Weston Hollar and Wesley Gore of the University of Montevallo are leading after Day 1 of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card presented by Bass Pro Shops at Lay Lake with 17 pounds, 10 ounces.

Photo by Emily Hand/B.A.S.S.

June 23, 2021

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. — Despite a long fog delay, the University of Montevallo team of Weston Hollar and Wesley Gore capitalized on what was left of the morning bite and caught five largemouth weighing 17 pounds, 10 ounces to take the Day 1 lead at the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card presented by Bass Pro Shops on Lay Lake.

Hollar and Gore hold a 12-ounce lead over their Montevallo teammates Aaron Cherry and Chandler Holt and a 2-pound advantage over Trevor McKinney and Blake Jackson from McKendree University in Illinois.

“To be honest, we didn’t practice really hard,” Hollar said. “We have a lot of experience here and we kind of know what the fish have been doing and figured out the range of fish we were around. We went with it and grinded it out.”

Heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Claudette drenched much of Alabama over the weekend and water levels on Lay Lake rose as a result. The higher water levels throughout the year have kept the bigger fish shallow, according to Gore, who fishes the system more than half the year.

“It is a river fishery. So, the fish prefer to be shallow, and the mud and current have kept them shallow for a long time,” he said. “I fish here 200 days out of the year. The fish haven’t made it offshore and there are a lot of big ones still shallow.”

With the higher river levels and cooler overnight temperatures, fog settled in overnight and takeoff was delayed more than an hour. Gore said he was worried the morning bite would be over by the time they reached their first spot.

“We thought it was going to hurt us. We were on fish really early in the morning and we ended up running to them and got three good bites as soon as we sat down,” he said. “We grinded it out up shallow, and in the last 30 minutes, we caught two good ones that gave us 17 at the end of the day. We caught all our fish on topwater and we caught one good one flipping.”

The duo mostly targeted largemouth bass rather than spotted bass, fishing isolated patches of grass with topwater and flipping baits, Hollar said. Gore added that they used almost an entire tank of gas running up and down the lake.

“We are trying to catch active fish,” Gore said. “We aren’t trying to sit down and fish an area really thoroughly. The fish we are chasing are bluegill eaters.”

Holding the lead with a spot in the National Championship on the line, Gore said he and Hollar are going all in tomorrow.

“It is either hero or zero,” Gore said. “We are going to get the five biggest bites we can get. It may take all day but we are going to do it. We are going to be Boat 5 in the morning, and I think that will be in our favor.”

Cherry and Holt fished shallow and deep on Day 1 to catch a limit weighing 16-14 and enter the final day in second.

“We had a pretty good day,” Cherry said. “It started off pretty slow. Caught two really early and then went without a bite until 10:30 or 11. We caught our last three really quickly, culled one more time and went prefishing a little bit trying to figure something out for tomorrow. Today we got lucky and had all largemouth.”

Holt said that three of their bigger fish were caught shallow-water before filling their limit in a deeper section of the lake.

“The quality fish aren’t out deep yet,” he added. “The shallow fish are definitely the bigger ones.”

Capitalizing on the shallow morning bite will likely be the key to success for Holt and Cherry, who are hoping they can get the bigger fish to fire before making a move offshore.

“We are going to try to hit as many shallow places as we possibly can in the morning and try and catch as many big ones as possible,” Holt said. “Once that first hour is over, it seems all the bigger fish are starting to slow down. It will be the same strategy, but I think we are going to run to a couple of different spots in the morning.”

McKinney and Jackson’s morning got off to a slow start, but the McKendree duo found a pattern midmorning that helped them fill a 15-11 limit and enter the final day in third place.

“We had one fish at like 9:30,” McKinney said. “We caught our fish in three or four different areas, but mostly doing the same thing. We were fishing shallow and fishing current.”

Both anglers reached the final day of the College Classic Bracket at Lay Lake last season, with McKinney taking the victory and earning the Classic berth. He finished 31st in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk at Lake Ray Roberts in Texas earlier this month.

Finding better than average bites has been the key, Jackson said.

“Our practice was fairly good. We found a lot of areas that had fish, but look at how many limits have crossed the stage,” Jackson said. “It is just a matter of getting those two or three big bites.”

