Big Bass Bash! Lake Of The Ozarks Man Lands A $100K Fish On A Brand-New Lure

Kevin Grace, this year’s winner of the Big Bass Bash, weighed in his winning fish just 10 minutes before the last timeslot on Saturday closed. But it wasn’t an accident that brought him down to the wire, rather it was his strategy to keep fishing as long as possible. 

“I always told myself that if I'm committed, I'm here to win this tournament, I'm not here to get $200 checks,” Grace said. “So I always weigh-in at the very last time slot and continue fishing until then. And we did, we fished to the last-last possible minute to weigh in.”

Grace, a local businessman, whitetail deer rancher and husband to well-known Lake area realtor Peggy Albers, placed third in his first amateur tournament when he was just 15 years old. He dreamed of being a competitive angler and worked for bass fishing legend Roland Martin for four years on Lake Okeechobee. But even though his life took him in a different direction, he’s still a passionate angler. 

“I told myself, I'm gonna go out here and I'm gonna try to make a living, make a good fortune and then come back into fishing and now I've gotten too old and you can't compete with 20 year old kids,” Grace said. “So the Big Bass Bash is really kind of a neat thing to go to. I really enjoy it. I look forward to it all the time.”

Grace caught his winning fish on Saturday after a long day of angling and several days of preparation. For those looking to win the Big Bass Bash in the future, Grace says it’s all about pre-fishing.  

“I ended up fishing six out of the last eight days. And so I pre-fished four days going into tournaments, so I had a pattern put together,” Grace said.

The lure that caught the big one was a new Hibdon jig that Grace had gotten just the day before at Fitz’s Bait and Tackle. 

“My old jig broke off early Saturday morning and I just said, 'Hell, I’m just gonna tie that Hibdon jig off and just try it.' And then I just stayed with that jig the whole tournament,” Grace said.

In an incredible twist for this year’s Bash, there was an exact tie — to the nearest hundreth of a pound — for first place: another angler, Brian Jaeger, landed a 6.22-lb fish on Sunday. The rules for the Bash say in the event of a tie, whichever angler registered earlier for the Bash is deemed the tournament winner. So although it wasn’t the big prize, Jaeger still won second place and $20,000. 

Event organizer Charlie Terrell said this year was another great year for the Big Bass Bash, with the event drawing more than 3,600 participants from 30 states, including as far away as Hawaii. 

“It’s always great, the main difference this tournament is that we finally got some good weather!” Terrell joked. 

In closing, Grace wanted to thank the organizers and everyone in his life that helped make this victory possible.  

“You know, I would like to express that the Terrell family has done a great job with this event for our community. I love that,” he said. “I have a lot of good friends including my wife and my partner Lance. He’s been my partner for the last four tournaments and my wife is awesome, she lets me do whatever I want.”