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Business Upturn
11-08-2025
- Sport
- Business Upturn
Wheeler Earns 10th Career Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Win at Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats
BAY CITY, Mich., Aug. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Jacob Wheeler couldn't help himself. Time had already run out in Toyota Stage 7 Presented by Ranger Boats on Saginaw Bay with Wheeler atop SCORETRACKER®, his 10th career Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour win secured. Yet after Wheeler addressed the MLFNOW! viewers and offered some thank yous to those who had helped him get his tournament fishing start growing up in Indiana, he picked his rod back up and pitched a topwater frog back to the clump of reeds and lily pads in front of his boat, trying to elicit one more blowup. That summed up Wheeler's week on Saginaw Bay. Needing only to finish 27th or better to secure his fourth Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title in the past five seasons, he could have played it safe, then celebrated and gone through the motions after he secured the hardware on Friday. Instead, he not only made Sunday's Championship Round but overcame an early 22-pound deficit to Todd Faircloth and willed his way to a win in a three-way battle with Faircloth and Edwin Evers. His total of 110 pounds even on 42 scorable bass ultimately topped Faircloth by 7-6. For the win, Wheeler earned $150,000 – he'll leave Saginaw Bay with $250,000 and two trophies thanks to his AOY victory. The dream end to yet another dominant season left even Wheeler, who is no stranger to recapping victories, short for words. 'I still don't know what to say, to be honest with you,' he said with a chuckle. 'I don't even believe it half the time. I just go fishing and things happen. I'm just speechless. It's crazy, it really is.' Link to Hi-Res Photo of Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Winner Jacob Wheeler Link to Day 4 On-the-Water Photo Gallery: Stage 7 Championship Round kicks off on Saginaw Bay Link to Day 4 On-the-Water Photo Gallery: Bass Pro Tour anglers finish 2025 season on a high note at Saginaw Bay Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 4 Championship Round Competition Wheeler took his first lead of the Championship Round with about 10 minutes left in Period 2. From there, he and Faircloth traded blows, the top spot on SCORETRACKER® changing hands six times during the final period. Wheeler finally took the lead for good by catching a 2-11 with 40 minutes left, then added five more scorable bass to pull away. In typical Wheeler fashion, he pointed not to those bites that earned him win No. 10 but a series of decisions that started on the opening day of the event. Wheeler spent the first period of Day 1 fishing for smallmouth on the outer edges of the competition boundary. Using a drop-shot and forward-facing sonar, he stacked up nearly 52 pounds, then spent the rest of the day largemouth fishing amid the shallow vegetation that lines Saginaw Bay. In the third period, he hit a key area that yielded more than 30 pounds in about 90 minutes. On the second day of qualifying, he once again sampled both shallow largemouth and offshore smallmouth, this time starting on the green fish. Like the rest of the field, he found the smallmouth bite to be getting tougher, making it difficult to justify the hour or so it would take to travel from largemouth habitat to smallmouth waters (or vice versa). So, Wheeler committed to frogging for largemouth during the Knockout Round. While he finished third, easily advancing to Championship Sunday, he knew the area he'd fished, which he shared with Brent Ehrler, wasn't likely to hold up for another day. 'After basically sharing one stretch with Ehrler, I'm like, I'm not going to win this tournament sharing fish, especially after we beat on them this bad,' Wheeler said. 'It was just not going to happen. I knew we'd probably catch some fish there in the morning, and then after that, it was going to be all about making the right decisions, and I'm going to have to have some stuff that I can get away from.' Sunday morning, Wheeler (and just about everyone else in the Top 10) found the bite slower than a day prior. Faircloth, on the other hand, landed on an offshore school of largemouth and piled on 17 scorable bass for 44-3 in the opening hour and a half. At that point, he'd more than doubled every other angler on the water. He finished the first period with 50 pounds exactly, 17-4 ahead of Wheeler. Wheeler knew he needed to find a fresh spot. He considered loading his boat on the trailer and heading for smallmouth waters. But first, he figured he'd check the area that had produced for him on Thursday afternoon. He hadn't been back since, figuring no other angler would find it since it was only accessible with a long idle. At first, Wheeler couldn't relocate his fish. A couple times in the second period, he wondered aloud whether to stay or go. Eventually, a few hundred yards away from where he'd caught them on Day 1, he started to get bites in bunches. In the span of 1 hour, 22 minutes, he boated 13 scorable bass for 33-12 and climbed all the way to the top of SCORETRACKER®. 'When I found them, it was pretty apparent that they all decided to show up right there,' he said. 'And I knew when that sort of happened and we caught them like that, there's a good chance we can win this tournament.' Wheeler targeted a mixture of reeds and lily pads in about a foot of water, catching almost all his bass with a frog but mixing in a Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug. The key to his area, he believes, was that it wasn't full of submerged vegetation. 'You had a lot of reeds and pads there that were really clean, meaning there wasn't a lot of grass that was choking them out,' he explained. 