A New Iberian’s recent stay at Lake Hartwell, where his pro bass fishing career got its start, ended much too soon and much to his disappointment and dismay.

After his second day of competition April 25, Caleb Sumrall’s five-bass limit left him short of the cut to fish Semifinal Saturday in the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on the 56,000-acre lake in South Carolina. It was another stumbling block in his bid to qualify for next year’s Bassmaster Classic on the Tennessee River’s Fort Loudoun and Tellico lakes out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

His Day 2 limit weighed 11 pounds, 7 ounces, to give him a two-day total of 26 pounds, 2 ounces, a little more than 3 pounds shy of the Top 50 for a 69th-place finish in the 102-angler field.

Sumrall let his feelings be known in a Facebook post Sunday evening: “Another subpar tournament for me this week. No excuses. I just didn’t make the right decisions. I’m pissed and ready to turn this ship around. One week off and it’s game on at Fork!”

That post summed the status quo succinctly for the all-around outdoorsman who graduated from Westgate High School.

Going into the fifth tournament on the circuit this season at the Texas lake known for huge bass, Sumrall’s Angler of the Year position is 84th with 137 points. Kenta Kimura of Afton, Okla., also has 137 points.

The May 8-11 Lake Fork tournament is the halfway point of the season and Sumrall, more than anyone, knows there’s plenty of time to catch up and climb up the AOY leaderboard to punch his ticket to the 2026 Bassmaster Classic. It’s a good opportunity next week to make up some ground before the sixth of nine tournaments on the schedule, a derby on the Sabine River which fishes a lot like the waters he grew up catching bass in and around the Atchafalaya Basin.

Lake Fork can be a challenge, no doubt. In Sumrall’s five appearances as an Elite there he has finished 60th with 40 pounds, 15 ounces, in 2024; 57th with 31 pounds, 8 ounces, in 2022; 21st with 57 pounds, 14 ounces, in 2021; 58th with 15 pounds, 12 ounces, in 2020, and 24th with 55 pounds, 13 ounces, in 2019.

Sumrall, who harvested the first turkey of his hunting career while hunting with fellow Elite angler Jacob Powroznik of North Prince George, Va., in mid-April following a 35th-place showing and out of the money in the 2025 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Ray Roberts, has had his calendar marked for the Sabine River date of May 15-18 out of Orange, Texas. He’d gladly take another 16th-place finish (or higher) like he did in June 2023 with a hard-earned total of 25 pounds, 11 ounces.

Hopefully, accompanied by a solid finish on Lake Fork, that would put him in position for the stretch run with tournaments June 12-15 on Lake Tenkiller at Cookson, Okla.; Aug. 7-10 on Lake St. Clair in Macomb County, Michigan, and Aug. 21-24 on the Mississippi River at La Crosse, Wis.

There are no New York State tournaments on the Elite schedule in 2025. Sumrall usually shines on Lake Champlain at Waddington, N.Y., and the St. Lawrence River at Plattsburgh, N.Y., where last August his 58 pounds, 7 ounces, garnered a 13th-place finish on Lake Champlain and a four-day total of 87 pounds, 3 ounces, was good enough the next week for a 9th-place finish on the St. Lawrence River.

Those clutch results in the last two tournaments sealed the deal for his return to the Classic, which he missed in ’23 and ’24.

Sumrall got to his first Classic in 2018 thanks to a monumental performance in 2017 when he won the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship — defying the odds just to get there — at  Lake Hartwell. The first-place finish also vaulted him into the Bassmaster Elite Series, where he has competed ever since.

Here’s hoping the bass fishing gods and Lady Luck smile on The Xpress Boats and Creole Steel-sponsored local bass angler over the next five derbies, starting at Lake Fork. He’s got the skills, determination and drive to make it to his fifth Bassmaster Classic.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.