Matthew Cummings and Joseph Wood from Bethel University caught a 7-4 largemouth to take the lead in the Carhartt Big Bass of the Tournament standings.

The full field will take off from Beeswax Creek Park at 5:30 a.m. CT Thursday and return at 1:30 p.m. for the weigh-in. The Top 12 teams will punch their ticket to the 2021 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops at the St. Lawrence River Aug. 12-14.

2021 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card presented by Bass Pro Shops 6/23-6/24
Lay Lake, Columbiana AL.
(BOATER) Standings Day 1

Angler Club/School Pts

1. Weston Hollar – Wesley Gore University of Montevallo 250
Day 1: 5 17-10 Total: 5 17-10
2. Aaron Cherry – Chandler Holt University of Montevallo 249
Day 1: 5 16-14 Total: 5 16-14
3. Trevor McKinney – Blake Jackson McKendree University 248
Day 1: 5 15-11 Total: 5 15-11
4. Kayden Tanner – Trevor Easter Tarleton State University 247
Day 1: 5 15-05 Total: 5 15-05
5. Matthew Cummings – Joseph Woods Bethel University 246
Day 1: 5 14-14 Total: 5 14-14
6. Lane Bailey – Justin Eggers CVCC RedHawks 245
Day 1: 5 14-12 Total: 5 14-12
7. Jake Kimbrough – Grant Busby Blue Mountain College 244
Day 1: 5 14-07 Total: 5 14-07
8. Dale Hansard – Mason Lee Jacksonville State University 243
Day 1: 5 14-02 Total: 5 14-02
9. Grant Lesage – Zach Davis Southeastern Louisiana Universit 242
Day 1: 5 13-12 Total: 5 13-12
10. Davian Smith – Jackson Pontius University of Montevallo 241
Day 1: 5 12-15 Total: 5 12-15
11. TJ McKenzie – Emmanuel College 240
Day 1: 5 12-10 Total: 5 12-10
12. Landon Lawson – Donavan Carson King University 239
Day 1: 5 12-09 Total: 5 12-09
13. Chase Hubble – Brent May 238
Day 1: 5 12-04 Total: 5 12-04
14. Tyler Pendergrass – University of North Alabama 237
Day 1: 5 12-03 Total: 5 12-03
15. Cordell Beckman – Greenville University 236
Day 1: 5 11-15 Total: 5 11-15
15. Tripp Bowman – Blakely Young Louisiana State University-Shrev 236
Day 1: 5 11-15 Total: 5 11-15
15. Grayson Morris – Cal Culpepper University of Montevalllo 236
Day 1: 5 11-15 Total: 5 11-15
18. Connor Hicks – Parker Kaye University of Tennessee 233
Day 1: 5 11-13 Total: 5 11-13
19. Walker Brown – Jd Bedford University of North Alabama 232
Day 1: 5 11-09 Total: 5 11-09
20. Preston Kendrick – Eli Stevenson Bryan College 231
Day 1: 5 11-08 Total: 5 11-08
20. James Willoughby – Chance Schwartz University of Montevallo 231
Day 1: 5 11-08 Total: 5 11-08
22. Collin Reyes – Reagan Nelson Tarleton State University 229
Day 1: 5 11-06 Total: 5 11-06
23. Michael Postlewait – Andrew Rickman Dallas Baptist University 228
Day 1: 5 11-00 Total: 5 11-00
24. Cole Thompson – Walker Sahagun University of North Alabama 227
Day 1: 5 10-10 Total: 5 10-10
25. Matt Short – Colton Combs Eastern Kentucky University 226
Day 1: 5 10-09 Total: 5 10-09
26. Dax Ewart – Wilson Smith Bethel University 225
Day 1: 5 10-01 Total: 5 10-01
27. Zack Barrera – Bryson Osteen 224
Day 1: 5 10-00 Total: 5 10-00
28. Aaron Hawkins – Broxson Daigle Texas A and M University 223
Day 1: 5 09-15 Total: 5 09-15
28. K.D. Sizemore – Auburn University 223
Day 1: 5 09-15 Total: 5 09-15
30. Hunter Bailey – JR Young Jacksonville State University 221
Day 1: 5 09-14 Total: 5 09-14
