09/02/2025
2025 West Coast Championship – Event Summary
We’re thrilled to recap the 5th annual West Coast Championship, held on August 22–23 at Clear Lake, California—a legendary largemouth bass fishery consistently ranked among America’s finest.
About the Championship
Over the past five years, 312 unique anglers have competed via TourneyX, making this our most inclusive series yet.
This year’s event drew 1,194 fish submissions, meticulously judged alongside our steadfast teammate, Uncle Bill. His no-nonsense approach—and timely outreach to anglers—ensures every entry meets tournament standards. Without Bill, this event simply wouldn’t happen.
Day 2 Highlight
We witnessed a jaw-dropping Day 2 limit totaling 107 inches, a standout performance that kept excitement high all weekend.
Big Bass Awards
Day 1: $737 — Todd Slumpski
Day 2: $737 — Damian Thao
Overall: $2,213 — Damian Thao
Yak-Pot Prizes
1st – $2,162 — O. Williams
2nd – $1,150 — Pua Yang
3rd – $828 – Matthew Brannon
4th – $460 – Alden Walden
Angler Recaps
1st - $7889.00 198 in Damain Thao Practice day was tough for me, fished all of redbud-konocti harbor and didnt put a fish in the boat. Then ran up north and found a little area in Rodman where i got multiple bites. Decided to just fish there on tournament day. Invested both days fishing a grass patch the size of 2 boat lenghts. This patch reloaded throughout the day. One thing that stuck out to me about this patch was the current was pushing right up onto it with bait. I'd start with a hollow body frog first thing in the morning and i noticed as soon as the sun came over the hills. The frog bite just dissapeared. Then I'd just punch the punch rod in my hand for the rest of the day. My 2 main baits i was punching with were a Dranckrazy DerangeEX(bloody coke) and a Yamamoto Flappin Hog(green pumpkin)Congrats to all the winners and Thanks to all those that made this event possible. Also wanted to thank my sponsors, Kayakcity, 1stgenfishing, Pline, Dranckrazy, 559fresnobaitandtackle, Yakbassangler
2nd - $5407.00 196.75 in O Williams
3rd - $2551.00 193 in Thomas Willingmyere Practiced Saturday and Tuesday before the event, launched out of rattlesnake and fished familiar water. Bite was tough on Saturday and didn’t have a fish over 15 inches until around 10:45. Ended up throwing a football jig under a dock walkway and got bit by a 18.75. Tied on the only flipping jig and went to town the rest of the day. Came back Tuesday to verify the pattern, bite wasn’t on fire but if I kept at it the bites I did get were the right ones.
Days 1 and 2 kept with that same bite in the same area and ended up day 1 with 96.25 and day 2 with 96.75 just flipping a jig under docks and on the dock pillars. Ended up in 3rd for the WCC and sitting in 5th for YAB going into day 2.
Day 2 switched up my starting spot and made a longer run, it paid off, started off the morning with my only reaction bite of the tournament by catching a chatterbait fish that went 18.25. The day just kept getting better, had 99.50 inches by 8:30 and kept culling all day to my biggest bag I have ever had, ended up with 107 inches and taking the win for the CL event.
Would just like to thank my wife for putting up with all this even if she thinks it’s a little crazy and thanks to James for always putting on a great event!
4th - $918.00 190 in Isiah West
5th - $816.00 189.75 in Simon Her Like many, I didn't have the greatest practice. I started Wednesday morning launching out of the Oaks. My plan was to check on old rock piles and docks that I've done well on in the past. Within 2 hours of prefish, I felt like something was completely off and decided to relaunch somewhere up north. I ended up choosing to relaunch at Rodman because I know that area usually holds a good number of residential fish.
Within an hour of relaunch, I landed 3 fish in the 16-18" range off a dropshot and I knew I had to leave immediately. I didn't see any competitors in the area, so I figured it'd be a good option come tournament day. Moving onto Thursday's half practice, I decided to head back up to Rodman to confirm my pattern. Within an hour I got 2 bites and shook those fish off and left the slough. I used the rest of my half practice to search for other options outside of Rodman, checking the surrounding docks and rock piles.
For day 1 I noticed a good number of guys launching out of Rodman. I was a bit discouraged, but I knew I still had a good chance at a decent bag. I started the morning swimming a worm through sparse vegetation and along w**d edges. This was not effective at all, so I switched over to what I found success with during practice and started tossing my dropshot in these same areas. I quickly realized this was not working, so I just kept grinding till the sun came over the mountains. I knew once that sun peaked over, I'd have a good chance at some morning punch fish.
With the competitors fishing the slough with me as well as locals on boats, I knew I had to do something a bit differently to stand out from the crowd. I knew most would be punching the grass with a pegged tungsten and craw type bait. I decided to use a similar setup, but also adding a punch skirt. My theory was that the skirt would help displace more water in the mats making it easier for these fish to find it, as well as making it a larger meal for these fish. I also chose to use a brown/orange Rage Bug to resemble the crawfish these fish were feeding on. I quickly found success once the sun got up around 8am. For the next 6 hours I punched heavy hydrilla and managed to end day 1 in 2nd place with a total of 96.50".
