By B.A.S.S. Communications Staff
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Ten months ago, Wes Logan found himself in a hospital bed with a gash across his head and a set of broken bones after hitting an unknown object on Day 2 at the Bassmaster Elite Series event on Lake Champlain. Logan knows how fortunate he is to even still be alive, making his second Elite Series trophy all the more meaningful.
“I could be dead. That is the reality of it,” Logan said. “The good Lord wants me here for some reason. I’m truly blessed to be here.”
Arguably the most consistent angler all week, Logan won the tournament at Lake Tenkiller with a four-day total of 63 pounds, a Father’s Day gift for his father Doug. It is the second win of Logan’s five-year career, the first coming in 2021 at Neely Henry Lake on Mother’s Day.
“I don’t deserve this,” the Springville, Ala., native said. “I got to fish how I wanted to. I got to pitch a jig like how I grew up with my dad.”
Opening the tournament in 11th place with 14-12, Logan climbed to 5th on Day 2 with 15-13 before jumping into 3rd on Saturday with 15-9. He then landed the biggest bag of the final round, a 16-14 limit anchored by a 5-1 largemouth, edging out Andrew Loberg, who had led the first three days, by 1 ounce.
This victory couldn’t have come at a better time for Logan After two good tournaments to start the 2025 season, he has struggled outside of the state of Florida, so much so that he questioned if he still belonged on the Elite Series stage. He entered Lake Tenkiller in 40th place in the Angler of the Year standings.
“This year has not been easy. I hit a wall and didn’t even know my last name,” Logan said. “After Lake Hartwell, I sat in Bill Lowen’s boat and cried my eyes out because I wanted to quit. I didn’t know if I was good enough to be here.
“Practice wasn’t that great for this tournament, but I got a few bites doing what I like to do, and I ran with it.”
Fluctuating water levels at Tenkiller challenged the 101 Elite Series anglers all week long. Waters rose dramatically during the first half of official practice before falling several feet between the Wednesday off-day and Thursday’s opening round. More water entered the lake as multiple rounds of strong storms and heavy rains moved through the second and third tournament days.
All of this set up in Logan’s favor. Many of the similar scenarios he faced this week at Tenkiller he has seen on his home lake of Neely Henry, including where the bass tended to set up.
“For some reason, the little area I found, the bass just kept coming to it. I don’t really know why,” he said. “Six of the Top 10 were fishing this stretch, and I would pull in behind them and catch a 3-pounder.”
Logan mainly fished the upper end of Tenkiller, focusing on flooded bushes and cover in shallow water. One particular laydown, Logan said, produced 12 of his keeper bites and dozens of other bass that didn’t make his team.
“It was on a straight bank. It was just a laydown with some limbs coming off of it,” he explained. “Every time I went to it, I caught one. It was just on a flat, nothing bank. I never saw any bream around it, but it seemed like there might be something like that going on. It’s a good tree. Best tree on the lake.”
A 1/2-ounce green pumpkin Ark Randall Tharp Signature Flipping Jig paired with a Zoom Salty Chunk produced several of his biggest bites around the flooded cover. On the final day, he received key bites around debris mats with a punch rig he built with a 1/2-ounce Ark tungsten weight, a green pumpkin punch skirt and a green pumpkin Zoom Z Hog.
He pitched both of those baits with a 7-foot-6 heavy Ark Wes Logan Signature Series FAFO Flipping Stick and 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon.
Each morning, however, Logan started in a marina where he fished around the remnants of a shad spawn. He filled in a limit using a 1/2-ounce Z-Man JackHammer in the spot remover color paired with a ghost shad-colored Zoom Shimmer Shad.
Logan started Sunday by filling out an 11-pound limit in a new marina in a 45-minute flurry before heading to his best stretches of flooded cover. That initial limit included a 3-pound smallmouth. The water rose noticeably on Day 4, but Logan was able to trigger key bites throughout the day, including that 5-1 that earned Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Day honors.
His one miss came around 11:30 a.m., when Logan hooked into a 4-pound largemouth that spit his jig after coming over a log. At that point, he was convinced he had lost the tournament.
“When it came off, I laid on the front deck of the boat and thought I lost 100 grand again,” Logan said. “Hardly ever do you lose a bass that big on a fishery like this and it doesn’t cost you.”
Later in the afternoon, Logan returned to his favorite tree and landed a 3-8, the bites he needed to get his head back in the game. Then, with minutes to go before check-in, Logan pitched his jig again to the magic tree and saw a bass miss his bait. He spun around, made several pitches to the tree, and got that bass to bite.
“I had a 2-11 and this bass weighed 2-13,” Logan said. “When it is meant to be, it is meant to be. Hats off to Andrew. He is a heck of a fisherman. He is going to win plenty.”
