Ironton Pro Wins by 1-pound, 3-ounce Margin, Takes Home Top Prize of $235,000

BURNSIDE, Ky. (Dec. 5, 2020) – Pro Chris Malone of Ironton, Ohio, brought a five-bass limit to the stage weighing 12 pounds, 5 ounces, Saturday to claim the title of Toyota Series Champion at the 2020 Toyota Series Championship on Lake Cumberland. Malone, with a three-day total of 15 bass for 41 pounds even, won by a 1-pound, 3-ounce margin over second-place angler Cameron Lineback of Mount Airy, North Carolina, who caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 39-13. Malone held steady in third place the first two days of competition before shooting to first on Saturday to walk away with $235,000, including the lucrative $35,000 FLW PHOENIX Bonus.

Saturday’s final weigh-in marked the finale of the 2020 Toyota Series season, which featured thousands of anglers from across the globe.

“I opened a boat shop in 2010 and took some time off from competitive fishing, but when I saw the championship was at Lake Cumberland again, I knew I needed to fish the Toyota Series,” said Malone. “I wanted to see if I could compete because I haven’t competed against these guys for a long time.

“I really thought Ryan Davidson was going to win this tournament – he’s the best winter fisherman I’ve ever fished with. I told him that if I actually won, I would pay his 2021 entry fees (to the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit). That $30,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to how I feel right now.

“I’m on a high you can’t come off of – I honestly wasn’t going to fish next year, but how do you not fish after you just won a quarter of a million dollars?”

Malone said he caught pretty much all of his fish this week on the main lake with main-river channel swings.

“The fish are super shallow, but they are on top of 25 to 40 foot of water in some of these places,” Malone said. “I’ve been catching them cranking and on a ½-ounce Big Daddy Baits tail-spinner. After getting six or seven keepers, I picked up a big bull shad and tried to catch big ones for the last two hours. I used a G. Loomis IMX Pro rod with a Shimano Curado reel with 15-pound Seaguar InvizX line. I weighed in three on the RkCrawler and 12 on the spinner.

“I went for broke – I went to win,” said Malone.

The top 10 pros at the 2020 Toyota Series Championship on Lake Cumberland finished:

            1^st:       Chris Malone, Ironton, Ohio, 15 bass, 41-0, $237,500

            2^nd:      Cameron Lineback, Mount Airy, N.C., 15 bass, 39-13, $40,000

            3^rd:       Drew Boggs, Lebanon, Tenn., 15 bass, 37-4, $30,000

            4^th:       Dakota Ebare, Denham Springs, La., 12 bass, 35-11, $25,000

            5^th:       Eric Olliverson, Lampe, Mo., 13 bass, 34-15, $20,000

            6^th:       Kurt Mitchell, Milford, Del., 14 bass, 34-12, $14,000

            7^th:       Michael Caruso, Peoria, Ariz., 12 bass, 32-0, $13,000

            8^th:       Trent Palmer, Cumming, Ga., 12 bass, 28-15, $12,000

            9^th:       Hunter Eubanks, Inman, S.C., 11 bass, 28-7, $11,000

            10^th:     Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., 11 bass, 28-4, $10,000

Full results for the entire field can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Co-angler Matt Greene of Ventura, California, weighed in three bass totaling 10 pounds, 3 ounces, Saturday to win the top co-angler prize of a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard engine, with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 24-6. Second place went to co-angler Mario Riojas of Blanchard, Oklahoma, who weighed in a three-day total of nine bass weighing 19-11, good for $12,500.

The top 10 co-anglers at the 2020 Toyota Series Championship on Lake Cumberland finished:

            1^st:       Matt Greene, Ventura, Calif., nine bass, 24-6, Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard

            2^nd:      Mario Riojas, Blanchard, Okla., nine bass, 19-11, $12,500

            3^rd:       Travis Otto, Jefferson City, Mo., nine bass, 17-7, $10,000

            4^th:       Landon Huff, Madison, Ga., nine bass, 16-3, $7,500

            5^th:       Larry Elliott, Enoree, S.C., eight bass, 15-4, $5,000

            6^th:       Justin Kimmel, Athens, Ga., five bass, 14-0, $4,000

            7^th:       Don White, Columbus, Miss., six bass, 13-15, $3,500

            8^th:       Mason Chapman, Lake Quivira, Kan., eight bass, 13-11, $3,000

            9^th:       Morgan Brown, Spanish Fort, Ala., six bass, 13-0, $3,000

            10^th:     Jarvis Ellis, Albany, Ga., four bass, 12-3, $2,000

The 2020 Toyota Series Championship at Lake Cumberland was hosted by the Somerset Tourist & Convention Commission and the Burnside Tourism Commission. The three-day, no entry fee tournament featured a field of 221 boaters and co-anglers from each of the eight Toyota Series divisions and tournament winners, the highest finishing boater and co-angler from each regional at the All-American, the College Fishing National Champions and second-place team, and the top pros and co-anglers from the FLW International Division.