One of the best stories to come out of Knoxville during the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament held Feb. 25-28 on the Tennessee River centered around a local Bassmaster Elite angler who showed the world the new “Axel hold.”

Sure, the top story was the wire-to-wire victory by Canadian Jeff Gustafson, who dominated the 100-angler field with a four-day total of 63 pounds. The Keewatin, Ontario, bass angler resorted to a Damiki rig technique that works for him north of the border to dial up smallmouth bass that had to be at least 18 inches long to hit the scale.

Gustafson triumphantly held up the coveted blue trophy Sunday. But a day earlier, Caleb Sumrall of New Iberia, smiling ear-to-ear, held up a chunky bass, as bass pros do at weigh-ins.

The 33-year-old bass angler didn’t hold the bass by its bottom lip, the traditional method. Instead, he had his right hand cupped around the fish from the dorsal side and the left hand gripping the belly of the bass.

It probably looked incongruous to the unknowing onlooker. But it meant the world to Caleb and his family, particularly his son, Axel, a little tyke who loves to go bass fishing.

Axel always has held bass he and his pop catch in the same manner, as several Facebook photos on the Caleb Sumrall Fishing website show.

Caleb was upbeat going into the second Elite stop of the year in Tennessee despite an 83rd-place finish in the 2021 opener on the St. Johns River at Palatka, Florida. On Feb. 23, during the official scouting period on the Tennessee River, he posted a photo of Axel employing the “Axel hold” on a 2 ½- to 3-pound class bass. Caleb wrote: “Here’s Axel with his signature fish hold. Think I might have to hold one up on the Bassmaster stage like this. What y’all think.”

The replies were supportive.

A week ago Saturday, beaming already because he rose from 59th the first day to 25th the second day, easily making the Top 50 cut, Caleb celebrated his 19th-place finish on the big stage and “Axel hold”-held one of the five bass in his limit for all to see in person and live on bassmaster.com. Later that day, he posted the photo and wrote: “Finished up 19th here in Knoxville and kept my word and pulled off the ‘Axel hold’ on the @bass_nation stage.”

That was a tough week of bassin’ for the local outdoorsman who is in his fourth year as an Elite and the rest of the star-studded field that descended on Knoxville. Before the season began, he confided to a local outdoor writer that cold, dirty water rivers weren’t his cup of tea.

After weighing two bass the first day, Caleb rose to the challenge to move into 25th place with a solid limit and came back with five more bass on Semifinal Saturday to finish 19th. He even flirted with the Top 10 that Saturday.

He finished ahead of some of the best bass anglers in the business. Brandon Cobb was 22nd; Scott Martin 25th; Seth Feider 29th; Mark Menendez 31st; Gerald Swindle 34th; Brandon Palianuk 37th; Hank Cherry Jr. 78th, and Rick Clunn 92nd. More importantly, he figured out how to get those cold, dirty water bass to bite.

Caleb rides the momentum into the next tournament March 18-21 at Pickwick Lake in Florence, Alabama. Perhaps he’ll show another “Axel hold.”

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A young Loreauville bass angler had a good two days Feb. 26-27 in the Co-angler Division of the B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier out of Doiron’s Landing in Stephensville.

Hunter Neuville, a senior who started the bass fishing team at Highland Baptist Christian School, was tied for 9th on the second and last day with 11.70 pounds. He was 12th with 5.21 pounds on Friday.

Way to geaux, Hunter!

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.