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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — While check-in for the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River was scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, Jeff Gustafson was waiting in the parking lot behind the World’s Fair Park Performance Lawn by 2.

Jeff Gustafson, of Keewatin, Ontario, Canada, has won the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River with a four-day total of 63 pounds. 

                                                                                                 Photo by Seigo Saito/B.A.S.S.

With his limit of smallmouth filled and potentially treacherous waters ahead, the Keewatin, Ontario, native wanted to make sure he was back in plenty of time.

“I figured it would take a really big bag to catch me,” Gustafson said. “And being 40 miles down the river and with all the logs on the river, there was room for something to happen and I just wanted to get these fish in and get back here.”

Turns out, Gustafson could afford to quit early.

With a 14-pound, 3-ounce limit, the Canadian pro claimed his first career Bassmaster Elite Series victory with a four-day total of 63-0, just over 7 pounds ahead of second-place finisher Steve Kennedy.

With the coveted blue trophy in hand, Gustafson reflected on all of the people who’d helped him reach his lifelong dream of scoring an Elite Series win.

“My dad took me fishing every chance I wanted to go when I was a kid and I just caught the bug for it,” Gustafson said. “This is my whole life doing this stuff. It means everything to me. I think about a lot of people that I did it for, my family and I have a lot of good buddies at home that have the talent to do this and just have a different direction in their lives.

“They all really support me and send me messages all the time, good or bad. I can’t wait to show them all this trophy.”

In a tournament where largemouth played for most of the field, all 20 of Gustafson’s bass were smallmouth, something he didn’t expect heading into the event.

“In my experience on the Tennessee River lakes, if you catch a smallmouth it’s sort of a random fluke,” he said. “With the 18-inch size limit, I had no interest in trying to target smallmouth. I knew the fishing would be tough and it is crazy how it works out.

“Some of my good tournaments down here, I’ve had the worst practices. I caught a few in practice and had no idea what was really there until the tournament started.”

His magic spot was around the canal that connects Tellico Lake to Fort Loudoun Reservoir. With current pushing through the canal, Gustafson said the bass were hunkered down around hard bottom and rocks in 18 to 20 feet of water, so much so he couldn’t see them when he scanned the area with his 2D Humminbird sonar.

“There was a lot of bait and then you idle through there and put your Humminbird 360 down, you see all the rock down there and basically it was just a matter of figuring out where they were because they weren’t everywhere,” he said. “I thought it was fairly random, but as the tournament evolved, they were on specific spots. Just hard stuff on the bottom, rocks.

“I’m sure that these fish are hiding behind it. The water is cold. I feel like they don’t love being in the current right now.”

After trying a couple of different baits in the area, Gustafson settled on a Damiki rig, a 3/8-ounce jighead or a 1/2-ounce jighead with a smaller hook paired with a Z-Man ShadZ.

“The shad profile was key. I saw a lot of the fish puking up shad,” he said. “I wouldn’t mark any idling around or until I actually saw them come up to my bait. That was a big deal. The deal was keeping my bait under my transducer on the Ultrex.

“It was important to see it just so you could stay within that foot or two of the bottom, but not be on the bottom, and when the fish would come up to it, sometimes you would have to give it a little shake or lift it a little bit and that was sort of the trigger to bite.”

The weather changed in Knoxville every day and on Championship Sunday, fog delayed the by 90 minutes, giving Gustafson some anxiety.

“The fog thing this morning was fairly stressful. What I did learn over the last few days was the first hour was pretty critical. They are set up and biting better in the morning,” he said. “Before I got my boat in the water, I wasn’t that stressed and that got the anxiety going. Once we got out there and started fishing, I caught two good ones pretty quickly and it took the pressure off.”

Gustafson weeded through as many as 20 nonkeepers and caught his limit late in the morning. After double-checking to see if two of his bass measured over 18 inches, Gustafson made three final drifts before heading back to Knoxville.

