Benton anglers hook big prize

(Left photo) Skyler Upton (left) and Brayden Stewart of Benton won the third annual Commissioner’s Cup Invitational high school bass fishing tournament Saturday at Lake Ouachita with 13.99 pounds. (Right photo) Xander Ray Cobb of Hot Springs won the Big Bass Award at the third annual Commissioner’s Cup by catching a 4.05-pound largemouth bass at Lake Ouachita.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Bryan Hendricks)
(Left photo) Skyler Upton (left) and Brayden Stewart of Benton won the third annual Commissioner’s Cup Invitational high school bass fishing tournament Saturday at Lake Ouachita with 13.99 pounds. (Right photo) Xander Ray Cobb of Hot Springs won the Big Bass Award at the third annual Commissioner’s Cup by catching a 4.05-pound largemouth bass at Lake Ouachita. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Bryan Hendricks)

LAKE OUACHITA -- Before Saturday, Skyler Upton and Brayden Stewart, both of Benton, had never won a high school bass tournament.

Representing Benton High School, the duo won the tournament that mattered most, the third annual Commissioner's Cup at Lake Ouachita. It was also their last high school tournament together. Upton will attend Southern Arkansas University in the fall, and Stewart will join his family's business.

"Our whole high school career, we've never won a tournament," Upton said. "I'm glad it was this one because this one is nationally recognized. It's our last high school tournament."

Mason Watkins and Walker Woodall won the junior division with 9.19 pounds.

Xander Ray Cobb of Hot Springs, representing Cutter-Morning Star High School, won the coveted big bass award -- a custom trophy from Harper's Pure Country Taxidermy in Damascus -- with a largemouth that weighed 4.05 pounds.

The Commissioner's Cup is the state's premier high school fishing tournament and also a respected state high school fishing championship. The first tournament in 2019 was at Lake Hamilton. Due to covid-19 social distancing requirements that prohibited gatherings, the 2020 event was held virtually on waterways around the state.

The third event reverted to a normal format and was held at the Brady Mountain Recreation Area at Lake Ouachita. Despite oppressive heat and humidity, the atmosphere was festive and celebratory.

Tyler Lawrence, director of events for the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, said that 70 youth anglers comprising 35 teams competed for prizes with a cash value of about $10,000. The top three teams won college scholarships. The top 10 senior division teams and top six junior division teams also received prize packages that included large amounts of fishing tackle.

Upton and Stewart won $3,000 in scholarship money by catching five bass that weighed 13.99 pounds. Jay Lewis of Little Rock was the team's boat captain and helped the duo identify two key fishing patterns.

"We didn't have too much time to prepare," Upton said. "We owe that all to our boat captain, Jay Lewis. He came out here yesterday for pre-fishing and found a pretty good pattern that we didn't expect to happen. It just kind of fell in place."

The surprise, Lewis said, was a hot-weather topwater bite in a part of the lake he doesn't often fish.

"I fish out here quite a bit, but normally I fish the west end of the lake," Lewis said. "We came out to the east end and caught some fish on areas I've caught fish off in the past."

Early Saturday morning, the team found schools of largemouth bass suspended at 10 feet to 12 feet over long points. The fish hit Strike King Sexy Dawgs, a cigar-type lure popularized by four-time Bassmaster Classic champion Kevin VanDam.

"The guys were throwing topwaters [lures]," Lewis said. "After the sun got good and high and that bite died down, we headed west and started fishing brush piles in 20 to 25 feet."

Upton and Stewart caught fish in the brush piles with 10-inch, plum-colored Zoom worms. They used medium-heavy rods, 17-pound test Seguar Yellow Label fluorocarbon line and 3/8-ounce weights.

"They were in the brush piles and all around them," Stewart said.

Lewis' Garmin Panoptix LiveScope electronic graph was the key piece of equipment for the tournament.

"We watched them on the LiveScope," Upton said. "They'd just dart up from 8 to 13 feet to get it. It's kind of a crazy experience. It's like playing a video game."

Lewis said the LiveScope revealed exactly where the fish were. The orientation of the images told him how to position the boat and which directions Upton and Stewart should cast.

"We just see them suspended. We don't actually see them come up and hit the topwater," Lewis said. "This morning we pulled up on a point. I was running the trolling motor, and I saw some fish suspended out there. I turned the boat around, pulled upwind of them and spotlighted them.

"I wasn't watching them on the LiveScope, but I knew they were out there suspended about 10 feet down. I had them lined up. The guys were on the back deck. I told them to cast out toward that point out there and bring it across those fish."

Upton and Stewart caught their limit early. They spent the rest of the day, Lewis said, keeping their fish healthy in the heat. Lewis circulated water in the livewells constantly, and he rotated 2-liter soda bottles filled with ice to keep the livewell water at a comfortable temperature.

After weighing their fish, anglers deposited them in a big, oxygenated tank truck. Game and Fish Commission employees took the fish back to the lake and released them alive.

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