BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (April 27, 2025) – The final event of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southern Division was possibly the best of the season – Fishing Clash Angler of the Year went down to the wire, and every day featured big bags and big fish. Taking the lead on Day 1, Kyle Cortiana blasted an even 27 pounds, which he followed with another 20-pound sack that dropped him to second with a 47-14 total. On the final day at Lake Seminole, the Oklahoma pro rallied back for the win, dropping 24-8 to crush the competition with a 72-6 total.
Cortiana earned $34,145 for the win, his second Toyota Series victory in under 12 months (he also won last summer at Lake Champlain). To top it off, he also finished second in AOY, making two Top 10s on the season.
Hayden O’Barr tallied 67-15 for second place, and Levi Thibodaux finished third with 66-8. Making headlines on the final day with a 10-pounder and a 27-8 bag, Kyle Austin finished fifth while fishing the last two days with a broken elbow he suffered after falling off his boat at the gas station.
Closing out an impressive season, Parker Knudsen made three Top 10s in a row to earn Fishing Clash Angler of the Year. Cortiana finished up second, and Bobby Bakewell finished third in the standings. The Top 25 pros and co-anglers qualified for this fall’s Toyota Series Championship, where up to $235,000 will be on the line on the pro side.
When Cortiana won his first AOY in the Southwestern Division in 2016, he did it fishing shallow, mostly dirty water in Texas and Oklahoma. Now, he’s a threat anywhere in the country, on clear lakes with smallmouth, grassy bowls in Florida and this week, in the deep, timber and grass filled waters of Lake Seminole.
Practicing with Knudsen, as he has all year, Cortiana rolled into town from the most recent Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event and got right to work.
“Parker and I have been working together all year,” Cortiana said. “And I would say that I helped him greatly on the first two events. He was (at Seminole) before me while I was fishing Smith Lake, and he just basically said, ‘Dude, they’re in the timber. The bite is going to be pretty good. Spring Creek Timber is pretty good.’
“So, my first day of practice, we launched together, and he showed me the boat lanes, you know, and then we shut down. He said, ‘I caught some fish right here, and I want to expand this way, let’s expand this way.’ So, he and I expanded that way, and I immediately saw what he was talking about.”
By tournament time, Cortiana knew what was he was looking for, but he had to continue to fine tune his approach to avoid stumbles, and to make up for the more than occasional lost fish.
“I was looking for the deepest timber I could find that was along the grass edge,” he said. “Those were the areas that I had the confidence in to just look, And there’s a ton of that.
“I figured out real fast on Day 1 when I got served the humble pie of 10 pounds by noon that I had to quit going where I caught ‘em in practice,” he added. “There were boats everywhere. I was trying to force myself to fish by boats because I’ve got all these waypoints here where I caught fish. One stretch I had, I caught 11 fish over 4 pounds on my first pass in practice. I never caught a decent bass in that ever, and I fished it again today.
“I just realized I have to go where there’s no boats, where the fish are not getting pressured. Even if there’s fewer fish, they’re more likely to bite because the fish are wanting to eat. I was looking around while I was fishing, identifying areas that had the deep holes in the grass with timber, that had zero boats pounding on them.”
Another separator for Cortiana was his ability to consistently add weight in the afternoon. Though he boxed over 18 pounds in the first hour on the final day, he was able to put big fish in the boat late, while many others struggled once the sun really got up.
“Once it got past that morning bite, every fish you threw at that was up, it was almost like they saw your bait before it hit the water. They would immediately just go and start making their way down,” he said. “So, if you could find those fish already down, or you weren’t the reason they went down – if you just happen to catch that fish out there 80, 90 feet, just kind of making his way down and can pick which direction it’s going and lead that fish while it’s just kind of belly walking the bottom, and then they rise to you. Well, it’s a great scenario.”
Cortiana’s primary weapon was a 5-inch YUM FF Sonar Minnow on a 1/4-ounce Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Pro-V Eagle Eye Jig. He used a 7-foot, medium light Kistler Magnesium spinning rod with a Kistler Magnesium spinning reel, and a 7-foot, medium light Kistler Helium with a Kistler Kyrios reel. He spooled up with 10-pound braid and a 10-pound fluoro leader across the board.
