With every cast and retrieve during Bassmaster Elite Series tournament time last week on a trophy lake in Texas, Caleb Sumrall of New Iberia was getting closer to another tournament close to his backyard, so to speak.

Sumrall made the cut and fished Semifinal Saturday on May 10 of the 2025 Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite on legendary Lake Fork out of Yantis, Texas. He improved his position in the Angler of the Year standings with a 16th-place finish on a three-day total of 69 pounds, 8 ounces, at Lake Fork.

After the tournament, Sumrall and 101 other Elites packed up, hitched up and drove to Orange, Texas, site of the MAXAM Tire Bassmaster Elite at Sabine River.

Competition days are May 15-18 with daily takeoffs out of the City of Orange Boat Ramp at 6:30 a.m. with weigh-ins each day at the boat ramp at 2:30 p.m. Bassmaster Live coverage is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Day 1 and Day 2 on Bassmaster.com. FS1 will broadcast morning action Semifinal Saturday and Championship Sunday 8 a.m.-11 a.m. before the live cameras switch back for afternoon coverage on Bassmaster.com

Sumrall, an all-around outdoorsman, more than likely was on point, ready and rarin’ to go when he arrived to prefish leading up to this Thursday’s Day 1 on the Sabine River. His experience and familiarity with the Sabine River and its many tributaries across seven Texas counties was apparent in a story published May 7, the day before the fifth derby of the season began on Lake Fork.

The New Iberian was featured in the story posted on the bassmaster.com website. Bassmaster officials went right to the source for the Sabine River when they chose Sumrall, who has had some of his highest finishes on the southeast Texas river system surprisingly similar to the waters he grew up fishing in and around the Atchafalaya Basin. For example, he was 7th in 2021 with 38 pounds, 1 ounce, and last year finished 16th with 25-11.

Sumrall has been more than ready for a return visit to the Sabine River. He told bassmaster.com winning it will necessitate a few key catches to break away from the pack, which means strategy comes into play.

“A lot of guys will come in with 7 to 8 pounds a day, but catching a 3-plus pounder every day will be the biggest challenge. It’s about getting a couple better than average quality bites every day,” Sumrall said in the story, noting it all hinges on deciding if and when to leave a bunch of smaller fish to find one big bass.

It’s a sprawling, diverse fishery, for sure, he added. Bass, mostly 1- to 2-pounders, live in both natural habitat and manmade structures and typically bite jig-n-pigs and Texas-rigged soft plastics as well as bladeless jigs, crank baits and topwaters.

“You have the Sabine River, the Trinity River, the Neches River, Taylor Slouth and Cow Bayou, and each one has its own features. You go into Cow Bayou and there’s cypress trees, cypress stumps and marsh grass,” he said. “Taylor is predominantly marsh grass, then the Neches starts off with marsh and turns into cypress tree cover and the Sabine does the same. It could be a little bit of everything.”

Adding to the options are waters far to the west, namely those around Houston. The fishing pressure is slight there and bass are bigger on the average, Sumrall realizes, but it’s a risk/reward option.

“It’s a hard commitment to make. Houston is a big gamble, and it hardly ever lasts four days unless it’s the spawn,” he said in the website story.

Usually, the key is to stay less than an hour from the boat ramp, like Brock Mosley of Collinsville, Miss., did to win the Sabine River tournament in 2023. He divided the first three days between an industrial waterway including Orange Harbor Island a few miles downstream of the takeoff site and Taylor Slough about 45 minutes south.

Mosley finished runner-up in ’21 behind Jason Christie of Welling, Okla., after fishing the first three days in Clear Creek east of metro Houston about 110 miles west of Orange.

Wherever he chooses to fish, Sumrall has his work cut out for him.

“The goal is to find those 2 ½- to 3-pound bass. Every spring a 7- to 9-pounder comes out of there. But if you catch a 5 or 6, you have a fish that you can ride for a couple days. That’s a really big fish for (May),” he said.

“I think a lot of people will have limits. There’s no shortage of 12-inch bass, but it’s a matter of who’s going to break over that 8- to 10-pound a day mark to have a good check. The guy that catches 11 ½ to 12 pounds a day will probably win it.”

With luck and a quasi-hometown advantage, the New Iberian will find himself hoisting his first-ever blue trophy signifying a win on the Bassmaster Elite Series. Good luck, Caleb.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.