Caleb Sumrall of New Iberia is looking Northeast for the stretch run of the Bassmaster Elite Series.

There are two regular-season Bassmaster Elite stops left in 2018. Next weekend he’ll drive up, way up, for the Huk Bassmaster Elite at Upper Chesapeake Bay in Harford County, Maryland, July 26-29, then fish the Bassmaster Elite on the St. Lawrence River out of Waddington, New York, Aug. 23-26.

He is fresh from cashing in in three of the four tournaments he fished in June, including back-to-back Elite stops in Wisconsin and South Dakota. He also got a check in a Bassmaster Open on the Red River to push his winnings this year to $50,928.

“It’s been fun. I’m glad I had success in that stretch of tournament fishing last month. It takes a little financial pressure off and gives you a little momentum,” Sumrall said on July 5.

There are two realistic goals ahead of him. At No. 61 in the Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year standings with 377 points, Sumrall could finish in the Top 50 and qualify for the Angler of the Year Championship on Sept. 20-23 at Chatuge Lake near Young Harris, Georgia.

If Sumrall gets that far, he has a legitimate shot at making a repeat appearance in the Bassmaster Classic.

It’s an uphill climb but he feasibly could emerge as the 2018 Bassmaster Elite Series Rookie of the Year. Sumrall is fourth with 377 points behind pacesetter Jake Whitaker of Fairview, North Carolina, with 474, Roy Hawk of Lake Havasu, Arizona, with 429, and Ray Hanselman Jr. of Del Rio, Texas, with 422.

Sumrall is ready for the battle for Rookie of the Year.

“It’ll take me having two solid events and them slipping up a little each event,” he said. “I’ve got to catch in the next two events to move on up.”

The outdoorsman who once fished regularly in the Atchafalaya Basin has shown his versatility. Sumrall went from catching all of his keeper largemouths June 21-24 on plastic frogs in the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he finished 48th with 38 pounds, 5 ounces, for his second Top 50 finish since a 32nd on April 26-29 at Grand Lake in Oklahoma, to drop-shotting his way into the limelight a week later at Lake Oahe near Pierre, South Dakota.

The New Iberian narrowly missed making the Top 12 and fishing on Championship Monday in the first-ever B.A.S.S. pro bass fishing tournament at Lake Oahe. He finished 13th with 39 pounds, 11 ounces, his best outing of 2018. It could have been even better.

“It was close, really, really close. If I’d just closed a limit on Day 2, I think I would have made the (Top 12) cut,” he said. He had five-bass limits the first and third days of the tournament, including a 16-pound plus bag the first day.

“It was a beautiful lake, fun to fish. I came out 13th. I am real proud of that,” he said.

The lake was a smallmouth haven for those who could pattern them.

“I like catching smallmouth. Smallmouth are fun to catch,” he said.

It also was a lake different than any he has seen, according to the Toledo Bend bass fishing guide

“It really, really was. It was a gigantic lake,” he said about Lake Oahe. “I was fortunate to have a decent practice and get something going.”

Sumrall touched on that subject again Thursday morning at ICast in Orlando, Florida, which ended Friday. He was at a table on the spacious floor of wall to wall of the newest in fishing tackle, fishing rods, fishing reels and clothing wearing a headset along with Mike “Ike” Iaconelli of Pittsgrove, New Jersey, who won one of the 19 Bassmaster Classics he fished on the way to making $2.5 million, and John Crews of Salem, Virginia, an 11-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier and a one-time winner on the Bassmaster Elite Series.

They all are sponsored by Missile Baits, which brought them together in Orlando. They did a 20-minute live show that can be seen on The Bass University.

Iaconelli praised the rookie’s finish.

“Dude, 13th place!” Iaconelli said, enthusiastically, then asked the Louisiana outdoorsman to describe his approach and finish on the lake near Pierre, South Dakota.

Getting bit early in practice was critical to his success, Sumrall said.

“I got momentum going,” he said, noting that he “bounced around” on main lake points in search of smallmouth. He might hit 20 points and catch on two of the, he said, using Missile Baits’ Shock Wave, which resembles a soft plastic swimbait.

“Ike” enjoyed the fact that “a Southern boy, a bayou guy, a Louisiana guy” was one of the best up there at catching smallmouth bass.

During the tournament, Sumrall said he drop-shotted a new Missile Bait BombShot that Lake Oahe’s smallmouth bass loved. Colors he relied on were fish-a-licious, green pumpkin and pink, he said, with either a 1/4- or 3/8-ounce weight.

“I got confidence in it quick. When it was around a fish, it ate it,” Sumrall said.

Maintaining contact with the bottom was the key, he said, which meant positioning the boat into the wind so there wouldn’t be any slack in his line.