For day 2 I knew word would travel and we'd most likely have even bigger crowd fishing in Rodman, however thankfully this wasn't the case. I started my day 2 changing things up using a white 1stGen Copperhead chatterbait to try and capitalize on the early morning reaction bite. At 6: 45AM, I picked off a 19.25" and ended up breaking off on 2 giants that I needed to keep up in the race. It wasn't until 4 hourslater that I'd finally find another bite, landing a 20.75" fish and quickly landing another two decent ones. I eventually filled bag and ended day 2 with 93.25". This day 2 was definitely a bit tougher for me, I didn't sleep as well the night before, and I believe that's what made me feel so out it.
I finished the WCC in 5th place with an event total of 189.75". Although short of 1st, I'm still very proud of my results. This is my first season fishing kayak tournaments and to finish in 5th place above some of the guys I've looked up to and against some of the best in the West is an accomplishment I'll never forget. Congratulations to the champion Damian Thao as well as everyone who placed! First and foremost, I'd like to thank God and His unconditional love and support. I would not be where I am today had it not been for His love and grace. I'd also like to thank P-Line, 1st Gen Fishing, as well as family and friends for their support. Thank you to all the tournament directors that made this event possible, can't wait for next year!
6th - $714.00 186 in Pua Yang After 3 days of prefishing, I chose to fish out of Rodman slough day 1 of the west coast championship. Bites were sporadic everywhere else for me. Whereas Rodman slough, I had the most consistent bites but the quality was yet to be known due to not setting hooks during prefish. The slough had the abundance of healthy vegetation and just fit my style of fishing.
Chatterbaits in the morning during low light were key in getting a limit quick on day 1. Day 2 was the same but the chatter bite fizzled out much more quickly. For both days after 10am, I went straight to punching for the rest of the tournament duration. After testing a few flipping baits, craw imitating soft plastics in green pumpkin and black and blue seemed to get more and better bites.
Wanna thank all the west coast alliance td’s for making this possible. It’s a special event that the west coast can call their own. Thanks to all judges that took the weekend off to judge all the fish caught.
Lastly, I wanna thank my wife and kids for allowing me to do what I love. Especially, during the beginning of the school year.
Love ya 10,000!
7th - $612.00 183.75 in Matthew Brannon
8th - $510.00 183.75 in Brett Crowther
9th - $408.00 183.00 Alden Walden
10th - $306.00 181.5 in Greg Blanchard - I launched out of Braitos each day and went south fishing tules flipping a pit boss and would mix in fishing a jig on deeper rock. Most of my better fish came flipping tules in 3-5 FOW including the 22.50'' beast. These fish would come and go on all of these areas so making mulitple passes through them was key and when you'd fish a stretch at the right time you'd get on the fish. Thanks to YAB crew and everyone who participated for great weekend of fishing at Clear Lake.
11th - $204.00 177 in Andrew Janke
Big Fish of the weekend – 24.5 inches – Kyle Murphy - y big fish came in at 24.50 inches & weighed in at 10.6 pounds! It was caught on a jackhammer chatter bait With a hog farmer, s***k shad for a trailer. Just chucking and winding that chatter bait parallel with the tullies as close to them as I could get it was the juice. Pretty sure I missed her on the first go when I didn’t get a hook good hook set and she stuck her head out the water to spit the bait. I recall, thinking that’s the biggest fish I’ve ever seen in my life even just for a split second that I saw her. After picking off a smaller fish a couple minutes later maybe 50 feet away. I went back to that spot cast from a different angle and bang. Absolutely amazing fight one I’ll never forget the way to that fish ate my lunch for a second I thought “did I hook up a catfish.” once I got it to the boat the thing was so big I couldn’t even fit it in the net and needed to perform some Cirque du Soleil move to make it happen. I was absolutely shocked at the size of that fish. When I weighed, I remember my scale slow rolling me up the ladder starting at three jumping to five then hitting seven and then that magic number, 10.6 lbs!! my personal best at 24 1/2 inches and the 10.6 is my personal best by a longshot. After I got the fish back in the water I think I sat there for a good 30 or 40 minutes just letting it sink in realizing that might not happen again and that that’s a fish of a lifetime! Thank you to James and Sean for making these events happen and all the peeps that make this an absolutely amazing amazing group.
Final Thoughts
We want to extend a heartfelt thank-you to all participants, whose passion, competition, and camaraderie are the heart of this event. It was a banner year with amazing performances and memories made. See you on the water again in 2026 and beyond!
Tight lines,
The West Coast Championship Team
sorry about the delay - wanted to give everyone lots of time to do there write ups. we tried to wait as long as possible but as you can see some anglers didn't want to give us the juice. hopefully in the future this changes thanks!
