MASSENA, N.Y. (Aug. 2, 2026) – New York pro Jesse Spellicy wasn’t surprised when the number came up on the scale Sunday at the Massena Dam Intake: 23 pounds, 6 ounces, his biggest bag of the week and the winning moment at the  Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Northern Division event on the St. Lawrence River.

Delighted, relieved and a little bit emotional, to be sure, but not shocked. Most of Spellicy’s family and friends might’ve been surprised, though, to learn that his week ended with 64-13 over three days, a $73,689 paycheck, his first Toyota Series winner’s trophy and an automatic berth in the 2026 Toyota Series Championship in November.

“I kinda downplayed it to everyone,” Spellicy admitted shortly after hoisting the trophy and big check. “I thought I could win – I knew that I had a good chance, at least. It’s not so much that I thought I’d jinx it, but I didn’t want to put that pressure on myself. I had to lock in and focus on the task at hand, so I didn’t really say much about (the event) to my friends and family.”

Louis Monetti was second with 64-2, followed by Clay Reece (63-4), Nolan Leger (61-14) and Brayden Stoker (61-13) to round out the Top 5.

On the co-angler side, Texas angler Carson Stone brought the heaviest back-of-the-boat bag of the event to the scale Sunday (19-10) to claim a Phoenix Boats 518 Pro with a 115-hoursepower outboard with 50-1.

Spellicy holds course
Living in nearby Gouverneur, New York – roughly 40 minutes east of the river and 55 miles southeast of Massena – Spellicy is no stranger to the St. Lawrence. He’s not part of the crowd that fishes it daily from sunup to sundown in the summer, but he’s also no stranger to Top 10 trophies in MLF competitions here. Heading into the week, he had collected six top-10 finishes in nine events in Phoenix Bass Fishing League and Toyota Series events on the St. Lawrence system, and his familiarity with the stretch of water below Iroquois Dam gave Spellicy confidence going into the week.

“I knew it was going to be in my wheelhouse, that’s the portion of the river that I’m the most familiar with,” Spellicy said. “It’s a little bit of an equalizer with LiveScope. I’ve always known there are big fish there, but it’s very hard to fish traditionally. Incorporating LiveScope, it kind of unlocked that special area. It felt like it was setting up pretty good for me.”

Spellicy started the week with a 20-pound bag fishing some shallow roadbeds, but mostly working deeper than a hearty portion of the tournament crowd (25 to 35 feet). That plan was good enough for 14th on Day 1 as seven anglers blasted 21 pounds or more. He lost a fish that day that he estimates at 5 to 6 pounds, a loss that he thought might haunt him later, but that also confirmed the quality of fish in the area he was focused on.

Day 2’s fog delay and overcast sky proved to be equalizers for Spellicy and his plan to stick with deeper fish.

“When I realized that we were actually going to go fishing that day, I thought ‘This is my chance to make up some ground’,” he said. “I knew that the weights would drop on Day 2 anyways, but I had a feeling that I could catch at least 20 pounds and sustain. There were boats fishing shallow everywhere this week, and I knew that the overcast conditions and short day would hinder those guys.”

Spellicy bagged 21-1 on Day 2 to climb to fifth place – within 3 pounds of Day 2 leader Jimmy Washam – and set himself up for a winning final day.

Squeezing the juice
Spellicy has invested time over the past year schooling himself up on live sonar, which is how he caught all of his fish in the tournament. His key target areas were subtle current breaks in 25 to 35 feet of water, near what he thought were spawning areas, but in swift-moving current.

“The fish are harder to see on ‘Scope in that (part of the river), and the water moves very fast,” Spellicy said. “I’d throw a different assortment of baits to get fish to show themselves, and then once I saw where they were sitting, I’d hit Spot-Lock and throw something more finessey at them.”

“Finessey” in this case was a little bit of a throwback: a brown back 3.6-inch Berkley MaxScent Flat Worm on a drop-shot with a No. 2 hook and 3/8- or ½-ounce weight.

“A lot of my local buddies think I’m joking when I mention a drop-shot – they haven’t touched a drop-shot in five to seven years up here,” Spellicy joked. “But my 10-year-old daughter can catch 16, 17 pounds in a junior cup, dragging a Flat Worm around on obvious-looking stuff. It made me think to myself “Hmm, maybe they’re eating a drop-shot again’. I pitched a drop-shot around while I was practicing, it kind of clued me in that fish would bite it.”

Spellicy admitted that his new Toyota Series trophy was a major goal in life that he wasn’t sure he’d ever achieve, and that he had seriously considered not fishing the event.

