Arkansas pro catches 12 bass weighing 53-12 to lead Group B Qualifying Round, 16 anglers in Group A to wrap Qualifying Round on Monday

OCALA, Fla. (May 17, 2026) – On his first day competing on Orange Lake, Bass Fishing Hall of Famer Mark Davis of Mount Ida, Arkansas, boated three bass over 6 pounds and topped SCORETRACKER® with a total of 53 pounds, 12 ounces on 12 scorable bass – a banner day by just about any standard.

Yet it wasn’t Davis who called Group B’s first day of the Qualifying Round at Major League Fishing’s (MLF) Kubota Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops “a once-in-a-lifetime day.”

That would be Michael Neal. While he concluded Sunday 4 ounces behind Davis, Neal stole the show with a big-bass bonanza that included an 11-pounder, which won him $10,000 as the Berkley Big Bass. In all, Neal caught six bass over 6 pounds for a total of 53-8 on nine scorable bass.

Davis and Neal put plenty of distance between themselves and the rest of the field. They’re both more than 16 pounds ahead of Jeff Sprague in third place and more than 36 pounds clear of the Lucas Oil Cut Line, virtually assuring themselves spots in Wednesday’s Knockout Round.

Davis has always gotten along well with Florida bass. In fact, his two best events on the Bass Pro Tour – a pair of second-place finishes – both came in the Sunshine State. He quipped that’s because Florida bass are “cantankerous” and “hard-headed” like himself.

“There’s just something about it, I get along well with Florida bass,” he said. “They’re cantankerous. They can be hard to catch and hard-headed. You’ve got to be hard-headed with them. That was kind of the case today.”

Davis clarified that succeeding in Florida usually means finding an area with a population of bass then slowing down and picking it apart, which has long been his specialty. He showed that Sunday. Even though he caught all of his bass with a moving bait (a bladed jig), he spent most of the day with his Power-Poles down, methodically dissecting the same area.

While that’s always key in Florida, Davis said it’s especially vital given the low water on Orange Lake, which has the bass grouped into small areas and less willing than usual to bite.

“If you fish too fast, you can fish right over these fish,” he said. “You’ve got to really be diligent and slow down and pick it apart and trigger those fish to bite.”

Davis found his honey hole during practice. It took him a little while to relocate the school of bass there, but once he did, he surged to the top of SCORETRACKER® in a hurry with five bass for 23-8 in the first period. He added a couple more scorable bass early in Period 2 before going more than 2 hours without another fish.

Davis said he tried checking a few other spots during that lull, but when they didn’t produce, he returned to his starting spot. Afternoon showers reignited the bite, and he added five more bass for 22-5 during the latter half of Period 3. That included a 7-5, his biggest of the day.

“I got out of that area, and I went to fish some other areas, and they weren’t any good,” Davis said. “Then we got some cloud cover this afternoon – some storms and whatnot – and I just went back to that primary area and spent the rest of the day in there, and it worked out pretty well.”

Davis doesn’t think that same spot will be able to hold up for the rest of the event. The good news is his cushion over the cut line earned him the opportunity to spend all of Tuesday looking for more productive water.

“The nice thing about it is with 53 pounds, I can afford to go look for some fish on that second day,” he said. “That’s what I’m planning to go do.”

As much success as Davis has enjoyed in Florida during his Hall of Fame career, he’s never won a tour-level event in the state. Both his runner-up finishes on the Bass Pro Tour were heartbreakers, too, in which he held the lead during the Championship Round before getting passed late by one of the Lane brothers.

So, Davis would love to earn some redemption and get his long-awaited first Bass Pro Tour victory all at once this week. But he’s not ready to think about that quite yet.

“I’d like to finally win one down here,” he said. “This would be a great one to win. But you just never know. Everything has to work out perfectly to win one of these. It would be nice to win, but you don’t want to get ahead of yourself.”

Neal has experienced a lot of special days on the water during a career that’s seen him win three tour-level events and two Angler of the Year titles on the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit. But never has the Tennessee pro had a day like Sunday when it comes to catching big bass.

Neal accounted for six of the 12 bass over 6 pounds caught by the 16-angler field on the day. His five biggest bass combined to weigh 38-13 – easily the heaviest five-fish limit of his life.

“We had almost 38 in a team tournament, but I didn’t catch any of them,” he said. “I netted them, so that’s part of it. But I’d never caught 30 by myself.”

Neal’s 11-0 big bass represented the first bass he’s ever caught over 10 pounds – and he did it during a tournament with $10,000 up for grabs. He knew the fish was sizable upon setting the hook, but it wasn’t until he grabbed its lip and unearthed it from a mound of hydrilla that he realized just how big it was.

