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Associated Press
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Jake Lawrence Earns First MLF Bass Pro Tour Win at O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2025-- Thirty hours of competition across four days at the Major League Fishing (MLF) O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries boiled down to the final 20 seconds. Separated on SCORETRACKER® by just 6 ounces, Jake Lawrence and Jacob Wheeler both set the hook. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Tennessee rookie Jake Lawrence caught 27 bass weighing 83 pounds, 2 ounces, to win the Bass Pro Tour O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries at Nickajack Lake and earn the top prize of $150,000. Wheeler and Lawrence had long since distanced themselves from the rest of the field during Sunday's Championship Round on Nickajack Lake. The latter half of the day morphed into a one-on-one prize fight: Wheeler, the winningest Bass Pro Tour angler of all time, who caught all smallmouth in the current beneath Chickamauga Dam, versus Lawrence, a rookie who caught all largemouth roughly 40 miles down the lake. Lawrence had led most of the day, but with 6 minutes left, Wheeler finally passed him. Still, both anglers felt like if they could just muster one more scorable bass, they'd secure the trophy and $150,000 top prize that comes with it. With 45 seconds left before lines out, Lawrence made a bomb cast with his Buckeye Buzzerk buzzbait. About halfway back to the boat – 21 seconds left to be exact – a massive mouth engulfed it. Nine seconds later, Lawrence swung the bass over the gunnel and hung it on the BUBBA scale: a 5-pound, 9-ounce buzzer-beater, easily enough to put him back in the lead. At virtually that exact moment, Wheeler hooked up with another smallmouth, but he couldn't get it in the boat before time expired. It might not have been enough to overcome Lawrence's late lunker anyway. With a total of 83-2 on 27 scorable bass, Lawrence had won his first Bass Pro Tour title in one of, if not the most dramatic finish in the seven-year history of the tour. More than an hour later, he still couldn't come up with a way to describe the ending other than divine intervention. 'The only thing I can say is, man, He wanted me to do it,' Lawrence said. 'Wheeler jumped me there by a couple ounces, and I said out loud, 'Lord, if you want me to do this, you're going to make it happen.' I had 45 seconds left, and I had just gotten my buzzer back to the boat, and I said, alright, you can throw right, which is where I had been catching them, or you can throw somewhere totally new. And I chose to throw somewhere totally new, and it was the deal. Unbelievable.' On his first cast that way, the bass struck so violently, Lawrence initially thought it had missed his bait. He set the hook, flipped it into the boat, grabbed its lower lip and unleashed a guttural scream of celebration. 'She hit it with such force coming at me that it threw a bunch of slack in my line, and I honestly though she missed it,' he said. 'I started to go wind it in fast to make another cast, and when I started winding it down, she was there. I was like, 'oh my goodness. There is no way this is happening.'' Every angler likes to end an outing with a fish. Growing up fishing alongside my dad and brother, we'd always ask for some 'last cast magic' as everyone threw one final time. Of course, the last cast usually doesn't turn out to be the last cast – until you catch one. But with the Bass Pro Tour's live scoreboard, Lawrence almost certainly didn't have time to make another cast and fight a fish before lines out. That 5-9 – the second biggest bass of the day not only for Lawrence but the entire Championship Round field – delivered the ultimate last-cast magic. 'That's God's work right there,' Lawrence said in the seconds after his win became official. 'That's the way to end one.' The top 10 pros at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries on Nickajack Lake finished: 1st: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 27 bass, 83-2, $150,000 2nd: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 27 bass, 77-15, $45,000 3rd: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 17 bass, 48-14, $35,000 4th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 15 bass, 42-7, $30,000 5th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 15 bass, 37-14, $25,000 6th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 12 bass, 37-4, $23,000 7th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 12 bass, 29-9, $22,000 8th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 11 bass, 25-9, $21,000 9th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., seven bass, 21-12, $20,500 10th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., six bass, 15-8, $20,000 A complete list of results can be found at Lawrence won the Berkley Big Bass Award on Sunday with his giant 8-pound, 3-ounce largemouth that he caught in the first period. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day. The O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries was hosted by Visit Chattanooga and Fish Tennessee and showcased 66 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of $650,000, including a top payout of $150,000 and valuable Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026, the Bass Pro Tour championship. Television coverage of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 at Lake Chickamauga and Nickajack Lake Presented by OPTIMA Batteries will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 11 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Saturday, Oct. 18. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel. Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine and Toyota. For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF's social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube. About Major League Fishing Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world's largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America's living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world's top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care. View source version on CONTACT: MEDIA CONTACT: CHARITY MUEHLENWEG SENIOR MANAGER, PR & COMMUNICATIONS p: 405.694.1025 e:[email protected] KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA TENNESSEE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: FISHING SPORTS EXTREME SPORTS OTHER SPORTS GENERAL SPORTS SOURCE: Major League Fishing Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 05/04/2025 10:45 PM/DISC: 05/04/2025 10:44 PM
