ANDERSON, S.C., April 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite a Day 1 kicker that clearly helped his cause, rookie Paul Marks played the long game, and his patience paid off with his first blue trophy in the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell.

Hailing from Cumming, Ga., Marks started strong with a third-place Day 1 limit of 19 pounds, 7 ounces, then held the second-place spot for the next two days with weights of 17-4 and 16-5. Adding a Championship Sunday limit of 15-8, he tallied a tournament total of 68-8.

Edging fellow rookie Tucker Smith by 14 ounces, Marks collected the top prize of $100,000.

"I don't know what to think; it'll probably take a week to set in — maybe a month," the 23-year-old said. "I think I've been dreaming about this since I was a little kid.

"I love spotted bass; I love fishing the way I do. It's the best thing ever in my eyes."

Marks jump-started his event with a Day 1 bed-fishing effort that produced a 5-pound largemouth. That fish ate a white Zoom Z Craw Jr in about 2 feet of water.

After that, it was nearly all offshore fishing, as Marks committed himself to grinding through numbers of spotted bass and daily culling his way to competitive limits.

"There are fish everywhere on the bank and I knew it was going to be really hard to win with spots," Marks said. "I got lucky on Day 1 and caught a big one on the bed. That fish made my tournament."

Marks, who lives about 2 hours west of Hartwell, brought with him a lifetime of knowledge and experience. Whittling down his mental library to an actionable plan was the key and Marks said he did so on the fly.

"I just ran around and went with my gut feeling," Marks said.

Marks started every day on the blueback herring spawn, the spring baitfish reproductive aggregations, which attract opportunistic bass predation. This frenzied feeding typically attracts large spotted bass and largemouth, so Marks did his best to leverage this big-bite potential.

"I started out throwing a Zoom Fluke Stick Jr and a Super Fluke on a 5/0 round bend worm hook and I'd catch a couple of good fish every morning that would be in my bag when I came to weigh in," he said. "The rest of the day, I'd spend most of my time backing off a little deeper in 10 to 20 feet of water — sometimes 30.

"In the deeper water, I'd throw a 3/16-ounce SPRO Skip Gap shaky head with a Zoom Fluke Stick Jr.

Marks fished from the Green Pond area to the Hartwell Dam and worked a mix of points and brush piles. Success, he said, required frequent relocation.

Herring fish are notoriously random, and when the feeding happens it does not last long. Marks maximized his time by constantly seeking fresh activity.

"I never let off the gas today; I ran so hard," Marks said. "It was a long day for me. I really didn't think I had enough. Somehow, it worked out."

Smith, who makes his home in Birmingham, Ala., finished second with 67-10. Smith placed 24th on Day 1 with a limit of 16-04. Adding 18-9 in the second round, he made a big move up to sixth and then earned his Championship Sunday spot by weighing 17-2 on Day 3 and improving to third.

On Day 4, Smith gained one more spot by catching a final-round limit of 15-11.

Smith caught most of his fish on a 5-inch Yamamoto Senko in morning dawn and green pumpkin. Targeting the herring spawn, he fished the bait on a shaky head, wacky rig and a Neko rig, with the latter producing most of the bites.

"I caught a big bed fish on a white Yamamoto craw the second day, and I caught a few herring fish on a chartreuse Yamamoto D-Shad," Smith said. "I've been fishing here for a year, so I kinda had an idea of what I wanted to do.

"I just rode around and found some good stuff. I didn't know if was gonna turn out this good."

Luke Palmer of Coalgate, Okla., finished third with 66-10. He brought in daily limits of 18-15, 14-15, 17-0 and 15-12.

"This week, I said I was going to be hard-headed, just like I was (during my 2023 Elite win) at Santee Cooper; except I went the exact opposite from 20-pound Sunline fluorocarbon at Santee to 8- to 10-pound Sunline here," Palmer said. "I kept a Falcon spinning rod with a YUM Sonar Minnow in my hand, and that's what I did all day long for the last four days and it worked out good."

Day 1 leader Randy Howell of Guntersville, Ala., won the $2,000 Phoenix Boats Big Bass award for his 7-15.

Jay Przekurat of Plover, Wis., won the $1,000 award for leading the Progressive Angler of the Year standings.

Howell won the $2,000 Rapala CrushCity Monster Bag award for his Day 1 limit of 21-11.

Przekurat leads the Progressive Angler of the Year standings with 368 points. Will Davis Jr of Sylacauga, Ala., is in second with 340, followed by Bryant Smith of Roseville, Calif., with 337, Shane Lehew of Catawba, N.C., with 333, and Lee Livesay of Longview, Texas, with 324.

Smith leads the Dakota Lithium Elite Series Rookie of the Year standings with 294 points.

Palmer also took home an additional $3,000 for being the highest-placing entrant in the Toyota Bonus Bucks program, while Fothergill earned $2,000 for being the second-highest placing entrant.

As part of the Yamaha Power Pay program, Marks earned an additional $4,000 while Palmer claimed an additional $1,500 for being the second-highest placing entrant.

Visit Anderson hosted the tournament.

Contact:
Chad Gay
cgay@bassmaster.com

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SOURCE B.A.S.S.