BASS Report
Michiana’s Bo Thomas turned in a stellar performance to finish third in the Bassmaster St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Tombigbee River presented by SEVIIN.
Thomas fished his way into the finals with limits weighing 11-3 and 14-11 and then added a 15 pound, 12 ounce sack in the finals. He won $10, 350 with his 41 pounds, 10 ounce total.
Terry Schroeder, a 25-year-old resident of tiny Theodosia, Mo., mounted a come-from-behind win with 14 bass totaling 42 pounds, 12 ounces to edge veteran angler Stephen Browning who finished second with 42-4.
Just about everyone at Friday’s final weigh-in at East Bank Landing had already conceded the tournament to Browning, the Hot Springs, Ark., pro who’s in his 30th year fishing with B.A.S.S. and was looking for his first B.A.S.S. victory in a decade.
It seemed logical. After all, Browning was surging as the tournament progressed and he vaulted from seventh place and into the lead with a 15-10 limit on Day 3. Schroeder, meanwhile, only had four bass in his bag when he came to the stage. That largemouth quartet registered 12-6, however, which let him slip past Browning and to the top of the leaderboard.
The outcome surprised even Schroeder, who gasped when his final weight was announced. He shot his arms into the air in excitement before hoisting the winner’s trophy, and he still was in disbelief after the crowd had cleared out.
“I didn’t think there was any chance I had won,” he said.
BASSTrakk listed Schroeder with an 8-5 total on Friday when the weigh-in began, more than four pounds lighter than his actual catch. Though anglers are encouraged to use BASSTrakk throughout the day, they are not required to do so. But with many anglers and fans accustomed to following the action on BASSTrakk, they saw those numbers and assumed Browning had won.
Schroeder said he doesn’t weigh his fish until he catches his fifth bass.
“I get to five and then I weigh (the one) I’m culling first,” Schroeder said. “Then I get rid of my smallest one once I weigh the rest of them. It was my plan to do that today, too, but I never got that fifth keeper bite. I probably had seven or eight bites today … and only four keepers.”
Schroeder pocketed $34,502 cash for the win, part of a $229,090 purse split among the Top 45 of 155 anglers entered in the tournament. He also won a spot in the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour when it’s held March 13-15 in Knoxville, Tenn., on the Tennessee River.
“I didn’t burn a half tank of gas the whole week,” he said. “Finding a hard bottom was what gave me the confidence to stay in Columbus Lake … When I put my poles down and I could (sense them going into) gravel and sand, it started to feel right.
“So, when I put in, I went to the first piece of grass I saw, the water willow stuff,” he said. “The qualifiers we fished at McKendree were on 400-acre lakes and they fished like ponds. It was like that here … I felt at home.”
Schroeder used only two lures to bag his best bass.
“Thirteen of the 14 fish I weighed this week came on a (white) 6th Sense swim jig with a white Stroker Craw by 6th Sense on the back,” he said. “One of them came on the Clout, which is the Sixth Sense version of a Senko. I had some in the bottom of my boat and I threw it out there (on Thursday) and caught a 3-pounder.”
Browning, 58, finished third the last time B.A.S.S. fished on the Tombigbee River, way back in October 2004, and he was confident the 15-10 sack he caught Friday was enough to win the fifth B.A.S.S. event of his illustrious career. He said it was difficult finishing just shy of his goal to qualify for his 11th Bassmaster Classic.
“It’s just hard to swallow right now,” Browning said.
The derby on the Tombigbee River is the second Division I Bassmaster Open of the year, with the season opener held at Georgia’s Clarks Hill in January. Two more tournaments remain in the division (on the Upper Chesapeake Bay July 23-25 in Maryland and July 31-Aug. 2 on the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York.)
The Top 50 anglers in both the Division 1 and Division 2 Open standings will qualify for the Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers, which starts in September. The Top 10 anglers in that inaugural three-tournament competition will win spots in the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series.