BROOKELAND, Texas — Justin Swayze’s best explanation is that “Sam Rayburn just loves me.”
After the Arkansas co-angler dominated the Southwestern Division opener of the Toyota Series presented by Phoenix Boats for his second career victory on Sam Rayburn, it’s hard to argue.
Swayze added five bass for 14 pounds, 1 ounce on Saturday to bring his three-day total to 47-0. After he caught a 20-13 megabag on Day 2, that marked the second day in a row he landed the heaviest limit among the co-angler contingent. He distanced his two closest pursuers, Arturo Baquera and Robert Chavers, by 12-8.
The win marks Swayze’s third total victory with MLF and second as a co-angler. He took home a Phoenix boats package worth $33,500 plus qualified for the Toyota Series Championship on Pickwick Lake in November.
Big bites power Swayze
It didn’t take Swayze long to find a kinship with Sam Rayburn. The first time he ever competed on the fishery, at a Toyota Series event in 2023, he earned his first win. Then, last year, he notched finishes of second and third in two events on Big Sam. Add in this year’s victory, and he’s finished in the top three four times in six Toyota Series starts on the lake.
Swayze doesn’t attribute that success to some similarity between Rayburn and the lakes he fishes near home in central Arkansas. He simply finds that Rayburn’s bass “eat like they’re supposed to.”
“They’re almost like textbook bass,” he said. “We fish around central Arkansas, and they’re pressured lakes. You would think you can go throw like a DT-6 or a Rat-L-Trap down the bank; you will not catch them up there. But here, you can actually catch fish. You go to a windy point, you throw a Rat-L-Trap, you’ll catch fish.”
He admits he’s found some fortunate breaks along the way, too. The biggest of those came on Day 2, when he caught a 10-pound lunker that followed his boater’s bait to the boat, then ate a jighead minnow that Swayze dropped vertically. That fish “jumped over the net twice” before they finally corralled it and anchored easily the biggest bag of the week by a co-angler.
Swayze called that fish, his new personal best, “a fluke deal.” But he didn’t win just on the strength of that kicker. He caught two other bass over 6 pounds on the week, including a 6-6 on Day 3. Both of those fish ate lipless crankbaits. When he landed the big one Saturday, he knew he’d likely done enough to secure the trophy.
“I didn’t have a fish until like 9:30,” Swayze said. “I was just sitting there thinking, ‘I’m about to zero today. I can’t do this.’ Then I caught one, caught another, and then I caught one that just barely made it. I caught those on a Carolina rig. And then we went throwing a ‘Trap.’ And like 5 minutes in, I caught a 6-6. I felt pretty good at that point.”
On Days 1 and 2, Swayze caught most of his fish on either an Alabama rig or the lipless crankbait. On Day 3, four of his five keepers came on a Carolina rig. Keeping his bait selection simple helped bolster his confidence.
“I’m going to throw green pumpkin or black-and-blue jigs or Carolina-rigged baby brush hogs, and then my A-rig is just a normal A-Rig with Keitechs (swimbaits),” he said. “I only brought like two colors of Keitechs, like shad colors. Just try to keep it simple. Because I’ve fished for a long time, and you can overthink it bad. You can sit in the bottom of the boat, and you can retie all day. And I just was like, I need to stop that. I just need to take the baits I know I have confidence in. I think that helps a lot, honestly.”
Already having won one Phoenix, Swayze isn’t sure yet what he’ll do with the new boat. For now, he’s still basking in the glow of another incredible three days on Rayburn.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “Everything just went right.”
Top 10 co-anglers:
- Justin Swayze – 47-0 (15) – $33,650
- Arturo Baquera – 34-8 (15) – $3,945
- Robert Chavers – 34-8 (15) – $3,156
- Alan Bernicky – 33-7 (15) – $2,962
- Buddy Rudolph – 33-6 (14) – $2,367
- Al Longoria – 32-1 (13) – $1,973
- Rusty Helms – 31-14 (14) – $1,578
- Carter Lanclos – 31-12 (12) – $1,381
- Robert Jacuzzi – 31-11 (14) – $1,184
- Kevin Carter – 31-10 (14) – $986