After a long and well-documented journey from Australia to the top level of American bass fishing, Carl Jocumsen is competing in his third straight Bassmaster Classic. While he now lives in Tennessee, he originally came to America and lived in Texas, and this year’s tournament site, Lake Ray Roberts, was one of the first places he fished when he started visiting the States. This familiarity with the venue should be a major benefit, and he looks to take home the biggest bass tournament in the world.
How Ray Roberts Sets Up
Jocumsen first came to America and was based in Frisco, Texas, and started learning about American bass fishing on Ray Roberts and other lakes in the area.
“I came here in 2014 and lived in the area for four or five years and fished Ray Roberts a bunch back then,” he said. “It’s super cool to qualify for a Classic here, and although I haven’t fished it much in several years, I did spend three days there in November before it went off limits and hardly even fished, just drove around the lake to get re-acquainted with it.”
With some insight into the lake, Jocumsen is predicting great things. “It should fish the best it can during the year as far as the weight of the fish,” he said. “The fish should be the heaviest they are all year, and although it’s never been a lake known for catching numbers of fish, there are plenty of big ones. If you can figure out how to get five bites a day and land them, you can have a bag in the 20s.”
Jocumsen expects several 20-pound stringers to cross the stage and believes it will take at least that as an average to have a shot to win the 2025 Bassmaster Classic. “I think someone will have a mid to high 20s day and then back it up with a couple of bags around 20-pounds the other two days,” he said. “The first day should have some huge weights, and then the fishing pressure will get a little tougher. The whole lake is pretty good, but it’s not loaded with fish everywhere you go, so you’ll have to cover some ground to run into five big ones a day.”
From Shallow to Deep
The timing of the event and the way the lake is set up should have fish doing multiple things, and Jocumsen believes there could be an ultra-shallow bite and some fish still in deep water.
“I think you’re going to see guys stay deep and do the forward-facing sonar stuff in the deep timber,” he said. “That’s where you will see minnow baits like the Rapala Crush City Freeloader come into play.”
Another thing Jocumsen sees happening is shallow water flipping and pitching. “Depending on the water clarity, I think you’ll see a lot of guys up shallow,” he said. “A bait I’ll have tied on is the Crush City Bronco Bug, which is something special. I got onto that bait when we were in Florida and found out about it right about when Jacob Wheeler used it in that event and let out the secret of that bait. I was fishing it down in Florida and caught some big fish on it and learned the power of how good it can be.”
Aside from soft plastics, Jocumsen also thinks hard baits could factor, and he’s planning to have plenty of crankbaits, jerkbaits, and glide baits.
“Another thing that could be a player is cranking with something like a Rapala D10 or D14,” he said. “A jerkbait can also be great, that’s what won the event there last time. If it stays cool, but even if it doesn’t, a Rapala Mavrick 110 can be a very good bait there.”
Jocumsen is also a glide bait fanatic and believes it could be a way to catch a big one, especially in this Texas fishery. “My hope is that we have a chance to throw a glide bait if we have a little bit of cleaner water,” he said. “Then I can put my Storm Arashi glide baits to work. It’s a great lake for it because it’s got plenty of big bass in there, and there is a lot of big gizzard shad in there; those big bass live on big forage, and a glide bait can be a factor, even though it’s a little risky for a tournament bait.”
Fishing in his third Bassmaster Classic, Carl Jocumsen hopes this is his chance to win the big one. He’s very familiar with Lake Ray Roberts and is going into the event with an open mind as he looks to make a big splash at the Bassmaster Classic.
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