Drew Blair won at Tuckertown on Saturday, June 14th, the fifth tournament of the 2025 CKA tournament season. It was the last tournament before CKA detours to clean up Jordan Lake with Hobie Eyewear on June 29th and to fish for charity with Reel Heroes on July 12th (see below for more info).
It was also another chance for long time CKA angler Drew Blair to go home with a win.
If you know Drew, you know it’s been a long time coming – he’s been fishing CKA tournaments for nearly a decade. If you’ve seen him at a tournament, he’s usually last one to launch (if he remembers to show up at all). And if you didn’t see him, you heard his truck scaring off the local wildlife (including a few humans) with his heavy metal music.
And if you didn’t see or hear him, you probably smelled him.
I can write that. I co-organized the charity tournament to help Drew when his truck was stolen (with his kayak still in the bed) back in 2020. As I recall, some of his gear ended up in a ditch somewhere. And it wasn’t even the one where he wakes up on Sunday mornings.
I can write that, too. One day, Drew pulled a treble hook out of my leg. Before I knew that he recorded it, the video was on Facebook.
I have been Drew’s travel partner, opponents and pain in the neck for nearly ten years. So I can say a lot of things. Believe it or not, most of those things are compliments, a view that I share with his dad.
When I met his father one day at the end of a tournament, I congratulated him on raising a fine son. His reply: “He’s fine – so long as he’s asleep.”
“That’s where he usually is on tournament mornings,” I added.
Mr. Blair can say that. He raised a fine son.
And one hell of a fisherman.
If you know anything about Drew Blair, it is that he loves to fish. In a way, he should be a favorite to win any event, but he has a habit of pre-fishing a lot and over-thinking things, a habit that also leads to mistakes and missed fish.
But not at Tuckertown.
Tuckertown Reservoir is the sort of lake that sets up for an angler like Blair, who likes to fish topwater and plastics. As he told it in a social media post, he started fishing a spinnerbait around wood, and then switched to a jig, landing another keeper. His morning started with the lead, but it was a short bag of 71.75”. By noon, he had culled up to 89”, with Alex Sterling gaining on him at 79” and rising.
At mid-day, he need to cull a 13.5” bass, and he did, landing a 15.75” on a popper. That gave him a total of 91.75”. Sterling had climbed to within 3” at 86.75” before that cull. With the exception of a brief period when Will Lambert had a small lead, Blair’s victory was wire-to-wire.
Shelly Efird, Mark Patterson and Will Lambert rounded out the top five. Efird beat Patterson for third place on a tie-breaker.
Drew Blair is the kind of angler who makes us all want to attend tournaments. He fishes hard and lives harder. He’s a good friend and now he finally and rightfully earned a spot in the CKA Hall of Champions.
We are happy to say that after many near misses, Drew Blair won first place. Please join us in congratulating him.
Up Next
CKA built a short summer break into the 2025 schedule, and we will not fish again until July 26th. That’s partly because we are involved in two other big events.
First, we will join Hobie Eyewear to clean up Jordan Lake on June 29th. After that, we will compete in the Reel Heroes charity event on Norman on July 12.
Register here for the Reel Heroes tournament: https://tourneyx.com/leaderboard/standings/reel-heroes-lake-norman-annual-kayak-bass-fishing-event
Additional Info
For complete Tuckertown standings, see https://app.fishingchaos.com/tournament/QreqAsMwbYDBBeh7xZS8
CKA thanks Four Seven Lures, YakAttack, Hobie Eyewear, The Rod Shop and Dakota Lithium.
Special thanks to Rich Biggie and HVKBF for judging the tournament entries.
CKA event 5 at Tuckertown was made possible with support from Visit Stanly County.
If you have questions, reach out to CKA through our email address.
All content and photos © Carolina Kayak Anglers LLC, 2025.
First Published June 15, 2025.