Kennedy followed his 20-pound bag from Day 3 with 15-0 on Championship Sunday, claiming second-place with 55-15. The Auburn, Ala., native used a jig and a ChatterBait to catch his bass throughout the week, focusing on staging areas.

“I was dialed for about 25 to 30 minutes (today),” Kennedy said. “It was fun. I wish I had caught my bites. I broke off three this week. I think I could have done it. We would have been right there together.”

With a 14-9 bag of largemouth on the final day, Florida pro John Cox finished third with 52-10. With water falling out of his primary area, Cox fished a shallow bridge and did most of his damage with a Berkley Frittside crankbait.

“I felt my best chance of catching the 3 to 5-pound fish was on the Frittside,” Cox said. “I was getting so many bites. I probably caught at least 20 fish total. It was good. I landed on something kind of special.”

Brock Mosley of Collinsville, Miss., took the event’s Phoenix Boats Big Bass award for his 6-pound, 10 ounce fish on Day 2. Brandon Card of Salisbury, N.C., won $1,000 for the big bass of Day 1 with a 5-9, while Mosley claimed the Day 2 award. Kennedy won the Day 3 award with his 6-5 and Jason Christie of Park Hill, Okla., won the Day 4 award with his 5-5.

Cox took home $3,000 for being the highest-placing entrant in the Toyota Bonus Bucks program, and Christie earned $2,000 for being the second-highest placing entrant.

As part of the Yamaha Power Pay program, Christie also earned $2,500 for being the highest-placing entrant while 13th place finisher Keith Combs of Huntington, Texas, claimed an additional $1,500 for being the second-highest placing entrant.

The tournament was hosted by the Visit Knoxville Sports Commission.

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors: Berkley, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Bass Pro Shops, Garmin, Huk Performance Fishing, Marathon, Rapala

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Conservation Partner: AFTCO

2021 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River Local Host: Visit Knoxville Sports Commission

About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S., which encompasses the Bassmaster tournament leagues, events and media platforms, is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 515,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), TV show, radio show, social media programs and events. For more than 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Series, TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Series, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors, Bassmaster Team Championship, Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk.

The post Gustafson Seals Wire-To-Wire Victory In Bassmaster Elite Series Event On Tennessee River appeared first on Bass365.com.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — With a five-bass limit that weighed 15 pounds, 5 ounces on Saturday, Jeff Gustafson held onto the lead for the third straight day in the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River.

Jeff Gustafson, of Keewatin, Ontario, Canada, is leading after Day 3 of the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River with a three-day total of 48 pounds, 13 ounces.  Photo by Seigo Saito/B.A.S.S.

The Canadian pro has a three-day total of 48-13, potentially setting himself up for his first career Elite Series victory.

Gustafson holds just nearly an 8-pound advantage over Alabama pro Steve Kennedy, who rebounded on Day 3 with a 20-14 bag of largemouth that lifted him from 19th to 2nd place with a three-day total of 40-15.

Unlike the previous day where he suffered through a couple of lulls and struggled to land his fifth keeper, Gustafson caught fish most of the day Saturday, filling his limit of 18-inch smallmouth within the first hour.

“I went right back to my best spot where I caught all my fish yesterday, and it took about 40 minutes to get my limit and yesterday it took me all day,” he said. “The 18-inch thing is tough. I caught a lot of 17-inchers today. I threw a 13-pound bag of those back. You have to get the right ones.”

Using the same technique as the previous two days, the Keewatin, Ontario, native expanded his area and caught quality fish, culling twice around midday.  He added that he felt a few more bass have moved into his “juice” spot.

“With all the current happening, those fish are moving around and hopefully there will be a little batch of them tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of those little flurries and it happens quick. Hopefully it happens again tomorrow.”

During the afternoon, Gustafson said he made a couple of big drifts searching for more bass, catching one or two occasionally but never going back over his best spot. With dams along the Tennessee River open to account for the heavy rain pushing through the area, the current in Gustafson’s spot has ratcheted up and he isn’t sure exactly how that will affect his bite.

