Fishing in his first BFL All-American Championship, Brant Grimm of Church Hill, Tenn. won the 38th annual event at Douglas Lake in his home state after bringing five bass weighing 14-04 to the scale Saturday. Grimm’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 46-09 bested 2nd-place boater Leslie Brandenburg of Springfield, Mo., by 1-15. Grimm took home $100,000 for his victory and earned a spot in the 2021 Toyota Series Championship on Pickwick Lake, Oct. 28-30.
“I’m usually a really talkative person, but today at noon I hadn’t said more than three words,” Grimm said after earning the victory. “It was kind of tough today. I only managed seven keeper bites. But thankfully they were the right ones and it all worked out.
“It really hasn’t sunk in for me, yet,” Grimm continued. “It’s a lot of money. I’ll probably do something boring with it – stick it into a retirement account or buy a rental property or something like that. I’m not going to go buy a yacht or anything like that.”
Grimm said he caught his fish this week fishing a narrow section below the Nolichucky River, targeting offshore river drops where the fish gang up. His main weapon was a shad-colored Strike King 6XD crankbait.
“I love fishing shallow – I consider myself a shallow-water angler. But I fished shallow here for two weeks prior to the off-limits period and I couldn’t catch anything (heavier) than 3 pounds. I didn’t feel like I could win on the bank, so I committed my time offshore.”
Grimm considers Douglas Lake and Cherokee Lake his home waters, and when asked if he had any aspirations of moving up to the Toyota Series or Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit, he said he’s happy to stay around home.
“I fished the (FLW) Tour one year – I’ve been there, done that,” Grimm said. “I don’t know that I’m good enough to compete. I’m not on that level. I’m good around here on a couple of lakes and I’m going to stay here on these couple of lakes and just keep trying to catch them.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Brant Grimm: 46-09
2. Leslie Brandenburg: 44-10
3. Cody Hoyle: 43-06
4. Blake Tomlin: 40-08
5. Chris Baldwin: 40-01
6. Chris Nelson: 39-15
7. Roger Fitzpatrick: 39-11
8. Harmon Davis: 38-14
9. Dale Pelfrey: 37-10
10. Austin Culbertson: 35-13
Daniel Buswell Jr. of Fayetteville, Ga., won the co-angler division and $50,000 Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 34-02. Buswell became the first co-angler to ever win the All-American Championship twice – he previously won the title in 2013 on Nickajack Lake in Chattanooga, Tenn.
