Three teams compete at tough Chautauqua Lake in first match of Knockout Round, Team Star Tron (Lane/Wall) boats 15 scorable largemouth to advance in first place

ERIE, Pa. (Aug. 28, 2024) – Professional anglers competing in the Major League Fishing (MLF) General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops this week in Erie, Pennsylvania, were thrown a curve-ball Wednesday.

After the first three matches of the Elimination Round took place on Erie’s Presque Isle Bay, Wednesday featured a new venue for anglers competing in the first match of the Knockout Round at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota – Chautauqua Lake in Chautauqua County, New York. Three teams – Team REDCON1 (Cole Floyd/Andy Morgan), Team Star Tron (Bobby Lane/Jacob Wall), and Team U.S. Air Force (Stephen Browning/Anthony Gagliardi) took to the waters to compete, with only the top two teams advancing to Friday’s final-day Championship Round.

As time expired at the end of the third period and the final bass had been tallied, Team Star Tron showed that they will be a force to reckon with in Friday’s Championship Round. Pros Bobby Lane of Lakeland, Florida, and Jacob Wall of New Hope, Alabama, caught 15 bass weighing 26 pounds, 14 ounces to lead the way in Match 1 of the Knockout Round and advance to the final day of competition. Also advancing to the Championship Round is the Team U.S. Air Force duo of Hot Springs, Arkansas’ Stephen Browning and Prosperity, South Carolina’s Anthony Gagliardi, who finished second with 11 bass weighing 23-12.

“It was a grinder of a day, but it was so much fun,” Wall said in his post-match interview. “It was a challenging fishery, and these are the type of days that really show who can put their head down and work the hardest. Confidence is so key on days like today, and I felt really good and confident all day. Bobby and I were vibing.”

“We’ve done it twice now. Yesterday (Tuesday) we had the lead for awhile and then lost it, and we had to fight just to get into the Knockout Round,” said Lane. “Then we had to scramble again today. The decisions we made as a team to come back today … wow.”

Team Star Tron used a two-pronged approach in the morning. They started on a shallow rocky shoal, with Lane throwing a topwater popper and a Berkley Choppo, while Wall threw various soft plastic worms. Lane caught four scorable keepers over the first two periods, then they made a move to a marina-style area with a lot of boat docks, lots of shade, surrounded with grass. They started skipping under boat docks, and Wall boated five keepers while Lane added another scorable to earn the win by a 3-pound, 2-ounce margin.

Wall ended up weighing the most bass and catching the most total weight of the day.

“The 5-inch stickbait was the key today,” Wall said. “It was green pumpkin (colored). Nothing fancy by any means, but the weedless hook that I was throwing really helped me keep away from hanging up on those docks and those cables. I used 10-pound fluorocarbon, and we had a few mishaps – we broke some fish off. There were a lot of mussels around the docks. But I was able to pull most of them out of there with my Wheeler Select Series Duckett rod.”

“In the third, Jacob just put it on ‘em, and it was unbelievable,” Lane added. “With the pressure from SCORETRACKER® and this format, to beat those guys today and the guys we beat yesterday, this has just been an incredible week. We’re ready to go again for the Championship Round on Friday.”

Also advancing to the Championship Round via third period rally was Team U.S. Air Force. After boating only two scorable bass as a team through the first two periods of competition, Browning and Gagliardi caught fire in the third period, adding nine scorable bass weighing 21-7 to advance in the second spot.

The duo targeted the outside edge of grass lines in 8 to 10 feet on the extreme north end of the lake. They used finesse tactics and found a wad of fish in the third period – catching bass every 3 to 4 casts at one point – that they stayed on for the remainder of the day.

The top two teams now advancing to the Championship Round at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota are:

1st:        Team Star Tron, 15 bass, 26-14
Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., seven bass, 10-9
Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., eight bass, 16-5
2nd:       Team U.S. Air Force, 11 bass, 23-12
Stephen Browning, Hot Springs, Ark., seven bass, 13-11
Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., four bass, 10-1

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team REDCON1, 10 bass, 19-15
Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, two bass, 3-12
Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., eight bass, 16-3

Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 36 bass weighing 70 pounds, 9 ounces caught by the three teams Wednesday during the first match of the Knockout Round on Chautauqua Lake. Team U.S. Air Force pro Anthony Gagliardi caught a 3-pound, 7-ounce largemouth in Period 3 that was the Berkley Big Bass of the day.

The B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota is hosted by VisitErie and takes place over six days in Erie, Pennsylvania. The competition water for each day is top-secret and is only revealed to the anglers after they arrive at the host hotel each morning.

The second match of the Knockout Round will take place Thursday, featuring Team B&W Trailer Hitches (Matt Becker/Spencer Shuffield), Team Coign (Drew Gill/Matt Stefan), and Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches (Luke Clausen/John Hunter). Anglers depart the host hotel in Erie each morning at 4:30 a.m. ET. They are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 7:45 a.m.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live every day of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

The Challenge Cup features 12 two-man teams, divided into three groups as they enter the one-day Elimination Rounds. Each of the three Elimination Round matches will feature four new teams, with the top two teams from each match of the Elimination Rounds advancing to the Knockout Rounds on Days 4 & 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams will compete each day, with the top two teams from each Knockout Round match moving on to the Championship Round on Day 6. In Friday’s Day 6 Championship Round, the final four teams will compete in a one-day shootout to determine which team will win the 2024 B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota.

The 2024 General Tire Team Series is comprised of four events – Challenge Cup, Heritage Cup, Patriot Cup and Summit Cup – featuring two-man teams of MLF Bass Pro Tour pros competing from the same boat. Each event features a roster of 24 anglers, teamed up and working together to claim part of a season purse of more than $720,000. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2024.

Television coverage of the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota will premiere on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour episodes starting in January 2025. New MLF General Tire Team Series episodes will premiere each Saturday morning on Outdoor Channel and posted to MOTV.

Proud sponsors of the MLF General Tire Team Series include: 7 Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Barbasol, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Builders FirstSource, C-MAP, Coign, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Fishing Clash, General Tire, Knighten Industries, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Nitro Boats, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala Baits, REDCON1, Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff, Star brite, Toyota, USAA, WIX Filters and YETI.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. 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 17 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.