Business Wire
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Business Wire
Jake Lawrence Earns First MLF Bass Pro Tour Win at O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Thirty hours of competition across four days at the Major League Fishing (MLF) O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries boiled down to the final 20 seconds. Separated on SCORETRACKER® by just 6 ounces, Jake Lawrence and Jacob Wheeler both set the hook. Wheeler and Lawrence had long since distanced themselves from the rest of the field during Sunday's Championship Round on Nickajack Lake. The latter half of the day morphed into a one-on-one prize fight: Wheeler, the winningest Bass Pro Tour angler of all time, who caught all smallmouth in the current beneath Chickamauga Dam, versus Lawrence, a rookie who caught all largemouth roughly 40 miles down the lake. Lawrence had led most of the day, but with 6 minutes left, Wheeler finally passed him. Still, both anglers felt like if they could just muster one more scorable bass, they'd secure the trophy and $150,000 top prize that comes with it. With 45 seconds left before lines out, Lawrence made a bomb cast with his Buckeye Buzzerk buzzbait. About halfway back to the boat – 21 seconds left to be exact – a massive mouth engulfed it. Nine seconds later, Lawrence swung the bass over the gunnel and hung it on the BUBBA scale: a 5-pound, 9-ounce buzzer-beater, easily enough to put him back in the lead. At virtually that exact moment, Wheeler hooked up with another smallmouth, but he couldn't get it in the boat before time expired. It might not have been enough to overcome Lawrence's late lunker anyway. With a total of 83-2 on 27 scorable bass, Lawrence had won his first Bass Pro Tour title in one of, if not the most dramatic finish in the seven-year history of the tour. More than an hour later, he still couldn't come up with a way to describe the ending other than divine intervention. 'The only thing I can say is, man, He wanted me to do it,' Lawrence said. 'Wheeler jumped me there by a couple ounces, and I said out loud, 'Lord, if you want me to do this, you're going to make it happen.' I had 45 seconds left, and I had just gotten my buzzer back to the boat, and I said, alright, you can throw right, which is where I had been catching them, or you can throw somewhere totally new. And I chose to throw somewhere totally new, and it was the deal. Unbelievable.' L ink to Photo Gallery: Fast track to Nickajack finale for Stage 4 Championship Round Link to Photo Gallery: Lawrence scores his first Bass Pro Tour win Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 4 Championship Round Competition On his first cast that way, the bass struck so violently, Lawrence initially thought it had missed his bait. He set the hook, flipped it into the boat, grabbed its lower lip and unleashed a guttural scream of celebration. 'She hit it with such force coming at me that it threw a bunch of slack in my line, and I honestly though she missed it,' he said. 'I started to go wind it in fast to make another cast, and when I started winding it down, she was there. I was like, 'oh my goodness. There is no way this is happening.'' Every angler likes to end an outing with a fish. Growing up fishing alongside my dad and brother, we'd always ask for some 'last cast magic' as everyone threw one final time. Of course, the last cast usually doesn't turn out to be the last cast – until you catch one. But with the Bass Pro Tour's live scoreboard, Lawrence almost certainly didn't have time to make another cast and fight a fish before lines out. That 5-9 – the second biggest bass of the day not only for Lawrence but the entire Championship Round field – delivered the ultimate last-cast magic. 'That's God's work right there,' Lawrence said in the seconds after his win became official. 'That's the way to end one.' The top 10 pros at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries on Nickajack Lake finished: 1st: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 27 bass, 83-2, $150,000 2nd: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 27 bass, 77-15, $45,000 3rd: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 17 bass, 48-14, $35,000 4th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 15 bass, 42-7, $30,000 5th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 15 bass, 37-14, $25,000 6th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 12 bass, 37-4, $23,000 7th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 12 bass, 29-9, $22,000 8th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 11 bass, 25-9, $21,000 9th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., seven bass, 21-12, $20,500 10th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., six bass, 15-8, $20,000 A complete list of results can be found at Lawrence won the Berkley Big Bass Award on Sunday with his giant 8-pound, 3-ounce largemouth that he caught in the first period. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day. The O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries was hosted by Visit Chattanooga and Fish Tennessee and showcased 66 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of $650,000, including a top payout of $150,000 and valuable Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026, the Bass Pro Tour championship. Television coverage of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 at Lake Chickamauga and Nickajack Lake Presented by OPTIMA Batteries will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 11 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Saturday, Oct. 18. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel. Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine and Toyota. For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF's social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube. About Major League Fishing Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world's largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America's living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world's top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.
