Team O’Reilly Auto Parts catches 43 bass weighing 65 pounds, 8 ounces, to top leaderboard and win Fishing Clash Team Series Heritage Cup

MINOCQUA, Wis. (Sept. 19, 2025) – Team O’Reilly Auto Parts’ Jacob Wheeler of Harrison, Tennessee, and Mark Daniels Jr. of Tuskegee, Alabama, delivered a thrilling come-from-behind performance Friday to capture the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies on Wisconsin’s Tomahawk Lake. Down more than 11 pounds with just over an hour remaining, the longtime friends rallied to boat 43 bass weighing 65 pounds, 8 ounces, overtaking Team Star Tron (Drew Gill and Marshall Robinson) in the closing minutes to earn the victory.

The win marked Wheeler and Daniels’ first Team Series title as teammates and showcased the resilience and chemistry that made them one of the most dangerous pairings in the 2025 Fishing Clash Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops season.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts duo began Championship Day testing shallow boat docks for largemouth but quickly realized the bite wasn’t sustainable.

“About an hour in, I told Mark, ‘We’ve got to get away from these largemouth and go chase smallmouth,’” Wheeler said. “Thankfully, the fish gave us a clue, and we were able to adjust, lock in on that pattern and just keep building momentum.”

Daniels credited the mid-day switch as the turning point.

“Jacob recognized early that the dock deal wasn’t going to pan out, and that was huge,” Daniels said. “We made the decision to leave at the right time, expand and chase smallmouth. If we had stayed even 15 minutes longer, we might not be standing here as champions.”

Both anglers leaned heavily on finesse tactics, with Wheeler targeting offshore smallmouth while Daniels mixed in largemouth from grass edges late in the day.

“Mark made some great calls in that final stretch,” Wheeler added. “He caught the last three bass of the tournament, and that was the winning margin. Teamwork really did make the dream work today.”

“It’s not every day you get to fish side by side with your best friend,” he said. “We’ve practiced together and fished against each other plenty, but to share a boat in competition and win a Cup like this – on my birthday week, no less – that’s just special.”

After the final seconds ticked off SCORETRACKER®, Wheeler and Daniels hoisted the Heritage Cup trophies together.

“This has been an absolute honor,” Wheeler said. “To win it with Mark, in comeback fashion, makes it that much sweeter.”

The final four teams at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies finished:

1st:        Team O’Reilly Auto Parts, 43 bass, 65-8
Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 16 bass, 24-1
Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 27 bass, 41-7
2nd:       Team Star Tron, 43 bass, 60-12
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 23 bass, 31-1
Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 20 bass, 29-11
3rd:       Team Fishing Clash, 24 bass, 36-6
Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., seven bass, 9-13
Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., 17 bass, 26-9
4th:        Team BUBBA, 22 bass, 33-4
Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 11 bass, 16-7
Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 11 bass, 16-13

Complete results from the event can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 132 bass weighing 195 pounds, 14 ounces caught by the final four teams in Friday’s Championship Round on Tomahawk Lake. Team BUBBA pro Andy Montgomery caught a largemouth bass that weighed 3 pounds, 3 ounces and was the Berkley Big Bass of the day.

The Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies was the second of four Fishing Clash Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops event of the 2025 season. It was hosted by the Minocqua Area Visitors Bureau and took place over six days in Minocqua, Wisconsin. Competition waters for each day were top-secret and only revealed to the anglers when they arrived at the boat ramp each morning.

The Heritage Cup featured 12 two-man teams divided into three groups as they entered the one-day Elimination Round matches. Each of the three Elimination Round matches featured four new teams, with the top two teams from each match of the Elimination Round advancing to the Knockout Round on Days 4 & 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams competed 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 competed in a one-day shootout with the heaviest one-day weight named the winner of the 2025 Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies.

The MLF Fishing Clash Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops features four Cup events in 2025 – the Challenge, Heritage, Patriot, and Summit Cups – with 12 two-man teams of Bass Pro Tour anglers competing for a share of  $560,000 in prize money.

Television coverage of the MLF Fishing Clash Team Series Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies will premiere on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour original episodes each Saturday afternoon starting Feb. 14, 2026. The complete television schedule for the Fishing Clash Team Series on Outdoor Channel will be posted at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Fishing Clash Team Series include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Fishing Clash, Knighten Industries, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, NITRO Boats, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Smokey Mountain Caffeinated Pouches, Star brite, Toyota, YETI and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on the MLF Fishing Clash Team Series, 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, Discovery+, Discovery GO, Animal Planet, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV 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.