BAINBRIDGE, Ga. – Kenny Garand had the lead on the co-angler side heading into Day 3 of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southern Division event on Lake Seminole. Right behind him was travel partner and close friend Dylan Casazza, sitting in third, just a few pounds back. On Day 3, Garand weighed a minuscule limit, only 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and Casazza dropped 11-10 on the scale to move up for the win with a 36-10 total.
Having won the opener at Okeechobee, Garand stayed friends with the victor, and Casazza takes home a Phoenix Boats package worth $33,500 for his win.
“I’ve been saving for a boat for a while now, I’ve got a Geenoe now, I have some money put away now,” Casazza said. “It’s definitely gonna help. I got that to hold me over, and I had a Tracker that I sold, but it was an older one with a 1992 Yamaha, and I ran that for a while and decked it out. Kenny and I always talked, one day, we needed to have a one-two tournament, and we did it.”
The Assistant Manager for Tampa Fishing Outfitters, Casazza was able to catch most of his fish shallow on the week, and put some key information from the 2025 Seminole event to work.
“I got absolutely blessed, I caught almost all my fish on a swim jig,” he said. “I caught some fish on other stuff, I caught a couple in Spring Creek on a jerkbait and a drop-shot. I got lucky, and all three days, everyone ran toward the ‘Hooch.’ I was able to grind out bigger fish – there it’s a little more far and few between, but bigger fish.”
The key for Casazza was using the right trailer, which helped him catch quality.
“Last year I drew Dylon Smith, and he went up there, and he was catching them on a white swim jig,” Casazza said. “He whooped my butt. He was doing it with a bigger, white trailer. I put that in the back of my mind. He was generating way bigger bites.”
In action, Casazza used a 3/8-ounce Dirty Jigs No-Jack Swim Jig in albino with a Strike King Rage Craw. Paired with a 7-foot, 6-inch, heavy, 13 Fishing Myth and an 8.3:1 13 Fishing Concept A2 and 65-pound PowerPro Maxcuatro braid, he let the fish know what was up.
“Most of the bites, if I didn’t see it, there was just a boil and it was gone,” he said. “They just disappeared it. I was cracking the crap out of them.”
Next up, the dynamic duo will head to Tennessee for the Toyota Series Championship this fall on Pickwick Lake.
“Hopefully we can do this again, me or Kenny, to try to represent Tampa,” he said.
Top 10 co-anglers
1. Dylan Casazza – 36 – 10 (15) – $33,500
2. Kenny Garand – 36 – 02 (15) – $4,383
3. Larry Mullikin – 33 – 10 (15) – $3,506
4. Jonathan Forrest – 33 – 07 (13) – $3,068
5. Keith Honeycutt – 31 – 11 (14) – $2,630
6. Early Whitaker – 31 – 08 (15) – $2,192
7. Hunter Prough – 30 – 08 (15) – $1,753
8. Wendell Grantham – 30 – 06 (11) – $1,534
9. Zak Kuhn – 29 – 10 (13) – $1,465
10. Ryder Krueger – 29 – 01 (15) – $1,096