After leading the first three days of the tournament, Loberg fell to second with a total of 62-15.
“I’m just ready for the next one,” Loberg said.
Loberg took the Day-1 lead with a limit of largemouth weighing 17-9, backing it up with limits of 18-4 and 15-9 the next two days. On the final day, the California native managed just 11-9 and missed his biggest bite, which allowed Logan to overtake him.
“The water came up and we had sort of a post-front deal going on,” Loberg said. “My areas kind of dried up on me.”
The 31-year-old rookie employed a similar strategy as Logan, starting the morning in a marina before fishing around shallow cover the rest of the day. A Strike King Rage Bug on a 1/2-ounce weight was his best-producing bait around wood, while the marina fish fell for a ChatterBait and a Lucky Craft 1.5 squarebill.
Opelika, Ala., pro Kyle Welcher climbed into third place, collecting limits weighing 15-15, 12-13, 16-13 and 14-12 for a total of 60-5. Welcher’s best area was one of the major creeks on the lake's northern end, which was clear enough to sight-fish a bedding smallmouth on Day 2, but turned dirty with heavy current by the final day.
The 2023 AOY felt right at home in that current though, catching quality smallmouth and largemouth off the current seams and current breaks. A Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug, a Rapala CrushCity The Mayor and a vibrating jig all played into Welcher’s strategy.
“Today was kind of crazy,” he said. “I started on a shad spawn and caught one big one. I got into my best area and pushed up into some heavy current. All heck broke loose for a little while there. I caught two 3 1/2’s within five minutes and another nice one, but I couldn’t build on it the rest of the day.”
Logan’s 5-1 largemouth from Sunday and Bryan New’s 5-1 from Day 2 split the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament honors. Each angler earned a $1,000 bonus.
Wisconsin pro Jay Przekurat leads the AOY race with 598 points, but an advantage that was over 40 points entering the Tenkiller event has shrunk. Canadian pro Chris Johnston is second with 595. Illinois pro Trey McKinney is third with 586 and South Carolina’s Patrick Walters is fourth with 553, followed by Indiana’s Bill Lowen in fifth with 547. Kyoya Fujita, Will Davis Jr., Taku Ito, Shane LeHew and Paul Marks round out the Top 10.
Day 4 (Final) Standings
1. Wes Logan -- Springville, AL -- 20, 63-00 -- 104 -- $102,000
Day 1: 5, 14-12 -- Day 2: 5, 15-13 -- Day 3: 5, 15-09 -- Day 4: 5, 16-14
2. Andrew Loberg -- Guntersville, AL -- 20, 62-15 -- 103 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 17-09 -- Day 2: 5, 18-04 -- Day 3: 5, 15-09 -- Day 4: 5, 11-09
3. Kyle Welcher -- Valley, AL -- 20, 60-05 -- 102 -- $16,000
Day 1: 5, 15-15 -- Day 2: 5, 12-13 -- Day 3: 5, 16-13 -- Day 4: 5, 14-12
4. Brandon Card -- Salisbury, NC -- 20, 59-00 -- 101 -- $12,500
Day 1: 5, 14-10 -- Day 2: 5, 11-15 -- Day 3: 5, 15-10 -- Day 4: 5, 16-13
5. Bob Downey -- Detroit Lakes, MN -- 20, 56-09 -- 100 -- $11,750
Day 1: 5, 16-02 -- Day 2: 5, 14-10 -- Day 3: 5, 14-00 -- Day 4: 5, 11-13
6. Trey McKinney -- Carbondale, IL -- 20, 56-01 -- 99 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 17-01 -- Day 2: 5, 13-08 -- Day 3: 5, 11-13 -- Day 4: 5, 13-11
7. Keith Combs -- Huntington, TX -- 20, 55-15 -- 98 -- $12,500
Day 1: 5, 15-15 -- Day 2: 5, 19-02 -- Day 3: 5, 12-08 -- Day 4: 5, 08-06
8. KJ Queen -- Catawba, NC -- 20, 54-07 -- 97 -- $10,300
Day 1: 5, 10-14 -- Day 2: 5, 15-02 -- Day 3: 5, 16-05 -- Day 4: 5, 12-02
9. Logan Latuso -- Gonzales, LA -- 20, 54-04 -- 96 -- $11,200
Day 1: 5, 12-08 -- Day 2: 5, 13-09 -- Day 3: 5, 16-07 -- Day 4: 5, 11-12
10. Jordan Lee -- Cullman, AL -- 20, 52-09 -- 95 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 16-01 -- Day 2: 5, 12-12 -- Day 3: 5, 13-05 -- Day 4: 5, 10-07