'Even though it was super, super shallow, it was a deal where they could swim around and they could live in there; they had room to swim around. Where if you have choked out pads or reeds, they're not as good. A little bit of grass is good, but not a whole lot of grass.' As the third period ticked by and he and Faircloth remained neck-and-neck, Wheeler leaned on his ample experience in tight Bass Pro Tour finishes. Not only had he hoisted nine red trophies entering this event, he's fallen just short a few times, too, including a pair of runner-up finishes this season. Instead of skewing his decision-making, the pressure sharpened it. Wheeler, the ultimate competitor, entered 'kill mode.' 'I know what it takes to win,' Wheeler said. 'When I get in those positions, I get in kill mode. You do everything to push you mentally to keep your mind sharp and make the right cast, and every cast matters and every fish matters. You get it to where you're just like locked and trained to focus on that.' The last key decision he made was leaving the spot where he'd relocated his fish from Day 1. Perceiving that the bass had noticed his presence and scattered, Wheeler trolled out toward his starting spot and then back again, picking off a few bass on the way. He arrived at the juice with about an hour left and promptly caught eight more scorable bass. 'I didn't stay in there,' he said. 'I went back out and I was able to catch a few and sort of settle back down and come back in the last hour basically and close it out.' While Wheeler is no stranger to the winner's circle, this victory carries significance for a few reasons. For one, it's his first national win on a frog, one of his favorite techniques and something he said he 'cut my teeth doing.' It also represented the perfect ending to a season-long redemption tour. Earlier this year, he finished in the top six at Lake Conroe, the Harris Chain of Lakes and Lake Murray – all fisheries where he'd failed to make the Knockout Round during previous BPT visits. While he'd fared better in his first event on Saginaw Bay, finishing eighth in the 2023 regular-season finale, Wheeler had to watch another angler, Matt Becker, hoist both the Stage 7 and AOY trophies after that event. Finishing second to Becker by 4 points, that's the only time in the past five years Wheeler's campaign hasn't ended with AOY hardware in hand. He admitted that was on his mind this week. This time, Wheeler made sure it was him who gets to ride off into the offseason as a double winner. 'It definitely gave me a sour taste in my mouth,' he said. 'I caught them and Top 10'd, but I just didn't perform that week. I had a bad Championship Day. … So, I was focused and determined that this one wouldn't get me. I controlled my own destiny that day, and I lost, which is what it's about. Thankfully, I didn't have the Angler of the Year pressure on me (today), but I was able to focus and just call it good.' The top 10 pros at the Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats finished: 1st: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 42 bass, 110-0, $150,0002nd: Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, 40 bass, 102-10, $45,0003rd: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 36 bass, 86-10, $35,0004th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 26 bass, 66-2, $30,0005th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 25 bass, 61-2, $25,0006th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 23 bass, 58-0, $23,0007th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 23 bass, 54-12, $22,0008th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 21 bass, 49-15, $21,0009th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 18 bass, 45-7, $20,500 10th: James Elam, Tulsa, Okla., 18 bass, 43-6, $20,000
Associated Press
11-08-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Wheeler Earns 10th Career Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Win at Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats
BAY CITY, Mich., Aug. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jacob Wheeler couldn't help himself. Time had already run out in Toyota Stage 7 Presented by Ranger Boats on Saginaw Bay with Wheeler atop SCORETRACKER®, his 10th career Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour win secured. Yet after Wheeler addressed the MLFNOW! viewers and offered some thank yous to those who had helped him get his tournament fishing start growing up in Indiana, he picked his rod back up and pitched a topwater frog back to the clump of reeds and lily pads in front of his boat, trying to elicit one more blowup. That summed up Wheeler's week on Saginaw Bay. Needing only to finish 27th or better to secure his fourth Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title in the past five seasons, he could have played it safe, then celebrated and gone through the motions after he secured the hardware on Friday. Instead, he not only made Sunday's Championship Round but overcame an early 22-pound deficit to Todd Faircloth and willed his way to a win in a three-way battle with Faircloth and Edwin Evers. His total of 110 pounds even on 42 scorable bass ultimately topped Faircloth by 7-6. For the win, Wheeler earned $150,000 – he'll leave Saginaw Bay with $250,000 and two trophies thanks to his AOY victory. The dream end to yet another dominant season left even Wheeler, who is no stranger to recapping victories, short for words. 'I still don't know what to say, to be honest with you,' he said with a chuckle. 