KINGSTON, Okla. (KXII) – Hundreds of anglers came out to West Bay Casino and Resort to compete at the 2025 Bass Champs Championship on Saturday and Sunday.
The competitors went out at 7 a.m. each morning to catch the best fish.
There was a five fish limit to each boat, and they had to measure within certain measurements.
The deadline to have their reels out of the water was 3 p.m. sharp.
After the cutoff time, the anglers brought their fish to the weighing station where the fish needed to be alive, if it was dead they lost a pound.
The way a team won was by weighing in the heaviest fish.
The winners of this years tournament were Rickey Morris and Jason Olivo.
“They’re taking home home a skeeter bass boat! The whole package is over $100,000– that’s life changing,” Bass Champs Emcee John McCalmont said.
Almost 34 pounds was the winning weight.
“We really didn’t think we had anything that would win, we thought we were looking for a bigger fish all day and it didn’t happen so to come out winners was a blessing,” said Jason Olivo.
According to the champions, in order to be successful in a fishing tournament “you have to possess lots of endurance and patience.”
“The gentlemen that won this tournament today had an incredible game plan coming into it and they had the mental toughness to prove that,” said McCalmont.
Family was the reason both the champions got hooked on the sport.
“My grandpa started me in his fish aquarium and my older brother started taking me into ponds and I’d ask him every day when I was little if he’d take me fishing,” Rickey Morris said.
The top 28 teams out of hundreds were awarded a cash prize for their fish.
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