Nick Thliveros of St. Augustine, Fla. brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 21-13 to win the three-day Southern Toyota Series event at Lake Seminole (Bainbridge, Ga.) with a three-day total of 62-11. The son of longtime tour pro Peter Thliveros prevailed by 1-12 over runner-up Matt Baty of Bainbridge and captured the top payout of $37,809 in the division's third and final tournament of 2021.
Settling down in Spring Creek, Thliveros said he fished one 50-yard stretch all week.
“It’s something I’ve had some previous knowledge on, but I’ve never really been here at the right time for it,” said Thliveros. “I’ve never been here far enough in the post-spawn to make those fish get in the deeper water.
“It’s basically a sand spot with hydrilla on the edge. The water’s about 10-foot deep around it and the sand is in 15 feet of water. It’s a depression and today they were on the sand.”
The unique aspect of his area was that Thliveros was essentially fishing side-by-side with the 4th-place finisher, Braxton Clements, all three days. The two fished different areas all week, though the areas were nearly a cast apart.
“I have to give a huge shoutout to Braxton,” Thliveros said. “You got to watch him because that boy can fish and he is first class. We were 40 yards apart every day. I didn’t know him, but that’s a good man right there. We worked together – he had his hole, I had mine. We’d congratulate each other on catching fish all week and in this sport you don’t see that often, so to be a part of it is amazing.”
Thliveros said dissecting the grass and sand was a repetitive and meticulous process the entire week. Getting bites early in the day helped to reinforce the fact that the tiny spot still had fish and gave him the confidence to keep grinding.
“I’ve never been in a situation where you can go to one spot and just catch ‘em all three days,” he said. “Today, I could see them on my down imaging and I backed off and it was awesome.”
Thliveros kept it simple and a bit old-school with two worms of choice – a Strike King Cut-R Worm or a Strike King Anaconda worm rigged on a 3/16- or 1/4-ounce Bullet Weights Tactical Tungsten weight. Though he tried other baits, Thliveros said the worm was his primary producer.
“My dad has, you know, 35 years in [tournament fishing on a worm], so I had a pretty good teacher,” he said. “He taught me how to drag a worm and that’s what it took this week.”
With his family cheering him on from the crowd, Thliveros was emotional on stage when his name was announced as champion.
“It’s been two years since my last win,” he said. “I won Okeechobee [2019] and I hadn’t cashed a check since the end of that year, but I came back on this one. I’ve got to thank my family and sponsors, because without y’all I wouldn’t be here. I’m speechless.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Nick Thliveros: 62-11
2. Matt Baty: 60-15
3. Clint Brown: 59-14
4. Braxton Clements: 51-03
5. Joey Cifuentes: 50-04
6. Brandon Classon: 48-11
7. David Ellis: 47-07
8. Anthony Ford: 44-04
9. Nicholas Davico: 42-02
10. Terry Segraves: 37-02