'I don't even believe it half the time. I just go fishing and things happen. I'm just speechless. It's crazy, it really is.' Link to Hi-Res Photo of Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Winner Jacob Wheeler Link to Day 4 On-the-Water Photo Gallery: Stage 7 Championship Round kicks off on Saginaw Bay Link to Day 4 On-the-Water Photo Gallery: Bass Pro Tour anglers finish 2025 season on a high note at Saginaw Bay Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 4 Championship Round Competition Wheeler took his first lead of the Championship Round with about 10 minutes left in Period 2. From there, he and Faircloth traded blows, the top spot on SCORETRACKER® changing hands six times during the final period. Wheeler finally took the lead for good by catching a 2-11 with 40 minutes left, then added five more scorable bass to pull away. In typical Wheeler fashion, he pointed not to those bites that earned him win No. 10 but a series of decisions that started on the opening day of the event. Wheeler spent the first period of Day 1 fishing for smallmouth on the outer edges of the competition boundary. Using a drop-shot and forward-facing sonar, he stacked up nearly 52 pounds, then spent the rest of the day largemouth fishing amid the shallow vegetation that lines Saginaw Bay. In the third period, he hit a key area that yielded more than 30 pounds in about 90 minutes. On the second day of qualifying, he once again sampled both shallow largemouth and offshore smallmouth, this time starting on the green fish. Like the rest of the field, he found the smallmouth bite to be getting tougher, making it difficult to justify the hour or so it would take to travel from largemouth habitat to smallmouth waters (or vice versa). So, Wheeler committed to frogging for largemouth during the Knockout Round. While he finished third, easily advancing to Championship Sunday, he knew the area he'd fished, which he shared with Brent Ehrler, wasn't likely to hold up for another day. 'After basically sharing one stretch with Ehrler, I'm like, I'm not going to win this tournament sharing fish, especially after we beat on them this bad,' Wheeler said. 'It was just not going to happen. I knew we'd probably catch some fish there in the morning, and then after that, it was going to be all about making the right decisions, and I'm going to have to have some stuff that I can get away from.' Sunday morning, Wheeler (and just about everyone else in the Top 10) found the bite slower than a day prior. Faircloth, on the other hand, landed on an offshore school of largemouth and piled on 17 scorable bass for 44-3 in the opening hour and a half. At that point, he'd more than doubled every other angler on the water. He finished the first period with 50 pounds exactly, 17-4 ahead of Wheeler. Wheeler knew he needed to find a fresh spot. He considered loading his boat on the trailer and heading for smallmouth waters. But first, he figured he'd check the area that had produced for him on Thursday afternoon. He hadn't been back since, figuring no other angler would find it since it was only accessible with a long idle. At first, Wheeler couldn't relocate his fish. A couple times in the second period, he wondered aloud whether to stay or go. Eventually, a few hundred yards away from where he'd caught them on Day 1, he started to get bites in bunches. In the span of 1 hour, 22 minutes, he boated 13 scorable bass for 33-12 and climbed all the way to the top of SCORETRACKER®. 'When I found them, it was pretty apparent that they all decided to show up right there,' he said. 'And I knew when that sort of happened and we caught them like that, there's a good chance we can win this tournament.' Wheeler targeted a mixture of reeds and lily pads in about a foot of water, catching almost all his bass with a frog but mixing in a Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug. The key to his area, he believes, was that it wasn't full of submerged vegetation. 'You had a lot of reeds and pads there that were really clean, meaning there wasn't a lot of grass that was choking them out,' he explained. 'Even though it was super, super shallow, it was a deal where they could swim around and they could live in there; they had room to swim around. Where if you have choked out pads or reeds, they're not as good. A little bit of grass is good, but not a whole lot of grass.' As the third period ticked by and he and Faircloth remained neck-and-neck, Wheeler leaned on his ample experience in tight Bass Pro Tour finishes. Not only had he hoisted nine red trophies entering this event, he's fallen just short a few times, too, including a pair of runner-up finishes this season. Instead of skewing his decision-making, the pressure sharpened it. Wheeler, the ultimate competitor, entered 'kill mode.' 'I know what it takes to win,' Wheeler said. 'When I get in those positions, I get in kill mode. You do everything to push you mentally to keep your mind sharp and make the right cast, and every cast matters and every fish matters. You get it to where you're just like locked and trained to focus on that.' The last key decision he made was leaving the spot where he'd relocated his fish from Day 1. Perceiving that the bass had noticed his presence and scattered, Wheeler trolled out toward his starting spot and then back again, picking off a few bass on the way. He arrived at the juice with about an hour left and promptly caught eight more scorable bass. 'I didn't stay in there,' he said. 'I went back out and I was able to catch a few and sort of settle back down and come back in the last hour basically and close it out.' While Wheeler is no stranger to the winner's circle, this victory carries significance for a few reasons. For one, it's his first national win on a frog, one of his favorite techniques and something he said he 'cut my teeth doing.' It also represented the perfect ending to a season-long redemption tour. Earlier this year, he finished in the top six at Lake Conroe, the Harris Chain of Lakes and Lake Murray – all fisheries where he'd failed to make the Knockout Round during previous BPT visits. While he'd fared better in his first event on Saginaw Bay, finishing eighth in the 2023 regular-season finale, Wheeler had to watch another angler, Matt Becker, hoist both the Stage 7 and AOY trophies after that event. Finishing second to Becker by 4 points, that's the only time in the past five years Wheeler's campaign hasn't ended with AOY hardware in hand. He admitted that was on his mind this week. This time, Wheeler made sure it was him who gets to ride off into the offseason as a double winner. 