BY MIKE STEVENS
LAS VEGAS – If the 2026 WON BASS season ended on April 18, it would still have been an impressive campaign for Garrett Ellenson after winning two of the first three tournaments, both at Clear Lake. Any pro would love to notch two wins in the same season, and with a respectable finish at Shasta and landing in seventh when the dust cleared at Havasu, the Washington-based pro finds himself atop the Angler of the Year (AOY) leaderboard with a very slim lead and only the U.S. Open at Lake Mead to go.
Ellenson has a 4-point lead on Kyle Grover, who has multiple AOYs under his belt and has found success at the highest level at Lake Mead. Going into this U.S. Open with such a slim margin between the leader and second place, it’s essentially a tie.
Recently, Western Outdoor News reached out the Ellenson for his thoughts on the AOY race, how he remains consistent, and how he’s going to approach Lake Mead in October.
You’ve got one WON BASS event to go with a slight lead in the AOY race, where’s your head at?
It’s so close, and as far as going to Mead, of all places, I’m just going to go fishing and not worry about it. I can’t focus on it (AOY), I just have to keep an open mind and go fishing.
How do you maintain this consistency on lakes in California and Arizona when you live in Washington?
We have super diverse fisheries up here, and they help me adapt as I go. I think a big part is keeping that open mind. The fisheries are different, but a fish is still a fish. You’ve just got go go with what is in font of you at that time.
Are there lakes around you up there that “fish like” certain lakes on the WON BASS circuit that allow you to practice for the WON BASS lakes?
Not really. The biggest thing up here is we don’t have shad. That’s the biggest thing I’ve had to learn, what those fish down there do around shad. The thing that I tell people is they’re (Florida strain largemouth bass) a lot like our smallmouth bass. Our northern largemouth are completely different than the largemouth down there, but your largemouth are similar to our smallmouth. That’s how I adapt to it.
How do you tune up for Mead in particular up there?
I’ve only been to Mead once. It’s a really big lake, and it’s completely different. It feels really wide open where you can do about anything and have a chance. That place just feels like you’ve got to go fishing and see what happens as you go. You just have to be confident in the stuff that you do and go fishing. It’s such a different fishery, and it feels like there’s not a ton of fish in there. You’ve got to feel it out as you go.
Obviously you’re confident at Clear Lake, but what’s your level of confidence at Mead?
Pretty high. I know I can catch fish, and I’ll know after I practice a little bit if I’m feeling good about it. I’ll just keep trying new stuff until something works. I never give up if something doesn’t work. I’ll keep trying new stuff until I run out of time.
Where would winning AOY stack up against winning Clear Lake twice in the same season? What would be cooler?
AOY because it shows consistency. Clear lake is great, but if you win AOY you have to be consistent at all the other places against guys on their home lakes.
Speaking of Mead, what do you think it’s going to take weight wise to win that thing?
I really don’t know. It seems to change. In the past it was pretty low weights, but last year – which was the first time I fished it – the weights were much higher than I thought they were going to be. If I absolutely had to guess, 14 to 15.5 pounds per day. I’m excited to go to this next one and try and seal it up.