Associated Press
10-03-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Drew Gill Wins MLF Bass Pro Tour PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 Presented by Strike King at Lake Murray
The Championship Round of PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 Presented by Strike King at Lake Murray quickly turned into a microcosm of the past two years on the Bass Pro Tour (BPT): a one-on-one battle between Drew Gill and Jacob Wheeler for the top spot. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 22-year-old pro Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Illinois, caught 19 bass weighing 58 pounds, 2 ounces, Sunday, to win the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King, and earn the top prize of $150,000. (Photo: Business Wire) Gill and Wheeler have been arguably the two most dominant pros not just on the BPT but in all of professional bass fishing over the past two years, when Gill arrived on Major League Fishing's top tour. Both have multiple national wins in that span. They finished first and second in the 2024 Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race and are now back in the top two spots in 2025. So, perhaps it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the two employed virtually identical game plans on Lake Murray, using forward-facing sonar during Period 1 to rocket to the top of SCORETRACKER®, then skipping boat docks with Neko rigs for the rest of the day. They separated themselves from the rest of the pack in the first couple hours of the Championship Round, but neither angler ever built a comfortable lead over the other in the race for the $150,000 top prize. Ultimately, despite a stressful third period that saw him fail to catch a scorable bass during the final 89 minutes, Gill prevailed. His total of 58 pounds, 2 ounces edged Wheeler by 2-3 – less than the average size of a scorable bass caught on Lake Murray this week. Link to HD Video of Highlights from Championship Round Competition Even though he spent the final hour convinced Wheeler was going to run him down, Gill came away with his second Bass Pro Tour victory in just 10 career events and his fourth win across BPT, Team Series and Tackle Warehouse Invitationals competition in the past 13 months. 'If you had told me, 'Hey, last hour and a half, you're not going to catch a bass. Do you think Wheeler is going to catch 4 pounds?' I would have been like, 'Absolutely, he is,'' Gill said with a chuckle. 'And [the bite] just died for both of us.' Gill rode an emotional roller coaster not just for the final period but the entire Championship Round. When he launched his boat Sunday morning, he admitted he didn't like his chances of winning, as he figured the overcast, cool conditions would hurt his afternoon dock pattern. 'I knew the conditions were going to shoot my dock bite, and to be honest, I didn't think I could do 45 (pounds) in the first period to make up for that,' the 22-year-old said. While Gill's prediction about a slower afternoon bite proved correct, he made up for it with his two greatest strengths – a well-thought-out, math-based strategy and his mastery of forward-facing sonar. Gill used the first period each day to target bass that were chasing blueback herring in ditches. He fished deeper than most other anglers, catching his fish in 28 to 35 feet of water, where some related to stumps on the bottom and others suspended. He believes those bass weren't getting as much pressure as the shallower populations other anglers targeted with forward-facing sonar, allowing him to fool a higher percentage of them into biting. 'With a lake like Murray that has so many bass in it, your focal point when you're using 'Scope should always be bite percentage,' Gill explained. 'You're always going to be able to put a bait in front of a bass. You're not going to beat other people by putting a bait in front of more bass than they are. You're going to beat other people by dialing your deal as best you can and ideally finding a population that other people aren't pressuring. And I fished for them deeper than anybody else did this week.' Wielding a 4-inch minnow on a 1/4-ounce jighead with a 1/0 hook, Gill used a pair of flurries to stack weight on SCORETRACKER® in a hurry. In one 37-minute window, he boated six bass totaling nearly 25 pounds. Then, toward the end of Period 1, he added four more for 11-8 within 23 minutes. He credits a fortuitous break for the latter action: The overnight switch to daylight savings time put the field on the water an hour earlier than they'd fished the rest of the week, extending his bite window. '(The bite) kind of went away around 9 a.m. all week,' Gill said. 'But because of the time change, we got out there an hour earlier, and so that 9 a.m. became today's 10 a.m. So, without the time change, I don't win this tournament.' Gill's first-period total of 45-7 led Wheeler by 9-6 and put him nearly 27 pounds clear of everyone else. At that point, even though he wasn't overly optimistic about skipping docks, he started to believe he could pull off the win. 'The two days when I needed to catch shallow fish, I caught like 17 pounds both days and shook them off the rest of the day,' Gill said. 