30. Noah Campbell – Troy Harris GEORGIA COLLEGE 221
Day 1: 5 09-14 Total: 5 09-14
32. Caz Anderson – Storm Cline Carson-Newman University 219
Day 1: 5 09-12 Total: 5 09-12
33. Tanner Barclay – Lloyd Laconsay 218
Day 1: 5 09-08 Total: 5 09-08
34. Conner Dimauro – Justin Botts bryan college 217
Day 1: 5 09-06 Total: 5 09-06
35. David Ackerman – 216
Day 1: 5 09-05 Total: 5 09-05
35. Clay Tresler – Carter Carlton Northwest Arkansas Community Col 216
Day 1: 5 09-05 Total: 5 09-05
35. Marshall Wiggins – University of Central Florida 216
Day 1: 5 09-05 Total: 5 09-05
38. Hunter Bond – GL Compton Clemson University 213
Day 1: 5 09-02 Total: 5 09-02
39. Elliot Torode – Tyler Cory University of Montevallo 212
Day 1: 5 08-15 Total: 5 08-15
40. De Andre Allen – Luke Glasgow Itawamba Community College 211
Day 1: 5 08-14 Total: 5 08-14
40. Ethan Shaw – Tyler Price Bryan College 211
Day 1: 5 08-14 Total: 5 08-14
42. Sam Hanggi – Matthew Welcher Auburn University 209
Day 1: 4 08-14 Total: 4 08-14
43. Cole Dodson – Trent Jones University of Montevallo 208
Day 1: 5 08-13 Total: 5 08-13
43. Grant Harris – Drury University 208
Day 1: 5 08-13 Total: 5 08-13
45. Austin Goins – Elijah Kirk Bryan college 206
Day 1: 5 08-11 Total: 5 08-11
46. Hunter MCClaskey – Nicholas Gilbert King University 205
Day 1: 5 08-10 Total: 5 08-10
47. Brayden Nichols – Kenneth Cheramie Louisiana State University Shrev 204
Day 1: 5 08-09 Total: 5 08-09
48. Blake Milligan – Chase Mundhenke Auburn University 203
Day 1: 5 08-05 Total: 5 08-05
49. Reece Martin – Hunter Jenkins Dallas Baptist University 202
Day 1: 5 08-05 Total: 5 08-05
50. Nate Triplett – Cody Barnes University of North Alabama 201
Day 1: 5 08-04 Total: 5 08-04
51. Jordan Pennington – Tyler Cain University of Montevallo 200
Day 1: 5 08-03 Total: 5 08-03
52. Adam Carroll – Trey Dickert University of Montevallo 199
Day 1: 5 08-02 Total: 5 08-02
53. Dawson Andrews – Wyatt Ensminger Southeastern Louisiana Universit 198
Day 1: 5 08-02 Total: 5 08-02
54. Jarred Jones – Logan Tate Jacksonville State University 197
Day 1: 5 08-01 Total: 5 08-01
54. Jake Thornbury – Wil Rigdon Campbellsville University 197
Day 1: 5 08-01 Total: 5 08-01
56. Matthew Benson – Nathanael Wright Emmanuel College 195
Day 1: 5 08-00 Total: 5 08-00
57. Nathan Burdett – Tyler Buchanan Troy University 194
Day 1: 5 07-15 Total: 5 07-15
58. Conner Johnson – Hunter Osborne Georgetown college 193
Day 1: 5 07-14 Total: 5 07-14
59. Anthony Cicero Iv – Cy Lambert Bethel 192
Day 1: 5 07-12 Total: 5 07-12
60. Drew Jennings – Cody Griffith Auburn University 191
Day 1: 5 07-10 Total: 5 07-10
61. Caleb Sheldon – Hayden Fuhr Lander University 190
Day 1: 5 07-06 Total: 5 07-06
62. Parker Wilburn – Tristen Dubbs 189
Day 1: 5 07-06 Total: 5 07-06
63. Jacob Butts – Garrett Smith Erskine College 188
Day 1: 5 07-05 Total: 5 07-05
64. Dustin Bauer – Cody Cissell Campbellsville University 187
Day 1: 5 07-02 Total: 5 07-02
65. Thomas Mingle – Stone Payne Univerity of Tennessee 186
Day 1: 4 07-02 Total: 4 07-02
66. Corey Yaden – Blake Stephenson Brewton Parker college 185
Day 1: 5 07-00 Total: 5 07-00
67. Sam Shiver – Phillip Parrish Faulkner University 184
Day 1: 5 06-15 Total: 5 06-15
68. Drew Traffanstedt – Scott Sledge University of Montevallo 183
