JEFFERSON COUNTY, Tenn. (May 8, 2026) – After a substantial fog delay, the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech pros in Stop 4 Presented by Phoenix Boats hit Douglas Lake hard. Dylan Nutt had over 13 pounds in, seemingly, minutes, and he wasn’t the only one to blitz out ahead of the pack early. By day’s end, though, the flurries leveled out and some other pros hit hot stretches of their own. All told, 27 anglers weighed in at least 13 pounds with 3-10 separating first from 39th.

In the lead with 15 pounds, 10 ounces, Aaron Yavorsky got solidly ahead of the pack. Carter Nutt slid into second with 14-13, and Ott DeFoe tallied up 14-12 for third. Behind Nutt, there are ten other pros within a pound, and there’s a lot going on. Within the Top 10, there are at least two very distinct gameplans, ranging from running up the river and fishing in the dirt to getting crankbaits as deep as humanly possible in the main lake. Plus, some of the pros are really mixing things up with diverse strategies fitted for their time with and without modern sonar.

If you liked Day 1 on MLFNOW!, you might want to keep watching, because it’s only going to get more interesting from here.

Yavorsky stays deep for the lead
Yavorsky is right in his offshore wheelhouse after putting in some serious idle time in practice.

“My first time on the lake was day one of practice, it was really good for me,” he said. “I probably had almost 17 pounds, just catching one here, one there, finding some groups offshore. The next two days, I really didn’t even find much. It was kind of frustrating. I knew I could catch fish, but finding those 2 3/4-pounders and anything bigger than that was going to be a little bit of a struggle.”

Sitting in the fog in the morning, Yavorsky devised a plan that would put him fishing at his peak efficiency while others were running back to weigh-in. As boat 112, he wasn’t going to get to pick his starting hole, but he knew he’d have a lot of room to work in the afternoon.

“I kind of like the fog delay with the three hours of ‘Scope,” he said. “As time was going by, I was thinking I’d probably just turn it on later. I didn’t start on what I thought was my best stuff because I knew someone was probably going to be on it.

“I no-‘Scoped my offshore stuff for the first few hours,” he said. “I think I turned it on at 1:05, and I was due in at 4:45. When I turned it on, I had like 11 pounds. I caught one dragging that was a 2.80, I knew that one could come to weigh-in, but the rest were 2-pounders.”

Moving and grooving, Yavorsky started to hit a number of offshore spots, and finally hit one that was firing.

“My next spot, I caught a 3.85, and I hadn’t caught one that big all week,” he said. “Then, I ran around [with 13 pounds] for a while and pulled back up to a place I started on this morning at about 3:30. I had caught a limit there in the morning, but I really wasn’t even fishing the right spot. They had moved. I was missing it, and then I relocated them and caught a lot of little ones, and then a 2.90. They were pretty fired up – I caught probably 20 fish in 30 or 40 casts.”

Shortly after wrapping up his forward-facing sonar period, Yavorsky caught another near-3-pounder, throwing at his lineup on the bank. He then called it a day with at least one good school in his back pocket that he might have to himself on Day 2.

“I don’t think anyone found the place I started on and ended on,” he said. “It’s a sneakier spot, but there’s 60 or 80 fish down there and they act like they’ve never seen a bait before. There’s a lot of big fish on all the other places people are fishing, but they’re really hard to catch.

“I think it’s going to get tough as the week goes on. There’s a lot of people fishing the same stuff. I might have to do some different stuff throughout the week, but I feel good about the start. I need to stay locked in.”

Nutt fishes his strengths
An expert offshore on the Tennessee River, Douglas is not far from Nutt’s favored stomping grounds. However, while Yavorsky had a late number and a great plan, Nutt’s early number didn’t do him any favors.

“It was a dumpster fire,” he said of the day. “I had an early number and I figured I could start on a really big school and catch them, but I didn’t. There was one place I wanted to start at and I bounced around and ended up there.”

Tomorrow, he’s still all in on the deep game, but he’s not going into it sure of success.

“I think it’s going to be really bad,” he said. “All the fish are pretty beat up and the groups are pretty scattered. There’s a couple places where they’re really grouped up, but they just won’t bite. So, it’s super tough.”

Unofficially in the lead for 7 Brew Angler of the Year after Day 1, Carter isn’t eyeing a win just yet. He’s very much after points.

“I’ve got a bunch of places to run, so I’m going to run around and try to land on biting fish,” he said. “I felt like [deep] was my best shot to have a consistent finish, and that’s what I’m looking for – for points. That was the goal, to catch them pretty good, hopefully have a Top 20, Top 10 here, and give myself a little more of a cushion going into Eufaula and Champlain. It worked out pretty well today.”