'I thought no way, even though the conditions were worse, do I catch any less than 20 pounds.' The bass had other plans. After locking up his forward-facing sonar unit, Gill went more than 2 hours without boating a scorable bass. Meanwhile, Wheeler steadily added to his total. He passed Gill and built a lead of more than 6 pounds. Finally, with less than 10 minutes left in Period 2, Gill connected with his most important bass of the day. Twice, he skipped his Big Bite Baits Nekorama, which he paired with a No. 1 straight-shank hook and 1/16-ounce Bass Pro Shops tungsten nail weight, under the same dock, got bit and failed to hook up. On the third try, he let the fish eat his bait a tad longer, then connected with a 5-1. Not only did that fish close his deficit to one scorable bass, it gave him a clue about what sort of docks to look for – floating docks on round, shallow points, the more isolated the better. 'That 5-pounder was a real turning point in my day,' Gill said. 'Because it kind of clued me in to the deal that allowed me to get a handful of bites, which was anywhere I had a little, round, shallow point. If there was a dock on the side of it and under it was like 4 to 7 feet, I knew it was going to be pretty high percentage. Of my five scorable bites I got the rest of the day, four of them were on that deal. … They wanted to be on that break, that depth break, anyways, and if you had that depth break occur right under a dock, it just kind of doubled the percentage of that dock having a fish.' Armed with that information, Gill added three more bass for 7-10 early in the third period, not only retaking the lead but extending his advantage over Wheeler to more than 6 pounds. That included a 3-pounder that he somehow landed despite having his line wrapped around the motor of a docked boat and the dock's ladder – another break that seemed to prove the oft-repeated fishing axiom that when it's your time to win, it's your time. 'I don't land that fish, I don't win this tournament,' Gill said. 'Because of a couple very fortunate turns of events, we got it done.' The fact that it was Wheeler, an eight-time winner on the Bass Pro Tour, chasing him down made Gill's late lull even more stressful. Once he got the news that Wheeler had pulled within one bite with about 30 minutes left before lines out, Gill became convinced he needed to catch one more to ice the win. In the end, holding off the No. 1-ranked angler in the world made this win even more memorable. Gill seems to be making a habit of winning in stressful fashion, as he had to weather a similarly slow final period in his first BPT victory, which came on the Chowan River last June. 'At Chowan, I got chased within a handful of pounds by Michael Neal, and this one, by Wheeler,' Gill said. 'Those are two guys that I have tremendous respect for their fishing abilities, and they're two guys that you don't want to have chasing you. And it was something where I did not see that coming, and I was very gratified by the fact that I was able to hold my ground enough to steady this one out.' Gill – who, as recently as January 2024 was competing in Abu Garcia College Fishing events – emphasized that any national-level win is special to him, no matter how it comes. However, he acknowledged that he set out this season to prove that his success isn't just a product of forward-facing sonar. Mission accomplished. On the Bass Pro Tour, where anglers can only utilize the technology for one of three periods each day, he's finished seventh, 11th and first in three events. He sits second to Wheeler in the Angler of the Year standings, just six points back. Throw in a runner-up finish two weeks ago at an Invitationals event on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, where forward-facing sonar was banned on Day 2 of the three-day tournament, and Gill has left little doubt about his ability to catch them, no matter the circumstances. 'I will say, to come out here with the new format this year – and with some question marks spiraling – and to start the year with a seventh, an 11th and a win, I feel like is a statement that I was wanting to make to start the year, and it's one that is made now,' Gill said. 'Especially after the second at Kissimmee as well, not having it at all the second day of that tournament. 'It does mean something to me. But it's no sweeter than a win any other way. … A win is a win, man, and it's sweet either way.' The top 10 pros at the PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King finished: 1st: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 19 bass, 58-2, $150,000 2nd: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 20 bass, 55-15, $45,000 3rd: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 11 bass, 37-10, $35,000 4th: Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 13 bass, 36-2, $30,000 5th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 10 bass, 30-4, $25,000 6th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., nine bass, 27-4, $23,000 7th: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, seven bass, 24-6, $22,000 8th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., seven bass, 23-3, $21,000 9th: Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, seven bass, 19-8, $20,500 10th: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., seven bass, 18-10, $20,000 For a full list of results visit Overall, there were 110 scorable bass weighing 331 pounds even caught by the final 10 pros on Sunday. Pro Jeff Sprague of Wills Point, Texas, won Sunday's $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 6-pound largemouth that he caught on a crankbait in Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day. The four-day PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King event was hosted by the Capital City/Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board and showcased 66 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of $650,000, including a top payout of $150,000 and valuable Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026, the Bass Pro Tour championship. Television coverage of the PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 4 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Sunday, Oct. 5. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel. The 2025 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 66 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2026 championship. Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sports Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine and Toyota. For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF's social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube. About Major League Fishing Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world's largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America's living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world's top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care. JOE OPAGER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS p: 218.434.0748 e: [email protected] INDUSTRY KEYWORD: OUTDOORS FISHING SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT TV AND RADIO SOURCE: Major League Fishing Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 03/09/2025 08:57 PM/DISC: 03/09/2025 08:57 PM
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Redcrest Bass Pro Shops World Championship Coming to North Alabama April 3 - 6
The Major League Fishing World Championship event Redcrest 2025 is taking place in in Guntersville April 3 - 6. This high-energy event will feature the top 50 bass fishing pros from around the world competing for a $300,000 prize on Lake Guntersville. The four-day event, filmed for television broadcast on Discovery and Outdoor Channel, will showcase the top 50 MLF anglers from the 2024 season – including the top 40 anglers from the Bass Pro Tour – competing for the prestigious REDCREST Championship and the sport's top prize of $300,000. Anglers will launch at 7:15 a.m. CT each day from Civitan Park, located at 1800 Sunset Drive, in Guntersville, Alabama and will compete on Lake Guntersville. In conjunction with the event, the FREE, family-friendly MLF Outdoor Sports Expo will also take place throughout the weekend, April 4-6 at the Von Braun Center, located at 700 Monroe St. SW, in Huntsville. Expo doors will be open from 11am-6:30 pm daily. Tens of thousands of MLF fans will fill the halls of the expo to check out the latest in fishing, hunting, boating and camping gear and celebrate the great outdoors, as well as meet their favorite MLF pros. The Expo is FREE to enter, and there will be prizes and drawings daily, along with plenty of kids activities and fun for the whole family. At the end of each day, the MLF pros that fished on Lake Guntersville that day will cross the MLF stage to highlight their day on the water and discuss the competition for $300,000. (The Post-Game Show and Power Hour giveaways at the Expo will happen around 5pm daily.) Pros will be available throughout the expo for photo ops, autographs, giveaways and more. All 50 pros will fish the first two days, the top 20 will advance to Saturday's Knockout Round, and only the top 10 from the Knockout Round will advance to Sunday's Championship Round to compete for $300,000. The Champion Trophy Ceremony will take place Sunday night at the Von Braun Center, following the Postgame Show. (Starts at 5pm.) Fans can register online or in person to win a Toyota Forerunner. Give away will take place Sunday night, following the Trophy Ceremony – register in person at the Expo for more chances to win. (No purchase necessary. Must be present at Postgame Show Sunday to win.) First 200 kids in attendance both Saturday and Sunday will receive a $130 Abu Garcia rod/reel combo.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Comeback win for Bobby Lane during MLF Bass Pro Tour
Lakeland, Florida pro Bobby Lane, catches 19 bass totaling 56-5 in the final day Championship Round to earn the top prize of $150,000 during the Bass Pro Tour Suzuki Marine Stage 2 Presented by YETI at Harris Chain of Lakes. This accomplishment is Lane's first national tour win in his home state of Florida. He'd come close –the last time the Bass Pro Tour visited the Harris Chain of Lakes, Lane finished second to Ott DeFoe – but had yet to lift a trophy in his home state. Read: The delicate Japanese art of Origami comes to Leu Gardens 'I decided I was going to stay there until the wind shifted directions, which it did, and it just got better and better and better and better,' Lane said. 'The minute that wind laid down, it was just perfect. Big one, big one, big one.' Lane's family, including his wife, Madeline; his daughter, Lexi; and his son-in-law, Kenny, cheered him on enthusiastically while they watched him swing those final few fish into the boat. When the clock ran out, he was over to them to exchange hugs, allowing the perfect cap to the Florida win he'd been waiting for. Read: Memorial service set for Lake Nona HS student killed in crash 'That's one thing you dream of is winning a huge tournament in your home state,' Lane said. 'I've had a lot of close calls. They couldn't stop me today.' Read: A 10-year-old aspiring designer has her princess dreams come true Here's how the Top 10 anglers finished the Championship Round: Bobby Lane — 56-5 (19) Mark Davis — 38-13 (14) Matt Becker — 36-15 (15) Terry Scroggins — 36-7 (13) Fletcher Shryock — 27-15 (11) Jacob Wheeler — 23-9 (8) Jacob Wall — 16-10 (7) James Elam — 10-3 (5) Andy Morgan — 7-6 (4) Keith Poche — 2-2 (1) Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