'It definitely gave me a sour taste in my mouth,' he said. 'I caught them and Top 10'd, but I just didn't perform that week. I had a bad Championship Day. ... So, I was focused and determined that this one wouldn't get me. I controlled my own destiny that day, and I lost, which is what it's about. Thankfully, I didn't have the Angler of the Year pressure on me (today), but I was able to focus and just call it good.' The top 10 pros at the Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats finished: 1st: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 42 bass, 110-0, $150,000 2nd: Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, 40 bass, 102-10, $45,000 3rd: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 36 bass, 86-10, $35,000 4th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 26 bass, 66-2, $30,000 5th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 25 bass, 61-2, $25,000 6th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 23 bass, 58-0, $23,000 7th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 23 bass, 54-12, $22,000 8th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 21 bass, 49-15, $21,000 9th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 18 bass, 45-7, $20,500 10th: James Elam, Tulsa, Okla., 18 bass, 43-6, $20,000 A complete list of results can be found at Overall, there were 272 scorable bass caught weighing 678 pounds even by the final 10 pros on Sunday. Pro Cole Floyd won Sunday's $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 4-pound, 6-ounce largemouth that he caught on a Strike King Rage Tail Cut-R-Worm in Period 2. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day. The four-day Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats was hosted by Go Great Lake Bay and the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and featured 66 of the top professional anglers in the world competing for a $150,000 top prize, a share of the $6.49 million season purse, and valuable AOY points in hopes of qualifying for the Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026, the Bass Pro Tour championship. Television coverage of the Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Nov. 15 on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel. Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota and Zenni. 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, Discovery+, Discovery GO, Animal Planet, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and Game & Fish TV, 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. # # # Attachment Joe Opager Major League Fishing 2184340748 [email protected]
Yahoo
11-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Wheeler Earns 10th Career Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Win at Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats
Tennessee pro clinches AOY title for $100,000, then catches 42 bass weighing 110 pounds to win tournament and take home top prize of $150,000 Wheeler Hoists No. 10 BAY CITY, Mich., Aug. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jacob Wheeler couldn't help himself. Time had already run out in Toyota Stage 7 Presented by Ranger Boats on Saginaw Bay with Wheeler atop SCORETRACKER®, his 10th career Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour win secured. Yet after Wheeler addressed the MLFNOW! viewers and offered some thank yous to those who had helped him get his tournament fishing start growing up in Indiana, he picked his rod back up and pitched a topwater frog back to the clump of reeds and lily pads in front of his boat, trying to elicit one more blowup. That summed up Wheeler's week on Saginaw Bay. Needing only to finish 27th or better to secure his fourth Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title in the past five seasons, he could have played it safe, then celebrated and gone through the motions after he secured the hardware on Friday. Instead, he not only made Sunday's Championship Round but overcame an early 22-pound deficit to Todd Faircloth and willed his way to a win in a three-way battle with Faircloth and Edwin Evers. His total of 110 pounds even on 42 scorable bass ultimately topped Faircloth by 7-6. For the win, Wheeler earned $150,000 – he'll leave Saginaw Bay with $250,000 and two trophies thanks to his AOY victory. The dream end to yet another dominant season left even Wheeler, who is no stranger to recapping victories, short for words. 'I still don't know what to say, to be honest with you,' he said with a chuckle. 'I don't even believe it half the time. I just go fishing and things happen. I'm just speechless. It's crazy, it really is.' Link to Hi-Res Photo of Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Winner Jacob WheelerLink to Day 4 On-the-Water Photo Gallery: Stage 7 Championship Round kicks off on Saginaw BayLink to Day 4 On-the-Water Photo Gallery: Bass Pro Tour anglers finish 2025 season on a high note at Saginaw BayLink to HD Video of Highlights from Day 4 Championship Round Competition Wheeler took his first lead of the Championship Round with about 10 minutes left in Period 2. From there, he and Faircloth traded blows, the top spot on SCORETRACKER® changing hands six times during the final period. Wheeler finally took the lead for good by catching a 2-11 with 40 minutes left, then added five more scorable bass to pull away. In typical Wheeler fashion, he pointed not to those bites that earned him win No. 10 but a series of decisions that started on the opening day of the event. Wheeler spent the first period of Day 1 fishing for smallmouth on the outer edges of the