After two consistent days with limits of 28 pounds, 2 ounces, and 27-4, which put him in fourth place and then first, the pro from Carlyle, Ill., entered Championship Friday with a 3-6 lead.
After two days of showing off its impressive quality and quantity, Day 3 saw Toledo Bend feeling the full effects of a lake turnover that started with a pre-event cold front. With the fish clearly having a bad hair day, Fields managed only 17-13, but that was enough to tally a winning total of 73-3, which edged Buddy Benson of Dahlonega, Ga., by 2-7.
Fields won the $71,317 top prize. He also received an invitation to fish the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour, March 19-21 at Lake Hartwell.
“I was confident that I didn’t have it; 17 pounds on this lake — there’s no way,” Fields said of his unexpected win. “My family left at 4 in the morning and drove down. This is so special. I can’t believe it.
Fields caught all of his final-round fish in the same area where he caught his first two days’ limits. Working a creek north of the Pendleton Bridge, up-lake from the tournament site, Fields fished a variety of habitat features, including timber flats and docks.
Fields caught most of his fish on a Hideup Coike Fullcast rigged on a 1/0 BKK Hyperlatch treble hook with a 1/8-ounce weight. He also caught fish on a jighead minnow with a Big Bite Baits Spotlight Minnow on a 1/4-ounce head or a larger minnow on a 3/8-ounce head.
With either bait, precision casts and quick retrieves were the key ingredients.
“It seemed like you had to hit these fish right on the head this week,” Fields said. “With the docks, I was staying a couple of feet out in front of the docks, because the closer you are, the better you can see them on forward-facing sonar.
At the Day 2 weigh-ins, Fields stated that he felt very confident throughout his day. Suffice to say, Day 3 brought a very different vibe, as his bites were less frequent, and he never found what Toledo Bend standards would call a big bite — something 7-plus.
Fortunately, Fields started his morning with a 5-pounder 30 minutes into his day and quickly followed with one about 2 3/4. After that, his day yielded only four more bass, but one of them was another 5.
Benson enjoyed a strong start with a Day 1 limit of 30-3 that put him in third place. Adding 21-13 in the second round kept him in the No. 3 spot, but Benson gained one notch on Championship Friday by adding 18-12 for a tournament total of 70-12.
“I felt like I kinda fumbled today, but I came in and checked BassTrakk, and I was like, ‘Wow, everybody kinda struggled,’” Benson said. “The first day, I could do no wrong, and the last two days, it just got tougher and tougher.
Benson caught one of his fish on an urchin bait and the others on a jighead minnow. For the latter, he used a 1/8-ounce jighead with a 7-inch Deps Sakamata Shad to weed out smaller fish and appeal to the big ones that were eating gizzard shad.
Jace Lindsay of Beckville, Texas, finished third with 69-1. His daily weights were 28-1, 19-11, and 21-5.
Lindsay said he caught all but one of his 15 tournament-weight fish on a Deps Sakamata Shad with a 1/8-ounce head. A Hideup Coike Fullcast rigged on a quad hook with a 1/16-ounce weight produced one of his limit fish.
Kaden Buchmann of Troutman, N.C., leads the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops standings with 244 points. Brody Robison of Dawson, Ala., is in second place with 239, followed by Brennan Flick of West Monroe, La., with 223, Peyton Harris of Birmingham, Ala., with 221, and Cody Abbott of Woodruff, S.C., with 220.