Championship Sunday appearance nets a 16th-place finish for Sumrall

Published 5:00 am Sunday, March 13, 2022

GREENVILLE, South Carolina — Caleb Sumrall missed winning the trophy he coveted but gained even more respect as a fifth-year bass pro with his determined run last weekend at the 52nd annual Bassmaster Classic.

The Bassmaster Elite Series angler from New Iberia, thriving in his third Bassmaster Classic, fished Championship Sunday for the first time March 6, boated a five-bass limit for the third straight day and put 12 pounds, 6 ounces, on the digital scale on the big stage inside the cavernous Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

Sumrall’s three-day total of 43 pounds, 6 ounces, gave him a 16th-place finish worth $13,000. His eyes were on the top prize, the $300,000 that goes along with the trophy, but Lake Hartwell’s bass and Jason Christie of Park Hill, Oklahoma, had other plans.

Christie persevered in a tight race with Opelika, Alabama’s Kyle Welcher on Day 3 when he stuffed a bag of bass on the scale for 17 pounds, 9 ounces, and a three-day total of 54 pounds. Welcher’s third-day limit weighed 17 pounds, 4 ounces, to give him 53 pounds, 11 ounces, worth $50,000.

Sumrall was in the middle of the pack after Day 1 in 25th place with 14 pounds, 11 ounces, and rose to the challenge to make the Top 25 cut with a solid Day 2 bag weighing 16-5. His first-day catch Friday weighed 14 pounds, 11 ounces, most caught that morning while his wife, Jacie, and their children, Clelie and Axel, other relatives, friends and sponsors, watched from a nearby vantage point along Lake Hartwell.

The all-around outdoorsman went into the tournament with one goal — to win.

“Nothing else matters in this tournament but winning. My mindset is to fish to win, for sure,” he said a week before the Bassmaster Classic.

Sumrall, who celebrates his 35th birthday on May 20, was 744 miles from home but part of home was in Greenville. Approximately 30 people, most of them family and friends, watched him take off each morning and took in the three weigh-in shows.

After he was introduced and rolled into the arena riding his Xpress bass boat on Day 3, Sumrall acknowledged that small but vocal group in the large crowd when he took the mike.

“Man, I am loving every minute of it. Day Three of the Bassmaster Classic. First, I want to talk about the tournament in general. You know, everybody asks me, ‘What’s your favorite part? What’s your favorite part?’ and it’s the amount of fans that show up. I mean, look at this, you guys are here watching us put on a show, and probably on y’all home body of water. This is just awesome. I mean, I watched this growing up as a kid and to finally be a part of it, it drives me to be better” he told the fans.

“I’m going to go ahead and knock it out because I’m going to start crying. That group of people right there,” he said, gesturing in the direction of his entourage, his voice catching emotionally, “is the reason I’m able to do what I’m doing. Solely. I mean, it’s the reason I wake up. It’s the reason I work as hard as I do and it’s just a great, great, great, great experience to have a support group like that to help me out.“

Emcee Dave Mercer interjected and said, “Incredible support and lots of season ahead on the Bassmaster Elite Series.”

“Oh, absolutely, man. I’m excited. I’m motived more than ever. You know, this is my third one (Classic) and I forget the fire that lights up when I watch the guy hoist that trophy, to drive me to kick butt on the Elite Series,” Sumrall said. “You know, I want to make it back to this tournament. You cannot win this tournament if you’re not here. So I’m going to work as hard as I can.”

Then he thanked two of his biggest sponsors, Hot Springs, Arkansas-based Xpress Boats, which he said took a chance on him three years ago, and Optimal Field Services in Geismar, which also took a chance on him this year, he said.

Sumrall and the other Classic bass anglers have a brief break before their next Bassmaster Elite Series tournament that starts Thursday at Santee Cooper Lakes in Clarendon County, South Carolina. It will be the circuit’s third regular-season stop of 2022.

Sumrall, who left Friday morning, has some ground to make up in the all-important Angler of the Year race where he is 55th with 98 points. He finished 15th in the opener at Florida’s St. Johns River but stumbled and was 89th in the second tournament at the Harris Chain of Lakes, also in Florida.

Before the Classic, Sumrall said, “It’s still too early to worry about. There’s still a lot of fishing to do.”