competition boundary. Using a drop-shot and forward-facing sonar, he stacked up nearly 52 pounds, then spent the rest of the day largemouth fishing amid the shallow vegetation that lines Saginaw Bay. In the third period, he hit a key area that yielded more than 30 pounds in about 90 minutes. On the second day of qualifying, he once again sampled both shallow largemouth and offshore smallmouth, this time starting on the green fish. Like the rest of the field, he found the smallmouth bite to be getting tougher, making it difficult to justify the hour or so it would take to travel from largemouth habitat to smallmouth waters (or vice versa). So, Wheeler committed to frogging for largemouth during the Knockout Round. While he finished third, easily advancing to Championship Sunday, he knew the area he'd fished, which he shared with Brent Ehrler, wasn't likely to hold up for another day. 'After basically sharing one stretch with Ehrler, I'm like, I'm not going to win this tournament sharing fish, especially after we beat on them this bad,' Wheeler said. 'It was just not going to happen. I knew we'd probably catch some fish there in the morning, and then after that, it was going to be all about making the right decisions, and I'm going to have to have some stuff that I can get away from.' Sunday morning, Wheeler (and just about everyone else in the Top 10) found the bite slower than a day prior. Faircloth, on the other hand, landed on an offshore school of largemouth and piled on 17 scorable bass for 44-3 in the opening hour and a half. At that point, he'd more than doubled every other angler on the water. He finished the first period with 50 pounds exactly, 17-4 ahead of Wheeler. Wheeler knew he needed to find a fresh spot. He considered loading his boat on the trailer and heading for smallmouth waters. But first, he figured he'd check the area that had produced for him on Thursday afternoon. He hadn't been back since, figuring no other angler would find it since it was only accessible with a long first, Wheeler couldn't relocate his fish. A couple times in the second period, he wondered aloud whether to stay or go. Eventually, a few hundred yards away from where he'd caught them on Day 1, he started to get bites in bunches. In the span of 1 hour, 22 minutes, he boated 13 scorable bass for 33-12 and climbed all the way to the top of SCORETRACKER®. 'When I found them, it was pretty apparent that they all decided to show up right there,' he said. 'And I knew when that sort of happened and we caught them like that, there's a good chance we can win this tournament.' Wheeler targeted a mixture of reeds and lily pads in about a foot of water, catching almost all his bass with a frog but mixing in a Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug. The key to his area, he believes, was that it wasn't full of submerged vegetation. 'You had a lot of reeds and pads there that were really clean, meaning there wasn't a lot of grass that was choking them out,' he explained. 'Even though it was super, super shallow, it was a deal where they could swim around and they could live in there; they had room to swim around. Where if you have choked out pads or reeds, they're not as good. A little bit of grass is good, but not a whole lot of grass.' As the third period ticked by and he and Faircloth remained neck-and-neck, Wheeler leaned on his ample experience in tight Bass Pro Tour finishes. Not only had he hoisted nine red trophies entering this event, he's fallen just short a few times, too, including a pair of runner-up finishes this season. Instead of skewing his decision-making, the pressure sharpened it. Wheeler, the ultimate competitor, entered 'kill mode.' 'I know what it takes to win,' Wheeler said. 'When I get in those positions, I get in kill mode. You do everything to push you mentally to keep your mind sharp and make the right cast, and every cast matters and every fish matters. You get it to where you're just like locked and trained to focus on that.' The last key decision he made was leaving the spot where he'd relocated his fish from Day 1. Perceiving that the bass had noticed his presence and scattered, Wheeler trolled out toward his starting spot and then back again, picking off a few bass on the way. He arrived at the juice with about an hour left and promptly caught eight more scorable bass. 'I didn't stay in there,' he said. 'I went back out and I was able to catch a few and sort of settle back down and come back in the last hour basically and close it out.' While Wheeler is no stranger to the winner's circle, this victory carries significance for a few reasons. For one, it's his first national win on a frog, one of his favorite techniques and something he said he 'cut my teeth doing.' It also represented the perfect ending to a season-long redemption tour. Earlier this year, he finished in the top six at Lake Conroe, the Harris Chain of Lakes and Lake Murray – all fisheries where he'd failed to make the Knockout Round during previous BPT visits. While he'd fared better in his first event on Saginaw Bay, finishing eighth in the 2023 regular-season finale, Wheeler had to watch another angler, Matt Becker, hoist both the Stage 7 and AOY trophies after that event. Finishing second to Becker by 4 points, that's the only time in the past five years Wheeler's campaign hasn't ended with AOY hardware in hand. He admitted that was on his mind this week. This time, Wheeler made sure it was him who gets to ride off into the offseason as a double winner. 'It definitely gave me a sour taste in my mouth,' he said. 