MINNETONKA, MN - Jeremiah Zitzloff of Minnetonka, Minnesota, and Brandon Pahl of Excelsior, Minnesota, weighed in a 21.76 pound limit of bass to win the 2022 Blackfish Classic Tournament for Bass on Lake Minnetonka. The duo’s limit edged out second place anglers Eric Schultz and Corey Brant by a mere .11 pounds. For their win, Zitzloff and Pahl took home the $10,000 first place prize.
Hosted by Lord Fletcher’s Old Lake Lodge, the 5th annual Blackfish Classic Tournament for Bass consisted of 100 teams which competed across Minnesota’s famed Lake Minnetonka. The top prize for the tournament was $10,000, with payouts continuing through 15th place. Along with cash payouts, teams fishing in the tournament had the ability to win contingency awards from Blackfish Gear and tournament sponsor All-Terrain Tackle.
After heading out as boat number six at the tournament’s 7:00 a.m. takeoff, Zitzloff and Pahl got off to a strong start by catching an early limit of fish at their initial starting spots. “Our day started pretty good in the morning,” said Pahl. “We had a couple solid fish in the box along with three decent ones. After catching the two good ones early, we fished several different spots and caught more fish in the 2 ¾ to 3-pound range.”
Despite their fast start, Zitzloff and Pahl were unable to cull the rest of the morning. They were not having trouble catching fish, but catching quality fish was the issue. With a little over an hour left in the tournament, Zitzloff and Pahl decided to make a run to an area they had caught good fish at in practice. The spot ended up being magical for the duo as it produced the three fish that anchored their winning bag.
“Once we made it to the spot, Brandon was able to catch a small fish immediately,” Zitzloff said. “After throwing back in, the 6-pounder bit and came flying up out of the water and we were able to net it and both looked at each other, grinning, because we knew we had a chance. A few minutes later, we caught another giant, somewhere around 5 pounds. Five minutes after that, we boated a 4-pounder to cull out our last small fish,” he said. “We knew we had just done what seemed impossible.”
Zitzloff and Pahl knew they had a big limit, but due to their electronic scales not working they didn’t quite understand how much weight they actually had in the livewell. “We really didn't know how big of a bag that we had with both of our scales not working,” said Pahl. “It was all a guessing game as to how much weight we had, but the one good thing was when we had to cull it was pretty easy to look in the box and compare which ones had to go back to the lake.”

At weigh-in Zitzloff and Pahl’s 21.76-pound limit held as the biggest bag of the day, narrowly edging out two other 20+ pound bags. “Winning this tournament felt like a dream,” said Zitzloff. “Brandon and I still can't believe how things unfolded, however it wasn't because of lack of preparation or practice. We feel like we truly put in the time to win it, and fortunately it all came together on the day we needed it to.”

Pahl said he and Zitzloff used a variety of baits to catch their fish on tournament day. Ned rigs, neko rigs, drop-shots, crankbaits, and Carolina rigs were all used to catch their winning bag.

  1. The Top 10 Teams at the 2022 Blackfish Classic Tournament for Bass were:
  2. Jeremiah Zitzloff and Brandon Paul, 21.760, $10,000
  3. Eric Schultz and Corey Brant, 21.650, $7,000
  4. Paul Coffey and Corey Zdrazil, 20.670, $5,000
  5. John Roundsley and Jared Remerowski, 19.280, $3,000
  6. Matt Peters and Travis Frank, 19.100, $2,000
  7. Clayton Stoering and Adam Griffith, 18.910, $1,500
  8. Todd Deoge and Dusty Mahl, 18.680, $1,300
  9. Chuck Hengel and Michael Hengel, 18.580, $1,200
  10. Christopher Shields and David Geske, 18.220, $1,100
  11. Noah Schultz and Tim Pittman, 18.080, $1,000 

Aside from Zitzloff and Pahl winning the 2022 Blackfish Classic Tournament for Bass, the talk of the tournament was the big bass that crossed the stage at weigh-in. Chris Shields and his partner David Geske, both of Fargo, North Dakota, weighed in an 8.01 pound largemouth bass to win the $500 big bass award. The fish was caught on one of Shields’ All-Terrain Tackle Finesse Jigs, which qualified him for the additional $500 All-Terrain Tackle contingency bonus as it was the largest bass weighed in on an All-Terrain Tackle jig. Shields’ fish was also the largest bass ever brought to the scales in five years of the Blackfish Classic Tournament for Bass. Less than a pound short of the Minnesota State record largemouth bass, which was a 8-pound, 13-ounce fish caught by Mark Raveling in 2005, Shields’ fish was truly a tournament fish of a lifetime.

Since the Blackfish Classic Tournament for Bass began in July 2018, it has quickly become known as one of the biggest and best bass fishing tournaments in the state of Minnesota. This year’s tournament filled up in a record 13 minutes after registration opened. The combination of high and payouts, prizes, food, and a great fishing has made the tournament appealing to all anglers. This year's tournament would not have happened without the help of many great companies that were involved as sponsors. The sponsors included; All-Terrain Tackle, Blue42 Agency, In-Tune Marine, RLVNT, Thorne Bros, Vexus Boats, and Your Boat Club.

The event was streamed live on a variety of social media channels with the full weigh-in available to view on the Blackfish Gear Facebook page. The complete list of and tournament results and information is available at www.blackfishclassic.com.