Team YETI and runner-up duo of Hatfield and Hunter representing Team O’Reilly Auto Parts advance to Knockout Round

CHARLES COUNTY, Md. (Aug. 18, 2026) – Team YETI’s Jeff Sprague of Wills Point, Texas, and Bryan Thrift of Shelby, North Carolina, turned in the most dominant performance of the Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches thus far, Tuesday, leading from start to finish and catching 24 scorable bass weighing 53 pounds, 2 ounces to win Elimination Round Match 3 on the Potomac River.

Sprague and Thrift quickly separated themselves from the field and never looked back, combining to catch more than double the weight of runner-up Team O’Reilly Auto Parts. Sprague led all anglers with 15 bass weighing 33-12, while Thrift added nine bass for 19-6, including a 4-pound, 15-ounce largemouth that earned Berkley Big Bass honors and stands as the largest bass caught through the first three days of competition.

Team O’Reilly Auto Parts’ Nick Hatfield of Afton, Tennessee, and John Hunter of Shelbyville, Kentucky, finished second with 12 bass weighing 24-13 to claim the final spot in the Knockout Round. Team MillerTech’s Dustin Connell and Mark Daniels Jr. finished third with 14-3, while Team Knighten Industries’ Keith Carson and Anthony Gagliardi finished fourth with 13-6.

Sprague and Thrift entered the day with a game plan to make a long run down the Potomac, but an early decision to stop on a familiar area instead quickly changed their plans.

“We were actually going to run way down and fish some other creeks that were 12 or 13 miles farther down,” Sprague said. “On the way, I just kind of bounced it off Bryan and said, ‘Hey, you want to hit this deal over here?’ I’d been in there before and caught some fish, and he said, ‘Yeah.’ We rolled in there and started catching them.”

That decision proved pivotal. The Team YETI duo steadily added weight throughout the day, rotating through a variety of techniques and locations and targeting baitfish. Whenever Sprague and Thrift located concentrations of bait, bass were nearby.

“The big thing today was just paying attention to what was happening around us,” Sprague said. “If we pulled into somewhere and didn’t see bait, didn’t see activity and didn’t get bites, we didn’t waste much time. That’s something we can take into the next round. If there’s nothing happening, we need to get out of there and keep moving.”

Sprague did much of his damage with a swimming worm, while Thrift mixed in several presentations, including a Z-Man MiniMax ChatterBait. Their versatility allowed them to capitalize on several different areas and conditions as the tide changed throughout the day.

“We had a lot of good decisions today,” Thrift said. “We started on a place we were both familiar with and both knew had a chance to be good, and it just kind of took off from there. We caught them on a lot of different baits and in a lot of different ways. It was just one of those days where things seemed to work out.”

As the day progressed, Sprague and Thrift were able to continue experimenting and gathering information for Thursday’s Knockout Round rather than fishing under the pressure of the elimination line.

“It’s very rare in a tournament where your stress level actually drops during the day,” Sprague said. “We were fortunate enough to keep putting a fish on SCORETRACKER® here and there, and that allowed us to keep learning. Even late in the day, we were still making casts and looking for something that might help us in the next round.”

While Team YETI controlled the top spot, the Team O’Reilly Auto Parts duo of Hatfield and Hunter made their biggest move late. Five of the team’s 12 scorable bass came in the final period, allowing them to pull clear of Team MillerTech and Team Knighten Industries and secure the runner-up position.

The top two teams from Elimination Round Match 3 at the Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches advancing to the Knockout Round are:

1st:        Team YETI, 24 bass, 53-2
Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 15 bass, 33-12
Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., nine bass, 19-6
2nd:       Team O’Reilly Auto Parts, 12 bass, 24-13
Nick Hatfield, Afton, Tenn., seven bass, 14-4
John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., five bass, 10-9

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team MillerTech, seven bass, 14-3
Dustin Connell, Deatsville, Ala., five bass, 10-3
Mark Daniels Jr., Shorter, Ala., two bass, 4-0
4th:        Team Knighten Industries, seven bass, 13-6
Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., three bass, 4-11
Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., four bass, 8-11

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

Overall, the four teams caught 50 bass weighing 105 pounds, 8 ounces in Elimination Round Match 3 Tuesday on the Potomac River. Team YETI pro Bryan Thrift earned Berkley Big Bass honors with his 4-pound, 15-ounce largemouth – the largest of the event thus far.

With the Elimination Round now complete, six teams remain in contention for the Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches. Wednesday’s Knockout Round Match 1 will feature Team B&W Trailer Hitches’ Mark Davis and Marshall Hughes, Team Seaguar BRAWLR’s Bradley Roy and Greg Vinson and Team O’Reilly Auto Parts’ Hatfield and Hunter. Team YETI’s Sprague and Thrift, Team Star brite’s Justin Cooper and Colby Miller and Team Lucas Oil’s Jake Lawrence and Jacob Walker will compete in Thursday’s Knockout Round Match 2. The top two teams from each match will advance to Friday’s Championship Round.

The Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches is hosted by the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism and takes place over six days in Charles County, Maryland. The competition water for each day is top secret and is only revealed to the anglers when they arrive at the boat ramp each morning. Anglers are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 10:15 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 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and Rumble. The final hour of each day of competition will be broadcast live from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET on RFD-TV.

The Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches features 12 two-man teams divided into three groups as they enter 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 now advancing to the Knockout Round on Days 4 and 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams 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 Championship Round, the final four teams will compete in a one-day shootout to determine which team will win the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches.

The MLF Starlink Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops features four Cup events in 2026 – the Patriot, Heritage, Challenge and Summit Cups – with 12 two-man teams of Bass Pro Tour anglers competing for a share of $560,000 in prize money. Teams were formed through a selection process in which 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2026 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2026.

The MLF Starlink Team Series Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches will also air on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour original episodes each Saturday afternoon beginning in January 2027. The complete television schedule for the Starlink Team Series on Outdoor Channel will be posted at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Starlink Team Series include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Bass Force, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Grizzly, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Starlink, Toyota, YETI, Yuengling and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on the MLF Starlink 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, 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.