'I caught them and Top 10'd, but I just didn't perform that week. I had a bad Championship Day. ... So, I was focused and determined that this one wouldn't get me. I controlled my own destiny that day, and I lost, which is what it's about. Thankfully, I didn't have the Angler of the Year pressure on me (today), but I was able to focus and just call it good.' The top 10 pros at the Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats finished: 1st: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 42 bass, 110-0, $150,0002nd: Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, 40 bass, 102-10, $45,0003rd: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 36 bass, 86-10, $35,0004th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 26 bass, 66-2, $30,0005th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 25 bass, 61-2, $25,0006th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 23 bass, 58-0, $23,0007th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 23 bass, 54-12, $22,0008th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 21 bass, 49-15, $21,0009th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 18 bass, 45-7, $20,50010th: James Elam, Tulsa, Okla., 18 bass, 43-6, $20,000 A complete list of results can be found at Overall, there were 272 scorable bass caught weighing 678 pounds even by the final 10 pros on Sunday. Pro Cole Floyd won Sunday's $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 4-pound, 6-ounce largemouth that he caught on a Strike King Rage Tail Cut-R-Worm in Period 2. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day. The four-day Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats was hosted by Go Great Lake Bay and the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and featured 66 of the top professional anglers in the world competing for a $150,000 top prize, a share of the $6.49 million season purse, and valuable AOY points in hopes of qualifying for the Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026, the Bass Pro Tour coverage of the Toyota Stage 7 at Saginaw Bay Presented by Ranger Boats will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Nov. 15 on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel. Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota and Zenni. 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 FishingMajor 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, Discovery+, Discovery GO, Animal Planet, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and Game & Fish TV, 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. # # # Attachment Wheeler Hoists No. 10 CONTACT: Joe Opager Major League Fishing 2184340748
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Major League Fishing, RFD-TV Join Forces to Bring Bass Fishing to National TV
MLF's Team Series to Air Live on RFD-TV Beginning Aug. 24 BENTON, Ky., August 04, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a landmark move for outdoor sports and Rural Media Group, Major League Fishing (MLF) and RFD-TV announced today an exclusive broadcast partnership that will bring live tournament coverage from the MLF Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops to a national television audience for the first time. Starting Sunday, August 24, RFD-TV will air the final period of all 24 Team Series matches live – delivering the most intense, high-stakes moments of MLF competition straight into living rooms across the country. Final-period broadcasts will air from 2:30 to 5 p.m. ET, and unlike any other televised bass tournaments, the winner of each match will be crowned live as teams strive to survive and advance to the championship round. In addition, RFD-TV will kick off its coverage with a special full-day broadcast of Day 1 of the opening Team Series event of the season, the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup from Port Huron on Michigan's Thumbcoast, airing live from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 24. This partnership is more than just a programming decision. It's a bold step forward for both organizations. It marks MLF's first live presence on a linear television network since Emmy-winning announcer Joe Buck, baseball analyst Bob Brenly and Forrest L. Wood called the action live on FOX during the 1999 Ranger M1 Millennium, the first time a bass fishing tournament appeared live on linear TV. The historic Nov. 7, 1999, broadcast reeled in more than 2 million viewers. The 2025 MLF Team Series heralds Rural Media Group's return to live sports broadcasting, building on a legacy that once included over 600 live rodeo events annually. "This partnership is a major milestone for Major League Fishing and for the sport of professional bass fishing," said Jim Wilburn, President of Sales for MLF. "Our fans will now be able to watch live tournament action unfold on a national broadcast television network. RFD-TV's reach and commitment to rural and outdoor programming make them the perfect partner to help us bring the excitement of the Team Series to more households than ever before." Raquel Gottsch Koehler, Chief Marketing & Creative Officer and Co-Owner of RFD-TV, sees the partnership as part of a broader mission. "This is about more than live sports. It's about honoring tradition while embracing what's next," Koehler said. "At RFD-TV, we've always been committed to amplifying voices and stories that too often go unheard, and the story of professional bass fishing is one of grit, strategy and relentless passion. We're extremely proud that RFD-TV will bring that story live to a national broadcast audience." The 2025 MLF Team Series is made up of four Cups – the Challenge Cup (Aug. 24–29), Heritage Cup (Sept. 14–19), Patriot Cup (Oct. 22–27), and Summit Cup (Nov. 16–21) – each featuring six action-packed matches with Bass Pro Tour anglers paired in two-man teams. Designed for television, the format delivers nonstop action, dramatic swings, and SCORETRACKER® leaderboard shakeups that make for compelling live viewing. Each live broadcast will be produced by MLF's award-winning production partner, Winnercomm, in HD and delivered to RFD-TV, ensuring the same standard of excellence fans have come to expect from MLFNOW!