Tennessee pro catches 26 largemouth weighing 80-3 to lead after Day 1 on the Harris Chain of Lakes, full field to complete Qualifying Round Friday

LEESBURG, Fla. (Feb. 13, 2025) – Across a Bass Pro Tour career that has seen him earn eight wins and three Fishing Clash Angler of the Year titles, Jacob Wheeler has enjoyed a lot of memorable days on the water. Even though there wasn’t a trophy up for grabs (yet), Thursday’s opening day of Suzuki Marine Stage 2 Presented by YETI just earned a spot near the top of the list.

On a day that saw the Harris Chain produce impressive numbers of bass including 10 over 6 pounds, Wheeler set a scorching pace. He stacked up 80 pounds, 3 ounces on 26 scorable bass, including an 8-7 and a 7-15, to claim the top spot on SCORETRACKER®. Wheeler leads Michael Neal by 10-15, and no other angler is within 28 pounds of his total.

“One of the best days I’ve ever had,” Wheeler said. “And to do it in a tournament, that’s always a great thing. Catching the quality of fish that we caught, whew, it was a lot of fun.”

Wheeler has embraced forward-facing sonar as enthusiastically as just about anyone during his domination of the Bass Pro Tour. His mastery of the technology is a big reason why he’s won three AOY crowns and six events since the start of the 2021 season.

But that kind of sustained excellence requires versatility, and Wheeler showed Thursday that he’s quite capable of catching bass without the beam, too. He made it a point to never unlock his forward-facing sonar transducers, even though the Bass Pro Tour’s 2025 rules allow each angler to utilize the technology for one period each day.

Instead, Wheeler glued a flipping stick in his hands and spent his entire day methodically picking apart reed patches.

“That was a point that I wanted to make: It doesn’t really matter,” Wheeler said. “The anglers that do well in these tournaments, it doesn’t matter whether you’re using (forward-facing sonar) or you’re not. It’s all strategy; it’s all part of the game we play, and I just wanted to say, hey, look, it doesn’t matter, guys.”

Wheeler’s day actually got off to a slow start. He made a long run from takeoff at Venetian Gardens in Lake Harris to his starting spot that included a wait to pass through a lock, which resulted in him missing a good chunk of Period 1. By the time he arrived at his destination, he was more than 19 pounds back of Dean Rojas, the early leader, and it took a few moments to settle himself down.

He made up the deficit in a hurry. Wheeler boated his first scorable bass around 9:30 a.m. Over the next 34 minutes, he added seven more for a total of 27-9, which vaulted him into the lead. He’d hold the top spot for almost the entire rest of the day.

That early flurry included the 8-7, which earned Berkley Big Bass honors for the day. Wheeler also landed another near-8-pounder and three bass of 5 pounds or bigger – plus he hooked and lost one that he estimated to be around 7. He attributed his ability to generate bigger-than-average bites to his bait selection. He caught all his fish on a Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug, which he helped design.

“That bait does some things that just gets bites,” Wheeler said. “It has a pretty big profile; it has a little bit more meat to it. But I’m able to maneuver it, really get into those areas, generate those big ones to bite.”

After another string of catches early in Period 3 extended his cushion on the rest of the field, Wheeler already started to think about his strategy for the days ahead. He hasn’t yet decided whether to return to the area that produced most of his Day 1 weight on Friday and fish for the Qualifying Round win – which would allow him to bypass the Knockout Round and advance directly to the Championship Round – or to search for new water.

He’s hoping he can do both, as he thinks fishing pressure and the strong southwest wind that’s forecast to blow Sunday will force him to fish elsewhere.

“If I happen to catch them practicing, too, I could still win (the Qualifying Round),” Wheeler said. “So, I don’t know yet. I’m going to sleep on it, think about it. You know, my mind is always working, trying to figure out how to win this tournament.

“I can’t win doing what I was doing,” he continued. “The wind is just not going to cooperate, I don’t think. Now, maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see. I need to find a couple little sneaky stretches to myself or a couple areas that are going to be protected from the wind with that really bad forecast for Championship Day.”

The top 20 pros after Day 1 on the Harris Chain of Lakes are:

1st:         Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 26 bass, 80-3
2nd:       Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 29 bass, 69-4
3rd:        Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 20 bass, 52-1
4th:        Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., 24 bass, 52-1
5th:        Takahiro Omori, Tokyo, Japan, 20 bass, 51-14
6th:        Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., 21 bass, 49-8
7th:        Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., 16 bass, 46-1
8th:        Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., 22 bass, 45-9
9th:        Fletcher Shryock, Guntersville, Ala., 14 bass, 39-15
10th:      Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 15 bass, 37-11
11th:      Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 17 bass, 36-14
12th:      Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 16 bass, 36-9
13th:      Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., 16 bass, 35-11
14th:      Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., 16 bass, 35-7
15th:      Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, 15 bass, 33-13
16th:      Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, 12 bass, 33-2
17th:      James Elam, Tulsa, Okla., 15 bass, 32-12
18th:      Jeremy Lawyer, Sarcoxie, Mo., 17 bass, 32-8
19th:      Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., 17 bass, 31-12
20th:      Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 12 bass, 30-10

A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Wheeler earned the Day 1 Berkley Big Bass Award Thursday with an 8-pound, 7-ounce largemouth that he caught in Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.

The full field of anglers compete in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday. After the two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the pro with the highest two-day total advances directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. Anglers that finish 2nd through 20th will advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining anglers compete to finish in the top nine to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round. In the final-day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $150,000.

Anglers will launch at 7:15 a.m. ET each day from the Venetian Gardens, located at 201 E. Lake Harris Drive in Leesburg. Each day’s takeout will be held at the same location, beginning at 3:45 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at  MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on all four days of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!®  will be live streamed on  MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

On Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 15-16, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the Venetian Gardens for the MLF Fan Experience & Watch Party. Fans can watch the pros live on the MLFNOW! big screen, enjoy free food, enter to win hourly giveaways, listen to live music and cheer on their favorite pros. The first 50 kids 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel each day. The Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand both days to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.

The Suzuki Stage 2 at the Harris Chain of Lakes Presented by YETI is hosted by Discover Lake County Florida and features anglers competing with a 1-pound, 8-ounce minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

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 Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2026 championship.

Television coverage of the Suzuki Stage 2 at the Harris Chain of Lakes Presented by YETI will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 13 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering the following Saturday on Sept. 20. 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 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 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 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.