“I knew it was big,” he said. “I figured it was like an 8-pounder until I got my hands on it. Then I knew it had a real good shot at being a double-digit.”

Making Neal’s day all the more impressive was the fact that he caught all his fish on a technique he called “not my strong suit” – punching. Neal tried to start the day fishing his strengths by winding a bladed jig, but he couldn’t muster a scorable bass during the first period. Late in the period, he went to a football field-sized area where the hydrilla had formed a canopy with open space beneath it – the only place he could find that wasn’t choked out, he said.

“I know (flipping) is always a thing here in Florida, and anytime you’ve got hydrilla – not just in Florida – it’s going to be a player,” he said. “But 99 percent of the areas that I was in, it’s still too thick underneath it. But that one football field section, it’s actually canopied. So, I think that’s why the fish were holding there.”

Every time Neal thought about putting down his flipping stick (with a Big Bite Baits YoMama on the business end), he’d get another bite. He never ended up leaving, catching all nine of his scorable bass from the same area.

“That exact area, there’s really nothing – you can get on the outskirts of it, but as far as getting up in it, there’s nothing else you can do but punch it,” he explained. “I made the comment on camera, every time I’m about zoned out or falling asleep, I get a bite.”

As special as that spot was, Neal figures he’ll need to find something new to win his first Heavy Hitters belt. He plans to start Day 2 playing some defense before spending the rest of the day looking for similar areas.

“I’ve got to find something else,” he said. “My best bet at this point is probably show up, make your presence known, try and defend your ground a little bit, and then try and practice and cover as much water as I can the rest of the day.”

The 16 anglers in Group B will now have the day off Monday, while the 16 anglers in Group A will conclude their two-day Qualifying Round. Group B will complete their two-day Qualifying Round of competition on Tuesday.

The standings for the 16 pros from Qualifying Group B after Day 1 on Orange Lake are:

1st:         Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., 12 bass, 53-12
2nd:        Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., nine bass, 53-8
3rd:         Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 11 bass, 37-3
4th:         Marshall Hughes, Hemphill, Texas, 11 bass, 34-0
5th:         John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., 10 bass, 29-4
6th:         Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., eight bass, 26-3
7th:         Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., eight bass, 25-2
8th:         Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., seven bass, 20-3
9th:         Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., six bass, 16-14
10th:       Dean Rojas, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., five bass, 15-5
11th:       Skeet Reese, Auburn, Calif., five bass, 14-14
12th:       Adrian Avena, Marmora, N.J., three bass, 12-13
13th:       Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., four bass, 10-12
14th:       Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., one bass, 9-1
15th:       Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, two bass, 5-14
16th:       Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., one bass, 2-5

Full results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 103 bass weighing 367 pounds, 1 ounce caught by the 16 pros on Sunday, which included one 11-pounder, one 9-pounder, one 8-pounder and three 7-pounders caught from Orange Lake.

Hosted by the Ocala/Marion County Visitors and Convention Bureau , the Kubota Heavy Hitters at Orange Lake Presented by Bass Pro Shops features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. A bass must meet the 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable in the Qualifying and Knockout Rounds, but for the final day Championship Round a bass must weigh at least 3 pounds to be deemed scorable.

The 16 anglers in Group A compete in their two-day qualifying round on Saturday and Monday – the 16 anglers in Group B on Sunday and Tuesday. After each two-day qualifying round is complete, the top eight anglers from both groups advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round weights are zeroed, and the remaining 16 anglers compete to finish in the Top 10 to advance to the Championship Round. In Thursday’s final-day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

In addition to overall tournament awards, Berkley Big Bass bonuses are awarded in each round of competition with payouts of $10,000 for the single biggest bass on each day of the Group A & B Qualifying Round, $30,000 for the biggest bass in the Knockout Round and $100,000 for the biggest bass in the Championship Round.

Fans are encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW! live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

To qualify for Kubota Heavy Hitters, the weight of an angler’s single-largest bass from each event of the seven 2025 Bass Pro Tour events was recorded. The 32 anglers with the heaviest total from those seven bass qualified to compete in this event.

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

Television coverage of Kubota Heavy Hitters 2026 Presented by Bass Pro Shops will be showcased across six two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET on July 4 and running each Saturday through Aug. 15 on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on the Outdoor Channel.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 Kubota Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Force, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Grizzly, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Star brite, Toyota, YETI, Yuengling and Zenni.

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, Rumble 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.