With big bags of smallmouth leading the tournament after the first two days, it seemed brown fish would win the Lake Guntersville Central Toyota Series event in Alabama. However, local angler Kent Ware was slowly and steadily climbing up the leaderboard.
Moving from 17th place into 8th after the first two days, Ware brought a final-day total of five largemouth weighing 22 pounds, 8 ounces to the scale Thursday – his biggest bag of the tournament – to win the division's season-opener. Ware’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 59-15 gave him the win by a 2-04 margin over second-place pro Casey Martin of Brownsboro, Alabama, and earned Ware the top payout of $80,000.
Amid changing weather and water conditions and a shortened Day 2 due to a fog delay, Ware persevered with patience and consistency. Although he’s had a handful of Top-10 finishes with Major League Fishing and won the Southeastern Division Angler of the Year (AOY) title in 2012, this is his first big tournament win.
“Patience is one of the things I try to stress to my co-anglers,” said Ware. “If you get in an area like we found that’s got fish in it, you just have to be patient. They’ll bite in little spurts throughout the day. A lot of guys run and gun all over the place, but I grew up in Florida and when I try to fish like that, I don’t do well. The fish live there, and a lot of them stay shallow year-round. It’s just a matter of being patient and figuring out a bait that will trigger them, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Ware said he fished mostly around the central part of the lake and was fortunate to find some clean water that was protected by an island where a lot of healthy largemouth lived.
“My key bait throughout the tournament was the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap. I tried a few other vibrating baits and caught some fish the first day on a Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer but ended up culling those fish with the Rat-L-Trap, even that first day."
Ware was surprised to learn his win had guaranteed him a spot in the Toyota Series Championship and he would have another chance to fish Lake Guntersville later this year – this time for a top prize of up to $235,000.
“It’s exciting to be able to come back to Guntersville this fall to fish the Toyota Series Championship – that’s actually the time of year I’d prefer to fish it,” said Ware. “The goal was to make the championship, and I’ve had some good years and some bad ones – some good championships and some bad ones – but I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
When asked if he was planning to contend for another AOY title, Ware said absolutely.
“I always try to gun for AOY, that’s the biggest award to me, but it was nice to finally win a big tournament. It’s a little overwhelming at the moment, but it will sink in eventually.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1st. Kent Ware of Guntersville, Ala., 15 bass, 59-15, $80,000
2nd. Casey Martin of Brownsboro, Ala., 15 bass, 57-11, $35,000
3rd. Derik Hudson of Concord, Va., 13 bass, 57-05, $21,200
4th. Bo Collins of Robbinsville, N.C., 15 bass, 56-05, $20,000
5th. Nathan Brewer of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., 11 bass, 53-12, $18,000
6th. Ethan Greene of Eufaula, Ala., 15 bass, 53-06, $14,500
7th. Shawn Penn of Benton, Ky., 15 bass, 52-09, $13,000
8th. Kyle Palmer of Winchester, Tenn., 15 bass, 52-08, $10,250
9th. Miles Burghoff of Dayton, Tenn., 15 bass, 51-00, $9,000
10th. Andrew Loberg of Rocklin, Calif., 14 bass, 50-05, $7,000
