ennessee pro catches 39 bass weighing 103-10 to lead after Day 1 on Kentucky Lake, full field to complete Qualifying Round Friday

CALVERT CITY, Ky. (June 5, 2025) – Kentucky Lake almost certainly has more tournament history in early June than any other fishery in the country. And yet, when the Bass Pro Tour kicked off Lowrance Stage 5 Presented by Mercury on the fishery Thursday, no one seemed to know what to expect. Kentucky Lake and neighboring Lake Barkley hadn’t hosted a top-level tournament since 2018, prior to a downturn in the lakes’ largemouth population, and this marked the first ever visit for the Bass Pro Tour and its every-fish-counts format.

At least for the top few performers, Kentucky Lake looked a lot like the bass factory of old.

Keeping with tradition, Michael Neal found a red-hot bite on the lake’s legendary offshore ledges and amassed 103 pounds, 10 ounces on 39 scorable bass to pace the field. He has a 3-7 lead over home-lake favorite Jake Lawrence, who also hit triple digits with 100-3 on 40 scorable bass.

“I was really skeptical before we got here about how it was going to be,” Neal said, “But it’s definitely coming back, for sure.”

While not everyone was able to find productive offshore schools, those who did stacked up weight in a hurry. Neal and Lawrence were two of four anglers who topped 50 pounds in the opening period, along with Justin Lucas and Jacob Wheeler . Wheeler caught all his 95-15 before the midpoint of the day, then spent the rest of his time scouting for new schools.

Having grown up on Lake Chickamauga, Neal has ample experience fishing river-channel ledges, so he was in his comfort zone targeting offshore schools. However, unlocking the bite on Kentucky Lake wasn’t nearly as simple as finding structure that held bass in the past and reeling them in.

Neal came to Kentucky Lake with a trove of waypoints from past tournaments, but he said he only found bass on two of those spots.

“I really think the main contributing factor to that is the current is so strong right now, I don’t think they’ve set up exactly right,” he explained.

Plus, the fish seem to be on the move. Neal located 12 offshore schools in practice, and of those, only six were still there Thursday. In fact, even the school that produced 19 scorable bass for 54-6 during the first period seemed to disappear by the end of the day.

“Even the schools that I caught them all out of this morning, I went back at the end of the second period, and they were gone,” he said. “I don’t know if that was just from pressure from me, or if they left for the same reason that all the rest of them do.”

Neal separated himself from his competition by finding a better average size. He caught one fewer scorable bass than both Lawrence and Wheeler but had more weight than both. Thirteen of his fish weighed more than 3 pounds.

Neal, who noted that he caught fish on just about every rod on his front deck during the course of the day, attributes that quality to his willingness to stick with moving baits like crankbaits, hair jigs, swimbaits and spoons (which produced his biggest bass of the day, a 5-4) as long as possible before switching to finesse or dragging presentations.

“I stuck with the staple ledge baits, the moving baits – crankbait, hair jig, swimbait, spoon – things like that to get the bigger bites,” Neal said. “And I would make them work as long as I could and then follow up with bottom baits – Carolina rig, drop-shot, etc. – instead of just leaning on that to begin with. Your bigger bites always come on that moving stuff first.”

Neal now has a decision to make. The winner of the Qualifying Round gets to skip the Knockout Round and advance directly to the Championship Round. While an automatic Top 10 is usually coveted, Neal thinks the fact that Kentucky Lake’s bass seem to be moving means spending a day off the water would actually hinder his chances of claiming his third Bass Pro Tour trophy. He’ll spend the evening weighing whether to fish for the Qualifying Round win on Friday or devote his day to graphing and scouting new water.

“I still may decide to go for the win and the automatic berth, but if I do that, I have zero shot to win the tournament,” he said. “At this point, it’s whether or not you take a guaranteed Top 10 and know you’re not going to win or have to fight through the Knockout Round and have a chance to win. I’m not saying that’s the same for everybody, but for the number of fish I’ve found right now, that’s where I’m at.”

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

1st:         Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 39 bass, 103-10
2nd:       Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 40 bass, 100-3
3rd:        Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 40 bass, 95-15
4th:        Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 34 bass, 81-6
5th:        Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 30 bass, 72-15
6th:        Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 29 bass, 68-6
7th:        Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., 25 bass, 65-8
8th:        Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 23 bass, 63-6
9th:        Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., 22 bass, 62-6
10th:      Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., 26 bass, 59-10
11th:      Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 24 bass, 56-9
12th:      Brent Chapman, Lake Quivira, Kan., 22 bass, 54-7
13th:      Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 23 bass, 54-2
14th:      Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 23 bass, 52-11
15th:      Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 23 bass, 52-3
16th:      Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 25 bass, 51-15
17th:      Jesse Wiggins, Addison, Ala., 25 bass, 51-2
18th:      Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., 20 bass, 49-7
19th:      Shin Fukae, Osaka, Japan, 19 bass, 43-11
20th:      Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, 17 bass, 42-4

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

Greg Vinson of Wetumka, Alabama, earned the Day 1 Berkley Big Bass Award Thursday with a 5-pound, 14-ounce largemouth that he caught on a swimbait early in Period 2. 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. CT from the Kentucky Dam Marina, located at 466 Marina Drive in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. The takeout will be held at the same location beginning at 3:45 p.m. daily. 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, June 7-8, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the Kentucky Dam Swim Beach at 466 Marina Drive in Gilbertsville 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 Abu Garcia rod and reel each day. The event also includes a youth fishing derby and a casting contest. The Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand both days to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.

The Lowrance Stage 5 at Kentucky Lake Presented by Mercury will feature 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 Lowrance Stage 5 at Kentucky Lake Presented by Mercury will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 25 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Saturday, Nov. 1. 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 Sport Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, 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.