“Once I decided to fish it, I came into this whole week with the attitude of ‘I’m going to take one last go at this darn thing, and it’s either going to happen or not’,” he said. “That’s why I downplayed it to everybody. My fiancée and two youngest daughters are here, but my mom and dad are up at our family cabin in the Adirondacks, with no cell service. I know everybody is going to give me a hard time about it.”

The top 10 pros at the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at the St. Lawrence River finished:

1st:        Jesse Spellicy, Gouverneur, N.Y., 15 bass, 64-15, $73,689 (includes $35,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus)
2nd:       Louis Monetti, Huntersville, N.C., 15 bass, 64-2, $15,895
3rd:       Clay Reece, Lexington, Ky., 15 bass, 63-4, $11,532
4th:        Nolan Leger, Emrun, Ontario, Canada, 15 bass, 61-14, $9,610
5th:        Brayden Stoker, Cisco, Texas, 15 bass, 61-13, $8,649
6th:        Jimmy Washam, Stantonville, Tenn., 15 bass, 60-2, $7,688
7th:        Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., 15 bass, 59-13, $6,727
8th:        Nicholas Dittenhoefer, West Hempstead, N.Y., 15 bass, 59-1, $5,766
9th:        Kyle Cortiana, Broken Arrow, Okla., 15 bass, 59-1, $4,805
10th:     Harmon Marien, Eagle River, Wis., 15 bass, 58-2, $3,844

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Pro Byron Hill of Clermont, Florida, earned Thursday’s $500 Berkley Big Bass Award with a bass weighing 6 pounds, 2 ounces, while Carter Nutt of Nashville, Tennessee, won Friday’s $500 Berkley Big Bass Award with a bass weighing 5 pounds, 12 ounces.

Carson Stone of Tuscola, Texas, won the co-angler division Saturday at the St. Lawrence River with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 50 pounds, 1 ounce. Stone earned the top co-angler prize package worth $33,550, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor.

The top 10 co-anglers at the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at the St. Lawrence River finished:

1st:        Carson Stone, Tuscola, Texas, 15 bass, 50-1, Phoenix 518 Pro boat w/115-hp Mercury outboard
2nd:       Kade Wesner, Lancaster, Pa., 15 bass, 49-7, $4,799
3rd:       Christy Tiano, Hudson, N.Y., 15 bass, 48-7, $3,939
4th:        Ben Meisinger, West Chester, Pa., 14 bass, 47-9, $3,359
5th:        Colegan Stiner, Wellsboro, Pa., 15 bass, 46-5, $2,879
6th:        Eric Roussin, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, 14 bass, 45-13, $2,399
7th:        Daun Nicholson, Normalville, Pa., 15 bass, 44-3, $1,920
8th:        Jimmy Schaffer, Oak Ridge, N.J., 15 bass, 43-14, $1,680
9th:        Vincent Pustizzi, Pittsgrove, N.J., 14 bass, 42-6, $1,440
10th:     Gerald Dam, Pine Plains, N.Y., 15 bass, 42-5, $1,200

Co-angler Keith Honeycutt of Temple, Texas, earned Thursday’s Berkley Big Bass co-angler award on Day 1 with a 5-pound, 3-ounce bass to earn the $150 prize, while Friday’s Day 2 $150 co-angler award went to co-angler Glenn Hall of Wellsville, New York, who weighed in a 5-pound, 11-ounce bass.

With two Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Northern Division tournament now complete, pro Harmon Marien of Eagle River, Wisconsin, leads the 7 Brew Northern Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 509 points, while Kade Wesner of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, leads the Northern Division Co-Angler of the Year race, with 519 points.

The three-day Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at the St. Lawrence River was hosted by the Town of Massena. It was the second of three regular-season tournaments for the Toyota Series Northern Division. The next event for Toyota Series anglers will be the final regular-season Northern Division event of the year, the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at Lake Champlain, Aug. 27-29 in Plattsburgh, New York. For a complete schedule of events, visit  MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The 2026 Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern and Southwestern – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International and Wild Card divisions. Anglers who fish in any of the five divisions or the Wild Card division and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning up to $235,000 and qualification to REDCREST 2027. The winning co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard. The 2026 Toyota Series Championship will be held Nov. 5-7 on Pickwick Lake in Counce, Tennessee, and is hosted by Explore Pickwick Lake & Hardin County Tourism.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Toyota Series updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets on Facebook,  Instagram and  YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.