Big afternoon puts DeFoe in contention
The ultimate local in this event, DeFoe entered as the favorite, and he’s pretty disappointed in his start. That should probably have everyone else in the field worried.

“Today was a weird day,” said the Tennessee legend. “The fog delay, we’ve had two rainy, nasty days where the fish really bit. Today was extremely postfrontal, no wind, bright skies, cold, all the things that make for hard fishing – we had ‘em all today. So that made the day weird.”

Weird is maybe an understatement as, around noon, DeFoe had two in the box. Then he pulled into a backwater area and caught fish fast.

“My timing was good,” he said. “That’s all it was. Drew Boggs, he caught three or four; I just got in there 30 minutes before he did, and I feel like the side I was on was the better side.”

Today, DeFoe fished deep and shallow, and he might do the same thing on Day 2, but, he’ll be doing it with some more data – even if he’s not settled on the winning pattern yet.

“I’m completely unsure; I’ll try to take the day as it comes,” he said. “I’ve got a place I would like to start now, but I know another guy fished it a lot today before I did. I’d like to start on it, but it’s pretty much just take it as it comes and fish what’s open. You don’t want to be right behind somebody. If you let an area rest for an hour, you can go behind somebody and possibly still get a bite – you just don’t want to be in somebody’s propwash.”

In it for the win, DeFoe wanted a lot more out of Day 1.

“As bad as the day was, I found myself on a steep bank throwing a shaky head just to catch something. I was like, ‘Dude, what are you doing? You’re just here to win.’ Sometimes, just trying to get bites is what you need to do, because it was so hard,” he said. “I expected Day 1, there to be a handful [of bags] over 15. I didn’t expect it to be that low – my weight ended up being pretty good, but I was not happy with my day. I’ve never been so upset about being in third place, less than a pound off the lead, on the first day of the tournament.”

The top 20 pros after Day 1 on Douglas Lake are:

1st:        Aaron Yavorsky, Palm Harbor, Fla., five bass, 15-10
2nd:      Carter Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 14-13
3rd:       Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., five bass, 14-12
4th:       Mark Condron, Murfreesboro, Tenn., five bass, 14-9
5th:       Brent Chapman, Lenexa, Kan., five bass, 14-8
5th:       Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., five bass, 14-7
7th:       Dylan Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 14-6
8th:       Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, five bass, 14-4
8th:       Clint Knight, Russellville, Ky., five bass, 14-4
10th:     Miles Burghoff, Dayton, Tenn., five bass, 14-2
11th:     Marshall Hughes, Hemphill, Texas, five bass, 14-1
12th:     Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., five bass, 14-0
13th:     Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., five bass, 13-14
14th:     Harbor Lovin, New Concord, Ky., five bass, 13-13
14th:     Evan Barnes, Dardanelle, Ark., five bass, 13-13
14th:     Ethan Greene, Eufaula, Ala., three bass, 13-13
17th:     Kyle Austin, Ridgeville, S.C., five bass, 13-11
17th:     Austin Pemberton, Tuscola, Texas, four bass, 13-11
18th:     Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., five bass, 13-9
20th:     Keith Poche, Cecil, Ala., five bass, 13-7

Complete results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 664 bass weighing 1,434 pounds, 5 ounces caught by 137 pros Friday. The catch included 125 five-bass limits.

Pro Clint Knight earned the Day 1 Berkley Big Bass award of $500 with a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 2 ounces on the scale.

In Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit competition, the full field of pros compete in the two-day opening round on Friday and Saturday in a five-fish, weigh-in format. Only the top 50 pros, based on their two-day cumulative weight, advance to the final round on Championship Sunday. The winner is determined by heaviest cumulative weight from all three days and they will be awarded the grand prize of up to $135,000. Forward-facing and/or 360-degree sonar is limited to only 3 hours of competition each day.

Anglers will launch at 7 a.m. ET each day from the Dandridge Boat Dock & Ramp, located at 157 Public Drive in Dandridge, Tennessee. Weigh-ins will also be held at the Dandridge Boat Dock & Ramp and will begin at 3 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and weigh-in events and are also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech at Douglas Lake Presented by Phoenix Boats is hosted by Visit Jefferson County, TN.

The 2026 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech features a field of up to 150 professional anglers competing across six tournaments around the country, for a total purse of $3.8 million and valuable 7 Brew Angler of the Year (AOY) points to qualify for the Pro Circuit Championship, set for Sept. 18-20 on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and a coveted spot on the MLF Bass Pro Tour – the sport’s premier circuit.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and Rob Newell will break down the extended action live all three days of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

Television coverage of the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech Stop 4 on Douglas Lake Presented by Phoenix Boats will air as a two-hour episode, premiering at 9 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 27 on Vice TV.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, Bubba, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook, 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, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, 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.