Day 1: 5 06-12 Total: 5 06-12
69. Conner Crosby – James Cobbs Auburn University 182
Day 1: 2 06-12 Total: 2 06-12
70. John Murphy – Johnny Richardson Greenville Technical College 181
Day 1: 5 06-10 Total: 5 06-10
71. Salvador Garcia – Reese Jones Northwest Arkansas Community Col 180
Day 1: 5 06-09 Total: 5 06-09
72. Syon Barnes – Hayden Bartee Jacksonville State University 179
Day 1: 5 06-07 Total: 5 06-07
72. Chase Milholen – Levi Mullins Bethel University 179
Day 1: 5 06-07 Total: 5 06-07
74. Michael Chism – Mason Westerman Southest Missouri State Universi 177
Day 1: 5 06-03 Total: 5 06-03
75. Shane Nelson – Brayden Federer Adrian College 176
Day 1: 4 06-01 Total: 4 06-01
76. Thomas Millraney – Zachary Bowen Bethel University 175
Day 1: 5 05-15 Total: 5 05-15
77. Bradley Martin – Kopeland Rosser University of Montevallo 174
Day 1: 3 05-15 Total: 3 05-15
78. Luke Byerly – Drew Elrod University of Tennessee Knoxvill 173
Day 1: 5 05-13 Total: 5 05-13
78. Hunter Haraway – Malcolm Patton Calhoun Community College 173
Day 1: 5 05-13 Total: 5 05-13
80. Matthew Kahrs – Brandon Comeaux McNeese State University 171
Day 1: 4 05-08 Total: 4 05-08
81. Drake Hemby – Griffin Heffington Carson-Newman University 170
Day 1: 3 05-02 Total: 3 05-02
82. Dustin Bargo – Connor Melton Western Kentucky University 169
Day 1: 4 03-15 Total: 4 03-15
83. Adam Hollingsworth – Matthew German 168
Day 1: 2 03-11 Total: 2 03-11
84. Clent Blackwood – Bryar Chambers Wallace State 167
Day 1: 2 03-10 Total: 2 03-10
85. Cody Gregory – Gage Sherrod Bethel University 166
Day 1: 4 03-07 Total: 4 03-07
86. Noah Boyett – Ty Garlington 165
Day 1: 3 03-03 Total: 3 03-03
87. Seth Roberts – Bethel University 164
Day 1: 2 02-14 Total: 2 02-14
88. Thad Simerly – Tennessee Tech University 163
Day 1: 2 02-09 Total: 2 02-09
89. Seth Elkins – John Russell Reaves Jacksonville State University 162
Day 1: 1 01-10 Total: 1 01-10
90. David Froehlich – Abraham Baldwin Ag College 161
Day 1: 1 01-07 Total: 1 01-07
90. Avery Whitwell – Jackson Holbert University of North Alabama 161
Day 1: 1 01-07 Total: 1 01-07
92. Noah Coleman – Dalton Johnson Auburn University 159
Day 1: 1 00-13 Total: 1 00-13
93. Blake Banks – Wes Wilson University of Georgia 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Jalen Bean – Jacob Douglas SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Sean Clayton – Owen Dimaio Clemson University 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Gavin Cloutier – Calvin Rogers King University 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Reed Green – Hunter Enlow 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. James Hess – Holden Kauble Wabash Valley College 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Tyler Hudson – Evan Mcnaughton Western Kentucky University 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Carson Maddux – Jake Maddux Auburn University 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Callaway Robinson – Dawson Ricks georgia college and state univer 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Alyssa Taylor – Northwestern State University 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
93. Garrett Walters – 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00