® livestream coverage. RFD-TV will hold exclusive linear broadcast rights during the live airing window, while fans can also stream the final periods live on the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps, RFD-TV Now, Game & Fish TV, and Rumble. the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps, and Rumble will stream the entirety of each event. Post-produced episodes of the Team Series will continue to air on the Outdoor Channel, Discovery and Vice. The agreement also includes a dynamic mix of promotional support from both partners, including tune-in spots across MLF digital and linear platforms, dedicated features on RFD-TV's Market Day Report and Rural Evening News, and a one-hour "MLF 101" special airing from RFD-TV's Nashville studios in August. "This collaboration embodies what's possible when tradition meets innovation," Wilburn said. "We're not just broadcasting bass fishing – we're elevating the platform for anglers, sponsors and fans alike, and we're doing it together." For complete details and updated information on the MLF Team Series, 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, Discovery+, Discovery GO, Animal Planet, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and Game & Fish TV, 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. About RFD-TV Launched in 2000, RFD-TV is the flagship television network of Rural Media Group, Inc., and the only 24-hour network dedicated to serving the needs of rural America. An independent, family-owned and operated media network, RFD-TV features a mix of agribusiness reporting, equine programs, rural lifestyle shows, and traditional country music. The network produces more than six hours of live news every weekday from state-of-the-art studios located in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards in Texas and on iconic Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. RFD-TV is available nationwide via DISH, DIRECTV®, AT&T U-Verse, Comcast, Charter Spectrum, and other major providers, as well as online at and through RFD-TV Now, Roku, Firestick, Apple TV, and Sling TV. View source version on Contacts MEDIA CONTACT:JOE OPAGER SR. DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, MLFp: 218.434.0748e: JENNIFER ST. CLAIR COMMUNICATIONS, RFD-TVp: 323.481.6841e: jennifer@ Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Family of man killed in Smith Lake boating incident files lawsuit against MLF, angler and boat guide
CULLMAN COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — The family of one of the men killed in a deadly Smith Lake boating incident in April is suing the bass boat driver, Major League Fishing and the driver of the striper service boat. On Friday, the family of Joey Broom filed a lawsuit against Major League Fishing, LLC, Flint Davis and Gary Holcombe. Davis is the angler whose boat was involved in the deadly boating incident and Holcombe was operating the Smith Lake Striper Guide Service boat that was also involved. The lawsuit additionally names 13 'fictitious defendants.' On April 16, Broom was one of three killed in a deadly boating incident on Smith Lake during a Major League Fishing tournament. WHNT's sister station WIAT, said officials with Cullman County EMA said the crash happened around 7:07 a.m. in the area of Burr's Island outside of Miller Bottom and involved multiple boats. Major League Fishing confirmed that a 'serious boating accident' happened on the lake during the second day of the Tackle Warehouse Invitational. The incident involved one of the competing anglers, Davis of Leesburg, Georgia. ALEA said Davis was the operator of the Nitro Bass Boat that hit the Center Console boat, driven by Holcombe. As a result, 44-year-old John K. Clark, of Cullman, and 62-year-old Jeffrey C. Little, of Brandon, Mississippi, were thrown overboard from the Center Console and drowned. Their bodies were recovered near the Miller Flats area of Smith Lake. Luke H. Morgan & Holcombe were injured in the incident and were both taken to UAB Hospital for treatment. ALEA said the two-boat crash also killed 58-year-old Broom, saying he was hit by the bass boat itself and was pronounced dead on the scene. Davis was the only one onboard the Nitro Bass Boat during the crash, while Holcombe, Morgan, Broom, Clark and Little were all on the Center Console. In the lawsuit, the family of Broom says MLF had a duty to exercise reasonable care in the operation and management of its tournament to prevent harm to third parties, including nonparticipating fishermen on Lewis Smith Lake. Because of this competition that operated in the foggy conditions on April 16, the lawsuit says MLF created a 'foreseeable risk of serious injury or death.' It also says the company failed to implement basic safety measures, including speed limits, launch delays or traffic separation protocols. The lawsuit lists 7 counts against the defendants: Count 1- Negligence and Wanton (deliberate and unprovoked) Conduct against Flint Davis Count 2- Negligent Event Management against MLF Count 3- Vicarious Liability against MLF Count 4- Joint Venture against MLF Count 5- Negligent Hiring, Training and Supervision against MLF Count 6- Negligence and Wanton (deliberate and unprovoked) Misconduct against Gary Holcombe Count 7- Wrongful Death against all defendants This charge comes from the family against Davis, saying he breached his duty to operate his boat in a 'safe and prudent manner' while on Smith Lake. As a direct result of this alleged negligence, Broom was killed. It also says Davis acted with 'conscious disregard for the safety of others and in a manner that was wanton under Alabama Law. This charge is against the MLF, saying the organization had a duty to manage the tournament in a manner that ensured the safety of not only participants but also the public that was also present on the lake that day. 