get it in the boat, but when it jumped, it was at least a 7. Since I’ve been back, it is worse than it was when I was here in pre-practice.”
Other than going up the river to fish the cool-water tailrace below Lake Ouachita, O’Connell has tested out every aspect of Hamilton without many clear answers. One of the issues is that the abundant grass in the lake doesn’t appear to be a cheat code for success.
“They’re around it, but it seems no different than any other cover,” he said. “They can be on a dock, they can be on a brush pile or they can be on a patch of grass. There are certain areas that you can tell have better grass. But, I didn’t find any hydrilla areas that just had, like, a lot of them living in it, that made it easy or something. You catch some fish around it, but it didn’t really seem any different than the rest of the lake to me.”
The offshore, summertime bite is expected to be a player, but pressure isn’t making it easy. Hamilton is not a large lake, and Hot Springs has plenty of folks who like to bass fish.
“Before the cutoff, you could tell the fish had started setting up where they were going to be,” O’Connell said. “It was easy to catch them then. It seems like all that’s happened is that since then, there’s some more fish in some places, but it’s just a lot harder to get them to bite. To me, it seems like it’s very much depending upon a couple better bites a day than, like, you can catch 15 or 16 a day on all 3-pounders.”
Still, the summertime season has been good to O’Connell, and after a couple runner-up finishes, he might end up really shooting for the win.
“For whatever reason, this is my bread and butter,” the Georgia angler said. “I’ve won two BFLs in August and September and one in June, and then done good in the All-Americans.
“So, for whatever reason, once they’re truly done with the spawn phase, everything starts clicking for me,” he said. “I think a lot of it comes down to blueback lakes. They teach you where fish like to live offshore. It tends to be where things get going this time of year. I like it when it gets hot. You can spend 12 hours out there easy, and half the guys are already worn out halfway through the day.”
The bank could be calling to Anderson
When Connor Cunningham won the All-American on Hamilton in 2022, he did it almost entirely on the bank throwing a topwater – an epic way to win a championship. This week, fishing his first All-American, Caz Anderson may try to follow in his footsteps.
“I’m going to put my head down and throw a buzzbait for the entire tournament and see what happens,” he said. “Dude, I’ve had some real good bites on it. The quality is definitely a lot better. And this morning, I probably had 10 bites on it with no hook and shook them off.
“And yesterday, I had some good ones,” he added. “I really ain’t found the exact rhyme or reason as to where I’m getting a bite as long as it’s not just dirt shallow. But, I got quite a few places I’m going to run and just glue it in my hand and see what happens.”
The All-American only comes around once a year, and Anderson knows it.
“I’m just not going to go out there and ‘Scope up a hundred little tiny ones,” he said. “Unless it gets grim.”
That willingness to chase the win could be because of his examples. Fishing in Georgia and the Carolinas, Anderson has watched friends and competitors take down the last two titles, with Emil Wagner and Paul Marks Jr. both going on to pro careers.
“This tournament is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” Anderson said. “I fished two tournaments in the Michigan Division and got in through the Wild Card on Cherokee. It was an honor, because Buddy Benson and Emil and Paul and all of our good friends from around the house have kind of made this tournament a big deal the last few years.
“I remember watching the All-American TV show when I was, like, first starting bass fishing all the way until now,” he said. “It was something that you kept up with because it was cool, because it was your normal everyday guy out there fishing for big money, and it’s something that I always wanted to fish. And seeing my good friends win it the last two years was definitely some motivation to get out here and get my stuff together. So, I needed to get out here and give it a whirl.”
Of course, just because his buddies have made it look easy, Anderson knows that everyone will be bringing their A-game this week.
“It’s a stacked field,” he said. “That’s what’s so cool, this tournament is just people from literally all over the place that are the best from their region, and they all come together to whoop your butt. When you can narrow as many people in the country down to 49 people at the end of the year, you know you’ve got your work cut out for you for sure.”