MLF Communications

BRANSON, Mo. – The third time was certainly a charm for Chad Mrazek of Montgomery, Texas, who brought a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds even to the scale Saturday to win the 2023 Toyota Series Championship at Table Rock Lake. This was the third Toyota Series Championship appearance for the Mrazek, who walked away with the top award of $200,000 and an invitation to compete in REDCREST 2024.

After finishing the first day in 22nd place, Mrazek jumped to 2nd on Day 2 with a 17-7 haul – the second-largest bag of the event. He backed that up with a 16-pound stringer on the final day to catapult to the top of the leaderboard. His three-day total of 47-2 gave him a slim 7-ounce margin over 2023 All-American champion Emil Wagner of Marietta, Georgia, who weighed 16-11 for a three-day total of 46-11.

“I have no words,” said Mrazek. “It’s been a really long season and I’ve worked so hard and have so many people to thank, I don’t even know where to start. The 17-pound bag yesterday definitely helped me. I decided to fish comfortably today and fish in a way that I knew could catch a big bag, but I didn’t have a single fish today until about noon, and only had one fish until about 1 p.m.

“Toward the end of the day, I just had this feeling, and I went over to a little drain I’d found just up the river. I caught a 3-pounder and a 4 1/2-pound smallmouth, and everything just started falling into place. I honestly still wasn’t sure if it was my time or not at that point, but it felt good when it came together.”

Mrazek said he began the event working his LiveScope in water hundreds of feet deep with everyone else, but didn’t believe that pattern would be the winning ticket for him.

“I just wasn’t comfortable doing that,” said Mrazek. “I brought in a decent bag – 13 pounds and some change – but on Day 2 I knew I needed to make some adjustments if I really wanted to make a run at this thing.”

That adjustment meant finding shallow drains, which Mrazek said were few and far between on Table Rock.

“I fished those shallow drains, just like I like to fish back home in Texas, but there aren’t many of them out here, so I only had about four to five spots to rotate through,” Mrazek said. “I rotated through them all yesterday and weighed in 17-7, then rotated through them all again today, and thankfully it worked out.”

Mrazek’s key bait was a 7/16-ounce football jig with half of a 6th Sense Clout as a trailer – a bait Mrazek is super-comfortable with and is part of his LiveScope rotation.

“I’ve been Scoping with that bait for a while now,” he said. “I used 16-pound Sunline Sniper, and I just can’t break it. There were trees everywhere around most of my better drains, so you’re going to get wrapped up, but I think I only lost two fish all week.”

After a tough rookie year on the MLF Invitationals in 2023, Mrazek’s showing in the 2023 Toyota Series has been a career-saver.

“This win truly means the world to me,” Mrazek said. “At the beginning of this season, I had some misfortune with a title sponsor backing out on me – it wasn’t anybody’s fault, it’s just the way things go – but since January I’ve been literally fishing paycheck to paycheck. I’ve been cashing a check just to get to the next event, and if it wasn’t for the first few good events this season, I would have been in trouble.

“Those events and those paychecks kept me going. It slowed down a little bit mid-season, but then it picked back up with the Northern Division of the Toyota Series, where I finished strong, and that helped me get here. I think this win might help a little bit as well. I just really want to thank my family and everyone who has supported me since I was 5 years old and had this crazy dream – everyone who has pushed me to be my best up to this point.

“Hopefully we can keep this momentum going,” Mrazek continued. “I’ve got a lot of big things lined up for next year, sponsor-wise, so I’m excited for the coming year and how this win will continue to help boost those opportunities.”

Here are the final totals for the 25 anglers who competed on the final day:

1st: Chad Mrazek of Montgomery, Texas, 15 bass, 47-2, $202,500
2nd: Emil Wagner of Marietta, Ga., 15 bass, 46-11, $61,300
3rd: Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Ill., 15 bass, 44-12, $40,000
4th: Jeremy Gordon of Rutledge, Tenn., 15 bass, 44-4, $25,000
5th: Colby Miller of Elmer, La., 15 bass, 43-7, $30,000
6th: Jacob Walker of Springville, Ala., 15 bass, 43-2, $14,000
7th: Christian Ostrander of Turlock, Calif., 15 bass, 43-1, $23,000
8th: Brody Campbell of Oxford, Ohio, 15 bass, 42-12, $12,200
9th: Mike Raber of Elkhart, Ind., 15 bass, 42-11, $21,000
10th: Evan Kung of Pickering, Ontario, 15 bass, 42-9, $20,000
11th: Alec Morrison of Peru, N.Y., 15 bass, 42-2, $14,500
12th: Erik Luzak of Fenelon Falls, Ontario, 15 bass, 42-2, $4,500
13th: Dakota Ebare of Brookeland, Texas, 15 bass, 42-0, $4,500
14th: Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Ala., 15 bass, 41-15, $4,500
15th: Cole Breeden of Lebanon, Mo., 15 bass, 41-10, $4,500
16th: Jason Gramada of Les Cedres, Québec, 15 bass, 40-8, $3,500
17th: Rick Harris of Kingsland, Texas, 15 bass, 40-1, $3,500
18th: Brian Green of North Augusta, Ontario, 15 bass, 40-1, $3,500
19th: Jacob Welch of Jefferson City, Mo., 13 bass, 39-14, $3,500
20th: Travis Harriman of Huntsville, Ark., 14 bass, 39-11, $3,500
21st: Jacob Keenom of Wellston, Okla., 15 bass, 39-2, $3,000
22nd: Martin Villa of Charlottesville, Va., 15 bass, 37-6, $3,000
23rd: Derik Hudson of Concord, Va., 15 bass, 37-1, $3,000
24th: Ken Thompson of Roaring Springs, Pa., 15 bass, 36-3, $3,000
25th: Brad Jelinek of Lincoln, Mo., 11 bass, 29-0, $3,000

Al Hopkins of Pendleton, Indiana, weighed in five bass totaling 10-14Saturday to win the top co-angler prize of a new Phoenix 518 pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard engine, with a three-day total of 12 bass weighing 25-10. Second place went to Will Lancett of Jacksonville, Arkansas, who weighed in a three-day total of 7 bass for 19-3.

The 2023 Toyota Series consisted of six divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern, Southwestern and Western – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International division and the Wild Card. The highest finishing pro from each division at the championship claimed a $10,000 bonus. The bonus went to the second-highest finishing pro in the division represented by the overall champion.