MEET CAUSEWAY KYLE – THE PASQUOTANK’S NEW TOP DOG

(BASS courtesy photo of Bassmaster Elite Series weigh-in featuring leader Kyle Welcher (M) and tournament director (L) Lisa Talmadge and announcer (R) Dave Mercer)

Say hello to Causeway Kyle.

He’s arguably the best bass fisherman to ever work the waters around Elizabeth City.

At least he has been this week.

While most in the 102-angler field of the Bassmaster Elite Series stop on the Pasquotank made long, brutal runs to neighboring waters, Kyle Welcher stayed close to home.

And he has been crushing the competition since the first few casts.

The Opelika, Ala., resident has led from start to finish after three days and takes an incredible lead into Sunday’s top 10 championship finals.

Takeoff is at 7 a.m., with weigh-ins starting at Waterfront Park at 3 p.m.

Welcher unknowingly earned his new moniker because of where he did most of his damage – along the Camden Causeway between neighboring Camden and downtown.

He never traveled more than a couple of miles from the docks.

But locals watching on bassmaster.com knew exactly where he has been fishing – just a stone’s throw from the park’s ramps. They watched him work dock pilings and cypress trees as cars zipped by a few yards away on state road 158.

And while 158 is a seemingly out-of-touch number, Welcher is definitely going to get himself into triple digits and might just steal the series’ record margin of victory from Patrick Walters.

“I’m not thinking about any records,” Welcher said during the afternoon weigh-in. “I had a bad pro-fish, I absolutely did.

“But (the bass) are coming there by the day.

“I’m enjoying everything this week.”

He should be.

Welcher, the 2023 and two-time Angler of the Year, finished Saturday with a mind-blowing 94-pound, 14-ounce 3-day total.

In three days, he has brought to the scale 5-fish-a-day limits that weighed 30-11, 31-12 and 34-0 – blowing the minds of the other pros and most locals, alike.

On Saturday, he also caught the event’s first double-digit bass – a 10-8 slob that took the overall and daily big bass prize.

Welcher leads second-place Brandon Lester (61-0) by 33 pounds, 14 ounces. The Fayetteville, Tenn., angler entered the day in fifth place.

Reigning Rookie of the Year Trey McKinney of Carbondale, Ill., is in third at 60-5 – followed by Belgrade, Maine’s Tyler Williams with 60-2 and current Bassmasster Classic champion Easton Fothergill with 54-3.

Rounding out the top 10 for Sunday’s fishing are Seth Feider (53-11), Shane LeHew (51-0), Kyle Patrick (50-15) and Keith Combs (50-1) and Justin Hamner (49-14).

Most of the field has been making long runs out of the Pasquotank and headed to places like Back Bay in Virginia Beach, Va., Carolina’s Currituck Sound, oceanside coves and canals along the state line, and to several rivers just to the south.

They all talked about the beating they and their boats took.

Throughout the competition, a vast majority of the anglers and BASS officials also had trouble figuring out how wind direction has lowered water levels.

The briny, tannin Pasquotank and surrounding waters are controlled by a wind tide, not lunar.

The best aspect of where the leader has been fishing is that portions of the area sport the river’s deepest channel waters. Fish move onto the shoreline flats to feed and spawn and don’t feel the water change as much. And there are hundreds of cypress trees and other cover to fish.

His area has been restocking about as fast as he could cull his live well.

Add that Welcher has had more time to fish because he’s not making runs, and the equation has quickly added up to a new trophy, a $100,000 winner’s check and an automatic berth in next year’s Classic.

Several anglers in contention to make Sunday’s top 10 final day field chose to work closer to home than they did on Thursday and Friday.

But it was too little too late as Welcher bagged another five-fish daily limit that topped 30 pounds – starting things off for the second day in a row with another 7-pounder.

And he could be looking at setting a new record for the most dominating performance in Elite Series history – a 29-10 margin of victory set on Lake Fork by Summerville, S.C., angler Patrick Walters.

Welcher also is eying a new single-tournament all-time record of 132-9.

As usual, stick with us for the final results.