Vols angler from Madison wins Texas Lunker Challenge

Madison resident Scott Ellis, a junior on the Tennessee Vols bass fishing team, caught a huge largemouth Sunday then crossed his fingers.

Ellis hooked the 9.64-pound fish at 7:30 a.m. and didn't find out until seven and a half hours later that he had won the Texas Lunker Challenge on Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

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The tournament, which is part of Cabela's Collegiate Bass Fishing Series, was a one-day event with a biggest-fish-wins-all format. It is different from most tournaments in which anglers weigh in a predetermined number of their biggest fish and the total weight determines the winner.

Ellis, a graduate of Goodpasture, was confident the bass he hooked in an area called The Canyons in 3-4 feet of water was a contender. But he wasn't sure it would be the biggest until the conditions worsened with winds reaching 15 mph and a cold front approaching.

The bad weather was good for Ellis.

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"I said all along it was going to take a double-digit fish to win the tournament," Ellis said. "But looking back at it, with the really rough conditions on such a large lake, I should've probably known that one that large was going to win it. But I had no clue."

As it turned out, Ellis had nothing to worry about. At the 3 p.m. weigh-in, his fish was by far the biggest.

In fact, it was a pound larger than the second-place fish caught by an angler from Montevallo and nearly 3 pounds larger than the third-place fish caught by a Northwestern State angler.

"My partner (Ronnie Moore from Mt. Juliet) and I probably caught 10 throughout the day," Ellis said. "My next biggest was only 3 pounds maybe. Nothing out of this world."

It was a huge tournament with a field of 210 anglers.

Tennessee's Logan Brewster finished 12th with a 5.53-pound fish.

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Payouts went to the top 40 places. Ellis collected a total of $7,000 in cash and prizes.

Ellis caught his fish on a spawning flat using a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap 3/4-ounce lure.

He released the fish after the weigh-in. He had taken extra steps during the tournament to make sure it stayed alive.

"I could have ran to other areas that I knew would've been productive, but as bad as the waves were, I didn't want to risk hurting the fish in the live well," Ellis said. "I was very careful."

It wasn't the first time Ellis has done well in a biggest-fish-wins-all format. He finished second in the Big Bass Bash on Kentucky Lake last spring with a 7.59-pounder.

"It's nice to be in a tournament where, say we have to quit fishing at 3 o'clock and it's 2:30, the next cast can still win it," Ellis said. "You've never out of the hunt in these kinds of tournaments, which makes a big difference."

For the complete results, visit collegiatebasschampionship.com/texas-lunker-challenge-february-11-2018.

High school tourney rescheduled: The High School Fishing Tennessee Open on Norris Lake, which originally was scheduled for Nov. 18, 2017, will be Feb. 25.

There is no entry fee for the Bass Pro Shops sponsored tournament, which is open to high school fishing teams from across the country.

The top 10 percent of finishers advance to the 2018 High School Fishing National Championship on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala.

For more information, call 270-205-6864.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 and on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.