BY MIKE STEVENS
LAKEPORT— A 36.24-pound bag propelled Chico pro Vance Hayes to the top of the leaderboard on Day 2 of the WON BASS Winter Open at Clear Lake. He improved on a solid Day 1 which put him in fourth, while Day 1 leader Mark Cobey fell to third after bringing 28.3 pounds of Clear Lake bass to the weigh-in stage on the second of three days of fishing.
“It was better today than yesterday, but every time I hooked up it surprised me,” Hayes told Western Outdoor News. “Yesterday I didn’t catch a fish until 12:30, but today I had 30 pounds by 9:30. A lot less nerves today, and I actually got to cull a few times. Yesterday I did not catch more than a limit.”
Today’s haul was highlighted by a 9.83 pounder, which stood as the second-largest Clear Lake bass landed on Day 2.
“I’ve caught a lot of 9 pounders out of Clear Lake, and I thought it was my first 10 out of this lake, but I was just as happy,” said Hayes. “It was a long fight.”
While he didn’t have many bites and was slow out of the gates on Day 1, Hayes still brought a 30.97-pound bag to scale. Still, piling up a nice limit early and spending the rest of the day improving on it had to be a good feeling.
As for his approach, he told WON “it’s about finding the right amount of bait, the right type of bait and finding it at the right depth. It all depends on where the bait is: up on the bank, out in the middle or right in the sweet spot.”
Hayes said he has one of the oldest boats in the tournament, a 19 footer that “doesn’t handle the waves that well” so he was not able to fish his spots until later in the day on Day 1, but on the second day of the event, he was able to hit those zones all day. He’s in a great spot going into the final day, but he’s well aware of how quickly things can change on Clear Lake.
“I’m just looking for five bites,” said Hayes. “I know how this lake can be, and everything can switch in 24 hours, so I’ll go for give bites and see where I can go from there.”
Hayes has less than a 2-pound lead on Garrett Ellenson, less than 5 pounds ahead of Cobey who’s sitting in third followed by Nathan Phillps and Kyle Grover locking down the top 5. Hayes was fishing with Tom White Sr. on Day 2, and the duo’s big second-day push put White in first place on the AAA side with 54.76 pounds over the first two days.
Former Clear Lake champion, Joe Uribe Jr. made a big move after a sluggish Day 1 in which he only put up 14.63 pounds and was sitting in 26th. Uribe Jr. responded by weighing in the heaviest limit of the day (36.79 pounds) which shot him up to 7th going into Day 3. An 8.22-pound Clear Lake bucketmouth certainly didn’t hurt Uribe’s comeback bid.
The daily livestream of the weigh-ins aired on the WON Bass Facebook page, located at Facebook.com/WONBassTournaments
The top 10 in each division are posted below: for complete standings, visit – https://wonbassevents.com/pages/lake-mead-open-pairings-and-results
The 2026 WON BASS Winter Open at Clear Lake is brought to you by Bass Pro Shops, Ranger Boats, Mercury Marine, Nitro Boats, Triton Boats, Bridgford Foods, Stealth Lithium Batteries, Power Pole, Lowrance, Daiwa, AFTCO, Costa, Berkley, Abu Garcia, Fenwick Rods, Anderson Toyota, Okuma, A&M Graphics, Reese Fishing, Anglers Marine, Signature Gate Systems, DD26 Fishing, Loco’s Cantina, Gone Fishing Marine and G-Ratt.