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<\/p>\nNew York\u2019s Alex Korol goes wire-to-wire to win the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Lake Erie\u00a0presented by Battery Tender with a three-day total of 75\u00a0pounds, 9\u00a0ounces.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Photo by Andy Crawford\/B.A.S.S.<\/p>\n
Aug. 22, 2026<\/p>\n
Korol goes wire-to-wire to win Lake Erie Open<\/p>\n
BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 New York\u2019s Alex Korol<\/a> overcame a lingering case of bronchitis and two hard-charging Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series<\/a> pros to win the Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Lake Erie presented by Battery Tender<\/a> with 75 pounds, 9 ounces of smallmouth bass over three days of competition.<\/p>\n In a tournament where weights were generally tightly-packed, his winning margin of 3-11 seemed immense. The difference between 2nd\u00a0and 4th\u00a0was a mere 8 ounces.<\/p>\n Elite Series rookies Nick Trim<\/a> of Wisconsin and Aaron Jagdfeld<\/a> of Michigan came in 2nd\u00a0and 3rd\u00a0with 71-14 and 71-8, respectively.<\/p>\n \u201cI know how special this is and how hard it is to come by,\u201d Korol said. \u201cIt is just unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n This event featured an absolute rarity in multi-day Great Lakes tournaments \u2014\u00a0three days with no weather warnings, delays or cancellations. The service crews remained busy, but the tournament went on as scheduled, as did the entirety of the Opens schedule this year.<\/p>\n The result was record-breaking, with more 20-pound or higher limits than at any other tournament in Bassmaster history, dating back to the 1960s. There were 114 of them on Day 1 alone and Korol\u2019s 27-1 was the biggest of the tournament. The 10 anglers who qualified to fish on Championship Saturday added eight more to make the tally even more insurmountable.<\/p>\n While the 33-year-old Korol is from Fairport, N.Y., he calls Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes his home waters and said that this week marked the longest stretch of consecutive days he\u2019s ever spent on Erie.<\/p>\n The key to his victory was an area that lacked obvious structure but contained multitudes of bait balls. It was close to some obvious and well-known contours, so the surprise wasn\u2019t that it held bait, but that they remained there all three days.<\/p>\n \u201cEighty percent of the time my boat was in 50 feet of water,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was rare to see them actively feeding on the bait. I was catching most of them off the bottom. The key was staying free with how I moved through the area. I never stayed glued to one particular area.\u201d<\/p>\n Korol tempted the vast majority of his fish with a drop-shot rig tipped with a diminutive Megabass Hazedong Shad in colors including green pumpkin, green pumpkin shad and black.<\/p>\n One key to his success was the use of light line to cut through the water column. He employed a main line of 5-pound test Cortland Master Braid with a leader of 8-pound test Seaguar Tatsu.<\/p>\n Despite the win, Korol did not fish a full division of Turtlebox Bassmaster Opens presented by Battery Tender<\/a>\u00a0and therefore is not qualified to compete in the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour<\/a> or this fall\u2019s Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops<\/a>. The now-vacant Classic spot will instead be filled by a grateful Elite Series angler. Korol said that he has no regrets about that decision but he intends to fish a full division of Opens next year.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dream is to fish the Elite Series,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For now he\u2019ll have to be content with beating some of the Elite roster. Three of them made the Top 10 and many more past and present Elites populated the tournament\u2019s initial field.<\/p>\n One of those was Nick Trim, last year\u2019s Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Lowrance<\/a> champion. The Wisconsin pro caught a day\u2019s best 24-13 to jump from 6th\u00a0place up to the runner-up position. He\u2019d caught his fish on a jighead minnow the first day but transitioned to a 3\/8 ounce Cast Again Ringer football jig on Days 2 and 3 to make a charge at the title.<\/p>\n Trim ran 40 miles each way to his prime spot.<\/p>\n \u201cMy main goal was to get away from everybody,\u201d he said. With today\u2019s stiffer winds, he had less than 3 hours to fish there and made the most of it. The ride back left him with time to fish one additional spot and that\u2019s where he caught his biggest smallmouth of the day \u2014\u00a0enough to outlast fellow Elite Aaron Jagdfeld.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just what I needed going into the Elite Series tournament on the St. Lawrence,\u201d Trim stated. \u201cChasing smallmouth\u00a0is something I love to do and it feels good to crack \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n Jagdfeld will likewise carry the momentum of success in an absolute slugfest into the season-ending Elite event. This is his best finish in an Open or an Elite since he came in 2nd\u00a0at an Open on Lake St. Clair<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0another smallmouth factory \u2014\u00a0in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should bring some confidence back after a down season,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope that Ontario sets up the same way as this place.\u201d<\/p>\n Like much of the field he utilized a jighead minnow and an urchin-style bait to mine an average of nearly 24 pounds of smallmouth a day, and he said that one key to his success was his choice of a Lew\u2019s Hypermag 3000-sized spinning reel. The shallow spool and 6.2:1 gear ratio allowed him to make more presentations to the fish he\u2019d located and resulted in fewer wind knots.<\/p>\n Dillon Falardeau<\/a> of Tennessee, who\u2019d won an Open on the Upper Chesapeake Bay<\/a> last season to qualify for the 2026 Bassmaster Classic<\/a>, fell to 4th, just 2 ounces behind Jagdfeld. The Top eight finishers all caught at least 21 pounds per day. Everyone in the Top 10 had at least one bag over 23 pounds and six of them did it twice. Korol was the only one to top 23 each day.<\/p>\n Yesterday Garrett Smith<\/a> of North Carolina caught the Phoenix Boats<\/a> Big Bass of the tournament, a 6-13 smallmouth,<\/p>\n This tournament was the final chance for anglers to move their way into the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops<\/a> for the opportunity to claim one of 10 invites to the 2027 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series<\/a>. This season, 50 anglers took on both divisions, and 35 of them will advance to the Elite Qualifier round.<\/p>\n Cody Stahl<\/a> of Georgia won the Division 1 points race<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brody Robison<\/a> of Alabama won the Division 2 points race<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brock Bila<\/a> of Missouri won the combined points race<\/a>.<\/p>\n