If he is able to pull off the wire-to-wire victory, he will become just the second Canadian angler to win a Bassmaster Elite Series event. The first was Chris Johnston, who claimed his first title on the St. Lawrence River in 2020.

“I’m very confident there are five there for me, I just have to catch them,” Gustafson said. “I’m in a good spot and have a good program going and I just have to do my job tomorrow. I’m going to have three spinning rods on the deck and that’s going to be how it goes.”

After catching just two bass Friday, Kennedy recovered in a big way Saturday with the biggest bag of the tournament.

The jig he was throwing on Day 1 failed to produce on the second or third days, so Kennedy switched techniques on Saturday and found the big bites he needed to jump into the cut. He is fishing for bass migrating into prespawn areas.

“Yesterday was 45 and raining and I didn’t feel like they would be up there shallow, but everyone caught them and so I had to figure out how to catch them,” Kennedy said. “They called me on (Bassmaster) LIVE after I caught a 4-pounder. I went around the curve and caught a 4-pounder.”

As he was ready to make a move, the Bassmaster LIVE crew called Kennedy via Skype again — and again, the call proved to be a good-luck charm.

“I was ready to leave. It took forever to talk to them,” he said. “So, I went around the corner and there was one tree that I had run the boat over top of that I didn’t get a good cast to. I was talking to them and made one cast and caught that huge fish on Live.

“I kept wondering when they were going to call me again.”

The 6-5 largemouth earned the Auburn, Ala., native the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day and clued Kennedy in to the type of water he needed to be fishing. He culled several more times to reach the 20-pound mark, the first angler to do so in this event.

“They are moving obviously,” he said. “The main river is 47 degrees, the creeks are 52 or 53. They are wanting to move in but the water dropped. Some were coming in and some were coming out. I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow.”

Floridian John Cox caught 14-3 to jump from fifth to third heading into the final day with a three-day total of 38-1. Cox caught two fish earlier in the day when the water temperature was still low, each of which was barely hooked.

“It fell to that 51, 52 range and I haven’t been catching anything on that Berkley Frittside until about 53 degrees. So, I kind of started off and I could feel it bump fish and every once in a while one would swat at it. The first one I caught, one little bit of the hook got him.

“I lost a really good one and then I came back an hour later to where I lost that good one and hooked it again. They weren’t eating. Once that water temperature rose to about 53, I caught the rest of my keepers.”

The water temperature has been key for Cox, who has had very little success with temperatures below 53 degrees.

“(Today) I knew the water was going to be kind of cold, but I didn’t know how cold,” he said. “It’s just so dead until the temperatures start rising and then they start swimming into the area.

“The crappie are coming in, the bass are coming in. It’s really cool to watch them come in there.”

The Frittside has been the bait of choice for Cox, an angler who historically hasn’t thrown crankbaits, after he realized every fish he weighed-in on Day 1 came on the bait.

“A lot of them weren’t hooked good. They would swat at it and I would get them,” he said. “I ruled out the ChatterBait and everything that they had to actually take.”

The Top 10 anglers will compete for $100,000 on Championship Sunday starting at 7 a.m. ET from Volunteer Landing. Anglers will check in at 3 p.m. and weigh-in shortly after at World’s Fair Park Performance Lawn.

Live coverage of the event can be streamed on Bassmaster.com and the FOX Sports digital platforms. FS1 will also broadcast live from the tournament beginning at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

The tournament is being hosted by the Visit Knoxville Sports Commission.

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors: Berkley, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Bass Pro Shops, Garmin, Huk Performance Fishing, Marathon, Rapala

2021 Bassmaster Elite Series Conservation Partner: AFTCO

2021 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Tennessee River Local Host: Visit Knoxville Sports Commission

About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S., which encompasses the Bassmaster tournament leagues, events and media platforms, is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 515,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), TV show, radio show, social media programs and events. For more than 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Series, TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Series, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors, Bassmaster Team Championship, Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk.

The post Gustafson Increases Lead At Bassmaster Elite Series Event On Tennessee River appeared first on Bass365.com.