By Sean Ostruszka
Special to BassFan

Lee Livesay launched on day 4 at Lake Chickamauga knowing he was going to live or die with a frog. He found just enough life to take home his first Bassmaster Elite Series title. Though, like everything else this week, it wasn’t easy.

Mike Huff started the day 5 pounds back in 3rd, but he lit up the live feed with an early near-8-pounder and seemingly got all the right bites to pull off the comeback, including a late 4-pounder that pulled him even with Livesay on the tracker.

Yet, just as Huff was heading back to weigh-in, Livesay hooked a solid keeper for one last cull up to 15-02, which gave him 58-02 total and a win 35 years in the making.

“I knew I was going to cry one way or another today,” Livesay said on stage after being crowned. “I just didn’t know how. This is 35 years of dreams I’m crying right now.”

Huff’s 18-06 bag made Livesay sweat, but he still came up roughly 2 pounds short with 56-06. Jake Whitaker was the only pro other than Livesay to catch a limit all four days, and he caught all 49-00 from one spot to finish 3rd. Meanwhile, Todd Auten’s dock pattern got him to fourth with 45-02, while Austin Felix jumped from 10th to 5th by catching 15-03 for a 44-09 total.

With everyone moving up, someone had to fall, and that was day-2leader Stetson Blaylock, who brought in only one bass to slip to 6th with 43-04. In fact, none of the remaining pros brought in more than two bass for the day, with Chad Pipkens (39-02), John Cox (35-01), Ed Loughran III (34-06) and Kyle Welcher (31-04) rounding out the Top 10.



B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito
Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito

Livesay got off to a slow start on day 4, but recovered with a mid-day flurry.

Then again, with as tough a bite as it was all week, it’s little surprise the final day saw so many of the best pros struggle. After all, it seemed everyone struggled this week. Everyone except Livesay, though, he hardly took it for granted.

Despite going out with a 5-pound lead, Livesay repeatedly mentioned how he felt someone was going to catch a mega-bag, which is very possible on a lake like Chickamauga. Still, he never deviated.

Hanging close to takeoff, he cycled through a number of very shallow grass matts, often never moving once getting deep in the heart of one. From there, it was just grinding and throwing as many times as he could until one finally made up its mind to eat it.

Trouble was, plenty made up their minds to hit it, but eating it was a different story.

“I probably missed 25 bites today, including four 4-pounders,” said Livesay, who was 80th last week at Santee Cooper Lakes and 56th the week before at Lake Guntersville. “I had a chance at a 20-pound bag, but they just wouldn’t eat it. That’s the frogging game, though. Eventually, I knew they would.”

B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito
Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito

Mike Huff made things interesting by catching a fish that weighed nearly 8 pounds.

He needed all that confidence and more, because at 10 a.m. he still only had one keeper, but a mid-day flurry was capped off with his biggest fish of the day to get him to four fish around 1 p.m. The fifth came an hour later. Yet, with time winding down, even after culling on his last cast, he never felt comfortable that he had it.

“I thought I left the door open and meat on the table,” said Livesay. “I’m just glad I had enough of a lead that no one could catch me.”

As for Huff, he said the went just about perfect, outside of coming up just a little short.

“I lost this tournament the first day,” he said about trying to fish grass in the opening round and only bringing in three fish. “But I cannot be upset about today. Getting a big bite like I did on championship day, that doesn’t happen often.”

It certainly didn’t happen for Blaylock. Probably the only other pro who could catch Livesay going into day 4, he managed one keeper early and that was it.

“I had three things going this week and the bass disappeared on all of them today,” said Blaylock. “Near the end of the day, I had a big one jump over my frog and miss it, and I thought, ‘Well, that’s about right for today.’”

Clark Wendlandt, the three-time FLW Tour Angler of the Year who's been No. 1 on the points list after four of the eight events this season, slipped to 3rd with an 80th-place finish in this event. The new leader is David Mullins, who was 18th in the tournament.

Mullins has a five-point advantage over Austin Felix. Wendlandt trails Felix by 11 points (for the full standings, click here).

Notable
> Day 4 stats – 10 anglers, 5 limits, 1 two, 4 ones.

Day 4 (Final) Standings

1. Lee Livesay -- Longview, TX -- 20, 58-02 -- 100 $100,000
Day 1: 5, 13-00 -- Day 2: 5, 13-03 -- Day 3: 5, 16-13 -- Day 4: 5, 15-02

2. Mike Huff -- Corbin, KY -- 18, 56-06 -- 99 -- $27,000
Day 1: 3, 06-12 -- Day 2: 5, 12-03 -- Day 3: 5, 19-01 -- Day 4: 5, 18-06

3. Jake Whitaker -- Fairview, NC -- 20, 49-00 -- 98 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 11-02 -- Day 2: 5, 14-03 -- Day 3: 5, 11-14 -- Day 4: 5, 11-13

4. Todd Auten -- Lake Wylie, SC -- 18, 45-02 -- 97 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 11-00 -- Day 2: 5, 12-09 -- Day 3: 3, 08-11 -- Day 4: 5, 12-14

5. Austin Felix -- Eden Prairie, MN -- 17, 44-09 -- 96 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 09-07 -- Day 2: 5, 14-01 -- Day 3: 2, 05-14 -- Day 4: 5, 15-03

6. Stetson Blaylock -- Benton, AR -- 16, 43-04 -- 95 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 16-01 -- Day 2: 5, 12-00 -- Day 3: 5, 13-00 -- Day 4: 1, 02-03

7. Chad Pipkens -- Dewitt, MI -- 13, 39-02 -- 94 -- $16,000
Day 1: 5, 13-03 -- Day 2: 2, 09-09 -- Day 3: 5, 11-14 -- Day 4: 1, 04-08

8. John Cox -- Debary, FL -- 12, 35-01 -- 93 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 14-14 -- Day 2: 4, 12-05 -- Day 3: 2, 04-11 -- Day 4: 1, 03-03

9. Ed Loughran III -- Richmond, VA -- 12, 34-06 -- 92 -- $16,000
Day 1: 2, 08-10 -- Day 2: 5, 12-06 -- Day 3: 3, 09-13 -- Day 4: 2, 03-09

10. Kyle Welcher -- Opelika, AL -- 13, 31-04 -- 91 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 10-07 -- Day 2: 5, 14-09 -- Day 3: 2, 04-06 -- Day 4: 1, 01-14