Clélié Sumrall, foreground, shows ‘six’ acknowledging her dad’s spot in the standings after three days of the Elite tournament at Lake Guntersville. Caleb, holding son, Axel, and his wife, Jacie, also are all smiles.

Confidence generated by a breakthrough finish in a Bassmaster Elite tournament early in the year in South Carolina and kept on building carried over to the regular-season finale a few weeks ago for Caleb Sumrall of New Iberia, who finished 17th in that Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship at Lake St. Clair in Detroit.

Sumrall, who was on top of his game in Michigan, already had qualified for the 2020 GEICO Bassmaster Classic. He weighed in a nearly 4-pound average each day of the three-day tournament and finished with 59 pounds, 1 ounce.

It wasn’t easy, though.

“That lake’s difficult to fish. You’ve just got to float around and hope you find a school of fish. You had to be (fishing) in a certain depth, 15- to 18-feet,” he said, noting he did a lot, lot more fan casting than usual on tournament days in the event that ended Oct. 1.

He fished with a deep-diving Spro crankbaits, either yellow perch or shad in color, and a 1/2-ounce green pumpkin tube jig to boat all his smallmouths. 

Sumrall was proud of his regular-season finale.

“I lost some fish Day 1. But I caught just about everything Day 2 and Day 3. I did about everything I could have done,” he said, adding that on the second day he found a school of smallies and caught about 50.

It was a banner year for the young man from the heart of Cajun Country. He made the Top 35 in six of the 10 tournaments that began on the second week of February in Florida.

Sumrall, who racked up 715 points to finish 21st in the AOY standings, also emerged as the only Bassmaster Elite angler from Louisiana to qualify for the 50th Bassmaster Classic scheduled for March 6-8 at Lake Guntersville in Alabama. The 2020 GEICO Bassmaster Classic, which is sure to be a well-hyped, spectacular event, is going to be held where the New Iberian had his highest finish in 2019.

The 32-year-old all-around outdoorsman was fourth with 77 pounds, 10 ounces, June 21-24 on the popular Alabama lake and won $15,000. That also was the first Top 10 showing of his career as a Bassmaster Elite.

“Ummm, my highlight obviously was finishing fourth in Guntersville. I had a good event, punchin’ all day, what I do at home. It was my strength. Fishing in general just felt good,” he said, adding that his family was there to enjoy the career achievement.

He targeted a broad, shallow bay off the main channel and fished scattered patches of underwater vegetation. He even gave up the stretch of grass he was fishing on the final day to the event’s eventual winner, Jamie Hartman of Russellville, Arkansas.

Sumrall said he appreciated the support of family and friends and an entire community in his hometown. He called it a “constant influx of support.”

“I can’t thank everybody enough for their support,” he said.

He has his goals set for 2020. Notably, he wants to finish in the Top 10 in the AOY.

His offseason plans include spending time with his family — wife, Jacie, Clélié and Axel — and deer hunting with a bow. He also plans to be in a new boat. His Bass Cat Cougar, which was wrapped by Tommy Lipari and his staff at Lipari Specialties on Jan. 31, is for sale, he said.

During this offseason he also can look back at a season in which he rebounded from a rocky beginning on the Bassmaster Elite Series tour.

After missing the Top 35 cut in each 75-angler field over the first three Bassmaster Elite tournaments in 2019 at St. Johns River (72nd), Lake Lanier (42nd) and Lake Hartwell (50th), the confidence switch turned on for him in mid-April at Winyah Bay in Georgetown, South Carolina.

“Yeah, it was a little slow at first. My confidence all turned around at Winyah Bay. I had a good event there. I was a lot more comfortable with my decisions,” he said about the tournament in which he narrowly missed fishing Championship Sunday and finished 11th with 33 pounds, 4 ounces, for $10,000.

Buoyed by that showing, he charged into the next tournament in neighboring Texas and was 24th in the prestigious Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks & Wildlife at Lake Fork. He had a total of 55 pounds, 13 ounces, and won $13,500.

Sumrall was on a roll that took him to a solid payday Lake Guntersville. After the Fort Gibson Lake stop was postponed by flooding in the Midwest, the 75 Bassmaster Elites hitched up their boats and toted them to New York State. 

He whacked the smallmouth bass on the St. Lawrence River in mid-August at Waddington, New York, amassing 58 pounds, 3 ounces, over three days to notch an 18th-place finish and win $10,000. 

His string of Top 35 finishes ended, by a hair, er, few ounces, a week later on Cayuga Lake in Union Springs, New York. He was 36th with 33 pounds, 3 ounces, for $5,000. 

The postponed Fort Gibson Lake tournament was rescheduled for Sept. 19-22, then switched to Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma. Sumrall did some of his best basic bassin’ there to scratch out a hard-earned 21st place showing for $9,000.  He earned another $1,500 for catching a 5-pound, 7-ounce, bass that wound up being the biggest bass weighed in by any Bassmaster Elite.

“Oh, to have the big bass, that was pretty cool, the biggest bass of the event. That was a highlight, no doubt,” he said about the lunker that bit a Whopper Plopper.

And that set up his grand finale at Lake St. Clair, Detroit, in the 2019 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship.

Other Louisiana Bassmaster Elites and their finishes were Tyler Rivet of Raceland, 46th with 595 points; Derek Hudnall of Baton Rouge, 48th with 583 points; Robbie Latuso of Gonzales, 61st with 459 points; Quentin Cappo of Prairieville, 71st with 405 points, and Tyler Carriere of Youngsville, 73rd with 385 points.