The top 10 pros at the Toyota Series at Lake Seminole finished:
1st: Kyle Cortiana, Broken Arrow, Okla., 15 bass, 72-6, $34,145
2nd: Hayden O’Barr, Scottsboro, Ala., 15 bass, 67-15, $14,634
3rd: Levi Thibodaux, Thibodaux, La., 15 bass, 66-8, $10,168
4th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, 15 bass, 65-9, $8,474
5th: Kyle Austin, Ridgeville, S.C., 15 bass, 63-0, $7,626
6th: Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, 15 bass, 60-2, $6,779
7th: Aaron Yavorsky, Palm Harbor, Fla., 15 bass, 58-11, $5,932
8th: Parker Knudsen, Minnetonka, Minn., 15 bass, 57-5, $5,084
9th: Dylon Smith, Baconton, Ga., 15 bass, 54-3, $4,487
10th: Buddy Benson, Dahlonega, Ga., 15 bass, 53-1, $3,389
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Pros Baylor Ronemus of Tiger, Georgia, and Dylon Smith of Baconton, Georgia, split Thursday’s $500 Berkley Big Bass Award, both catching a bass weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces. Pro Hayden O’Barr of Scottsboro, Alabama, brought a bass weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces to the scale Friday to take home the $500 Berkley Big Bass Award for Day 2.
Preston Williams of Tallahassee, Florida, won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 14 bass weighing 31 pounds, 6 ounces. Williams earned the top co-angler prize package worth $33,500, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor.
The top 10 co-anglers at the Toyota Series at Lake Seminole finished:
1st: Preston Williams, Tallahassee, Fla., 14 bass, 31-6, Phoenix 518 Pro boat w/115-hp outboard
2nd: James Cobbs, Vinemont, Ala., 15 bass, 30-11, $4,413
3rd: Hunter Prough, Chipley, Fla., 11 bass, 30-9, $3,450
4th: Jamie Childree, Valdosta, Ga., 13 bass, 28-11, $3,019
5th: Jeremy Bouldin, Kings Mountain, N.C., 15 bass, 28-4, $2,588
6th: Doug Wooldridge, Williston, S.C., nine bass, 27-15, $2,306
7th: Daniel Weaver, Macon, Ga., 13 bass, 27-15, $1,725
8th: Tyler Nekolny, Coral Springs, Fla., 15 bass, 27-14, $1,510
9th: Rusty Brogdon, Climax, Ga., 10 bass, 27-8, $1,294
10th: Leo Morris, Beaver Dam, Wis., 12 bass, 27-7, $1,228
Co-angler Doug Wooldridge of Williston, South Carolina, earned Thursday’s $150 Berkley Big Bass co-angler award with a 5-pound, 8-ounce bass, while Friday’s Day 2 $150 co-angler award went to Leo Morris of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, who weighed in a 7-pound, 5-ounce bass.
With all three regular-season events in the Toyota Series Southern Division now complete, pro Parker Knudsen of Minnetonka, Minnesota, was crowned the Fishing Clash Southern Division Angler of the Year (AOY) and earned the AOY payout of $1,000 with 763 points, while James Cobbs of Vinemont, Alabama, is the Co-angler of the Year with 763 points and took home the $500 prize.
The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at Lake Seminole was hosted by Visit Bainbridge. It was the third and final regular-season tournament for the Toyota Series Southern Division. The next event for Toyota Series anglers will be May 1-3 on Lake Eufaula in Eufuala, Oklahoma. For a complete schedule of events, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The 2025 Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern and the Southwestern – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International and Wild Card divisions. Anglers who fish in any of the five divisions or the Wild Card division and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning up to $235,000 and a qualification to REDCREST 2026. The winning co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard. The 2025 Toyota Series Championship will be held Nov. 6-8 on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma, and is hosted by the City of Grove Convention & Tourism Bureau.
Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Toyota Series include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, Deep Dive App, E3 Sports Apparel, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Humminbird, Lew’s, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, Vosker, WIX Filters and YETI.
For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Toyota Series updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.
