LEESBURG, Fla. – As is usual for Florida, the co-angler side of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southern Division tournament at the Harris Chain produced a great event. Winning with two big days on Day 2 and Day 3, Elijah Soto tallied up 43 pounds, 5 ounces on 14 bass for the win. In second, Benton Peoples weighed 41-6 for three days, and Jason Wiley caught 40-9 for third. Soto takes home a new Phoenix Boats package for the win.
From California, Soto recently retired from a job working for the Department of Defense, and he’s using the free time to chase bass at bucket-list fisheries around the country.
“I’ve been fishing my whole life for fun, I love to fish,” he said. “If I never won a dime, I’d still do it every time I got the chance. But I got a little taste of tournament fishing. When I retired, my wife said, ‘Go out there and fish all those lakes you’ve been dreaming about your whole life.’ So she took care of everything at home, I’ve got horses and cattle and dogs and cats and everything else, and she’s taking care of the whole ranch while I’m out here.”
So far this year, Sota has fished six events with MLF – he’s burning up the trail. But it hasn’t always gone well.
“I’d never fished (a Toyota Series) before this year, so I had a lot to learn,” Soto said. “And I blanked at Sam Rayburn in the first tournament. I didn’t know what to do. I was just a starry-eyed juvenile there. After that, I ended up just trying to learn as I went, and it got a little better each time and started finishing a little higher. And then it just came together. Thank God. God is great. He’s blessed me with this opportunity, and it just panned out.”
Soto’s best day came on Day 2, fishing in Harris behind Hunter Weston.
“We ended up hitting a shell bed out there on Harris, something he’d been wanting to check, I guess,” he said. “And, man, first cast, I was throwing a Strike King 300 jerkbait, in a pearl, I hooked a good one, about a 5-pounder. I got him in the livewell and, Hunter was like, ‘Hey, don’t be doing that to me all day,’ in a joking manner, which was funny.
“Very next cast, I caught another one. And he said, ‘No, seriously.’ It was a funny deal. Basically, in five casts, I had four fish, and about 15 pounds. And he went looking for the bait in his boat. He didn’t have one. I said, ‘Man, if I catch one more right here, I’m going to cut this bait off and give it to you.’
“Anyway, long story short, very next cast, I catch my limit right there. I got close to 18 pounds in the first 20 casts of the deal. I cut my bait off and handed it to him, and he proceeded to catch his limit right after that.”
On Day 3, Soto started in third place, and he made the trek to Apopka with Chad Mrazek.
“I got to finally go to Apopka, which I always wanted to do,” said Soto. “And that was an interesting run. We had a little boat trouble, so when we got down there, we only got to fish for about two hours, not even that, and then we had to make a run back.
“But it didn’t matter because Chad was on the fish. Again, my very first cast, I hooked at 5-plus on a spinnerbait and got him in. And then we poked around. I threw a jerkbait quite a bit and a ChatterBait and got what I needed. I culled quite a few times in that short amount of time and was able to get just enough to squeak out the win.”
Top 10 co-anglers
1. Elijah Soto – 43 – 05 (14) – $33,500
2. Benton Peoples – 41 – 06 (15) – $4,900
3. Jason Wiley – 40 – 09 (15) – $3,920
4. Myles Tallada – 36 – 04 (15) – $3,430
5. John Stahl – 35 – 05 (12) – $2,940
6. James Cobbs – 34 – 10 (15) – $2,450
7. Jeremy Bouldin – 34 – 06 (15) – $1,960
8. Evrett Hunter – 34 – 05 (15) – $1,715
9. Brady Lunsmann – 33 – 14 (15) – $1,470
10. Cameron Debity – 33 – 04 (15) – $1,225