'MLF breached that duty by, inter alia, failing to provide clear directional zones, vessel spacing requirements, safety warnings, and by not implementing appropriate launch sequencing or enforcing speed regulations near other boaters,' the lawsuit says. Due to MLF's 'breach of duty,' the lawsuit says this resulted in the collision that then killed Broom. This count says that MLF is 'vicariously liable' for the negligent and wanton acts committed by Davis during the tournament, as he acted within his field of participation in the MLF tournament. Count 4 also comes against MLF, saying that MLF and Davis were engaged in a joint venture to carry out a 'common commercial purpose: Participation in and promotion of the MLF tournament for shared financial benefit.' The document says MLF had a level of control over Davis's actions and derived benefit from his participation, satisfying the elements of joint venture. The lawsuit says Davis's actions occurred within the scope of this joint venture, and MLF is therefore jointly and severally liable for the damages arising from those actions Against MLF, this count says the organization failed to adequately screen Davis' 'boating competency, experience, or disciplinary history, and by failing to train or instruct him on safety protocols and tournament navigation procedures.' It also claims MLF failed to supervise Davis during the course of the tournament to prevent harm to others, resulting in the death of Broom. This count goes against Holcombe, the driver of the Center Console boat. The lawsuit says Holcombe had a duty to operate the boat with reasonable care that did not 'endanger others.' The lawsuit says Holcombe 'breached his duty by operating or allowing the operation of a vessel in a negligent and/or wanton manner, including but not limited to, unsafe speeds, failure to maintain proper lookout, or creating navigational hazards that contributed to the fatal collision, and the negligence and/or wanton misconduct combined and concurred with the negligence and/or wanton misconduct of other defendants to cause the death.' The document says that for this, Holcombe's actions demonstrated a conscious 'disregard' for the safety of others, including Broom. Against all the defendants, the family of Broom says it 'demands judgment against the Defendants, jointly and severally, including fictitious party Defendants, and requests that the jury selected to hear this case render a verdict for the Plaintiff and against each Defendant in a sum inexcess of the jurisdictional limits of this Court, in an amount which is adequate to reflect the enormity of the Defendants' wrongful acts and which will deter and/or prevent other similar or wrongful acts, together with interest from the date of the incident, attorneys' fees, and the costs of the proceeding.' The lawsuit also names 13 fictitious defendants, which claims that the negligence of all the defendants, combined and concurred, caused Broom's death. Fictitious Defendants No. 1: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities that afforded any insurance coverage to the owner or the driver of the boat(s) or the tournament fishing series involved in this matter. Fictitious Defendants No. 2: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities on whose behalf any of the vehicle(s) involved in the collision made the basis of this lawsuit were being operated at the time of said occurrence. Fictitious Defendants No. 3: Singular or plural, the driver of the boat which struck the Plaintiff's decedent on the occasion made the basis of this suit. Fictitious Defendants No. 4: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities who or which provided maintenance and upkeep on the boat(s) involved in the occurrence, made the basis of this lawsuit. Fictitious Defendants No. 5: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities who or which did any maintenance, upkeep, and/or repair work on the boat(s) involved in the occurrence made the basis of this complaint. Fictitious Defendants No. 6: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities who or which were the master or principal of the driver of the boat(s) involved in the occurrence made the basis of this lawsuit. Fictitious Defendants No. 7: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities for whom the driver of the boat(s) which struck the Plaintiff's decedent was performing some type of service or employment duty at the time of this collision. Fictitious Defendants No. 8: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities who or which negligently entrusted the boat(s) involved in the occurrence, made the basis of this lawsuit to the driver thereof at the time of said occurrence. Fictitious Defendants No. 9: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities who or which issued any policy of insurance which provided coverage for the Plaintiff's decedent on the occasion made the basis of this lawsuit. Fictitious Defendants No. 10: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities, other than those entities described above, whose breach of contract or warranty contributed to causing the occurrence made the basis of this lawsuit. Fictitious Defendants No. 11: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities other than those entities described above, which is the successor in interest of any of those entities described above. Fictitious Defendants No. 12: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities other than those entities described above, which was the predecessor corporation of any of the entities described above. Fictitious Defendants No. 13: Singular or plural, that entity or those entities other than those entities described above, which organized, operated, sanctioned and/or produced the fishing tournament conducted on the day of the decedent's death. You can read the full lawsuit filed below. lawsuit-of-Broom-against-MLF-Davis-HolcombeDownload Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
