Garrett Ellenson Wins His Second WON Bass Open of 2026 at Clear Lake

Patrick Touhey Claims Runner-up Spot – Mahlon Everhart Wins AAA Division

LAKEPORT, Calif. – April 18, 2026 –– The 2026 WON Bass Open season started at Clear Lake, the famed big bass fishery in Northern California.  At the Winter Open, Garrett Ellenson, from Nine Mile Falls, Wash. Burst onto the scene with a three-day winning weight that pushed 100 pounds. Fast forward to the 2026 WON Bass Clear Lake Open presented by Ranger Boats and Mercury – which concluded today – and the statement would have to be made that “it was Deja vu all over again.”

Ellenson began the final morning in second place with 70.37 pounds behind fellow Washingtonian Ty Manterola, who led after day two with 70.39 pounds.  With such a small margin between the anglers, it really was anyone’s trophy to grab, and the outcome was very much in doubt as the final anglers weighed-in a Lakeport, California’s Library Park.

Santa Maria, Calif. Pro Patrick Touhey, who opened the final day in sixth place, took the lead with five anglers left to weigh-in with 91.95 pounds for the three-day endeavor.  When Ellenson placed his bag on the scales, his limit of 25.50 pounds brought his three-day weight to 95.87 pounds.  All that was left to figure out was if Manterola could continue his streak of heavy bags.  The Pasco, Wash pro’s 20.37 pound limit would not be enough and Ellenson would win his second WON Bass Open of the 2026 season. 

To put things in perspective, in his wins at Clear Lake this year, Ellenson has totaled 194.24 pounds for the two events, an average of just over 32.37 pounds per day over six days of competition.

In winning the 2026 WON Bass Clear Lake Open presented by Ranger Boats and Mercury Ellenson earned his second WON Bass prize boat, a 2026 Ranger Boats Z518 powered by a Mercury ProXS 150 prize boat provided by Bass Pro Shops.  The prize boat is valued at $55,000 and his $4550 cash portion of the purse plus a $1,000 Big Stringer award for a total prize of $60,500.

Touhey finished the event in second place with 91.95 pounds. After leading the first two days of the competition, Manterola finished in third place with 90.76 pounds.  John Pearl of Upper Lake, Calif., the 2025 WON Bass Clear Lake Open Champion finished in fourth place with 89.62 pounds and Mason McAbee of Bakersfield, Calif. rounded out the top five in the pro division with 89.55 pounds.

Ellenson reported cycling through multiple spots in the Red Bud and Rattlesnake arms of Clear Lake each day in order to catch his fish.  He also reported that he was not able to predict which areas would fire best each day, so he had to work through the progressions to produce his results.  “I never knew which areas would go and I had to fish them several times to find the timing for the day,” he said.  “I hit each spot several times and presented the lure to them in order to see who was ready to play.”

Ellenson stated that he used a similar approach to his winning pattern at the Winter event but had to change the size of his jighead and the color of the bait.  “I used a 5-inch Z-Man Scented Jerk Shad in Electric Shad color on an 1/8-ounce Cipher Tungsten Jighead,” he said.  “I threw it on a NRX 902 with a 2500 Stella and Seaguar PEX8 Braid to an 8-pound-test leader of Tatsu Fluorocarbon line.”  He reported catching his fish anywhere from 5 to 25 feet deep.

He said that he was not expecting to be in this position as he came to the scales.  “I didn’t have my fifth fish until 20 minutes prior to check-in, and I had broken off a fish early today, so I really didn’t think I had a chance to win,” he said.  “It’s absolutely surreal to have won this event today, I could not have imagined doing this when I started fishing these events last season – it’s just absolutely crazy.”

Touhey, who has seen his share of close calls in WON Bass events over the past several seasons, showed that he is one of the most consistent anglers on the tour no matter the fishery.  He was one of the few anglers who reported using a pair of completely opposite techniques and areas to produce his weight.  “I started each morning out in the mouth of Holliday Harbor targeting a shad spawn with a Ghost Minnow colored Lucky Craft LV 500,” he said.  “After that, I would head south and start working the docks and suspended fish with my Forward Facing Sonar and a Coike in shallow water around docks and a jighead minnow for the suspended fish.”

He reported using 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon line spooled on Shimano DC 150 and an IRod Lonestar Special rod for the lipless crankbait.  For his fineese tactics, he paired 4-inch Z-Man Scented Jerk Shad in The Deal color with a 1/32-ounce jighead on an IRod Gen III 772, and 15-pound braided line with a 15-pound-test leader to insure landing the fish.

While he is content with the consistency and high finishes, Touhey said he is looking forward to being able to record a victory.  “I’m not gonna lie, I am looking forward to being able to do just a little bit more and win one of these things,” he said.  “I know I have been fishing pretty well, but I lost two key fish this week that would have put me over the top and I can’t do that and expect to win against these guys – I’m going to get back to work and try to keep improving.”

In the AAA Division, Mahlon Everhart of Las Cruces, NM took the victory with a three-day total weight of 95.30 pounds, he earned $5200 for his efforts.

Second place in the AAA Division went to Bryan Kurata of Thousand Oaks, Calif. with 79.51 pounds.  He ws followed in third place by Chuck Kavros of Grass Valley, Calif. with 79.09 pounds. Fourth place went to Sean Impeartrice of Los Banos, Calif. with 78.39 pounds and Lawrence Marquez of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. filled out the top five with 75.89 pounds.

The daily livestream of the weigh-ins aired at Facebook.com/WONBassTournaments. Daily weigh-ins from Library Park in Lakeport, Calif. begin after the first flight checks in at 3:00 PM Pacific Time.

The Top 10 in each division are below, for complete standings go to: https://wonbassevents.com/pages/clear-lake-2024-pairings-results.

2026 WON Bass Clear Lake Open Final Pro Standings

2026 WON Bass Clear Lake Open Final AAA Standings

The 2026 WON Bass Western Opens Series of events Consisting of five events in California, Arizona and Nevada, will culminate with the 2024 WON Bass U.S. Open at Lake Mohave in October.  The five event dates are as follows:

Jan. 8 to 10, 2026 – Clear Lake – Champion Garrett Ellenson – 98.37 pounds
Feb. 19 to 21, 2026 – Lake Shasta – Champion Brennan Osborn – 62.28 pounds

April 16 to 18, 2026 – Clear Lake – Champion – Garrett Ellenson – 95.87 pounds

May 7 to 9, 2026 – Lake Havasu

Oct. 9 to 11, 2026 – U.S. Open at Lake Mead

For complete details or to register, look to wonbassevents.com and WONews.com to hear the latest news about the 2026 season and beyond and follow along at Facebook.com/WONBassTournaments.

The 2026 WON Bass Clear Lake Open was brought to you by Bass Pro Shops, Ranger Boats, Mercury Marine, Bridgford Foods, AFTCO, Power Pole, Costa, Berkley, Gamakatsu, Okuma, Lowrance, Stealth Lithium Batteries, Daiwa, G-Ratt Baits, Reese Fishing, Signature Gates, Abu Garcia, DD26 and Fenwick

Local presenting sponsors were Clearlake Outdoors and the City of Lakeport