Tennessee pro paces field for top eight anglers advancing in competition, 15 Anglers in Group B to wrap Qualifying Round Tuesday

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. (May 19, 2025) – After racking up more than 75 pounds on Day 1, Michael Neal didn’t need to catch another bass during Group A’s second day of qualifying to maintain his spot atop SCORETRACKER® at B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops . The Tennessee pro went ahead and added seven scorable bass for 22 pounds, 5 ounces anyway, bringing his two-day total to 98-3 to win the group’s Qualifying Round by nearly 25 pounds.

While Neal’s lead afforded him a stress-free day exploring new water on Smith Mountain Lake, plenty of drama unfolded further down the standings. Jeff Sprague and Nick Hatfield both put together huge days to rally from below the elimination line and qualify for the Knockout Round. Hatfield’s 17 scorable bass included a 5-6 largemouth that earned him $10,000 as the biggest bass of the day.

Meanwhile, the elimination line jumped all the way from 24-9 at the start of the day to 53-11 at lines out. With less than 20 minutes left, Cliff Crochet boated a 3-8 to leap past Bass Pro Tour stars Jacob Wheeler and Alton Jones Jr. and claim the final Knockout Round berth. He and the rest of the top eight finishers from the group will return to the water Wednesday, when the big bass of the day will be worth $30,000 and the Top 10 finishers will earn a trip to the Championship Round.

Neal spent the day trying to expand and refine the bite that produced his big Day 1. He started out fishing new banks in the same general area of the riverine upper end of the lake, trying to ascertain exactly how much room he’ll have to work with during the Knockout Round.

While he didn’t find much new productive water – he didn’t catch his first scorable bass until the final minutes of Period 1 – he was at least able to eliminate certain sections based on water temperature.

“I went out with the game plan just to expand basically as far away as I could and still do the same exact thing in the same general area,” he explained. “The water temperature was way different, way colder. No signs of a bait spawn or anything like that. … Just kept working my way closer to where I was and got about to where I really anticipated that it would start picking up again. The water temperature warmed up and started getting bit again.”

From there, Neal focused on dialing in his bait choice. Whereas he caught almost all his Day 1 weight on a spinnerbait, all but one of his scorable bass Monday ate topwater lures, primarily a frog and a buzzbait. He found that the amount of shade dictated the best presentation.

“I feel like the amount of shade that’s on the bank determines what bait you need to be throwing,” Neal said. “When you get in a bunch of shade, you need to be winding something, and when you get in them little pockets, that’s when a frog or a little popper – something that stays in place more – is coming into play. And that helps me going into this next round know when I can cover more water and when I can’t.”

Armed with that knowledge, Neal said he is “100% committed” to fishing the rest of the event in the zone that’s produced for him so far. While fishing pressure is a concern, he’s optimistic that the bass shouldn’t be leaving the area anytime soon – if anything, more should be coming to him.

“They’re on the main drag, on the steepest banks on the main drag, so really the only choice that they’ve got is to go suspend,” he said. “Otherwise, they have nowhere else to go as far as more toward a summer pattern.

“I know the fish are there, even for more than one boat, for somebody to win.”

The top eight pros from Qualifying Group A that now advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round on Smith Mountain Lake are:

1st:        Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 33 bass, 98-3
2nd:       Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 25 bass, 73-9
3rd:       Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 22 bass, 70-15
4th:        Fred Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., 19 bass, 66-11
5th:        Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 24 bass, 63-12
6th:        Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 23 bass, 61-12
7th:        Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 23 bass, 58-15
8th:        Cliff Crochet, Pierre Part, La., 18 bass, 53-11

Finishing the event in 9th through 15th place are:

9th:        Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, 19 bass, 52-15
10th:     Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 19 bass, 51-11
11th:     Dave Lefebre, Erie, Pa., 14 bass, 42-14
12th:     Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 13 bass, 39-13
13th:     Dylan Hays, Hot Springs, Ark., six bass, 19-4
14th:     Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, seven bass, 18-15
15th:     Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., seven bass, 18-11

Full results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 133 bass weighing 394 pounds, 8 ounces caught by the 15 pros on Monday, which included five 5-pounders and 10 4-pounders caught from Smith Mountain Lake.

Hosted by Visit Franklin County, Virginia and Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge , the B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters at Smith Mountain 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 15 Anglers in Group A competed in their two-day qualifying round on Saturday and Monday – the 15 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 Group A & B Qualifying, $30,000 for the biggest bass in the Knockout Round and $100,000 for the biggest bass in the Championship Round.

The Bass Pro Tour trailering policy has been enacted for this event, so anglers will depart Trinity Ecumenical Parish each morning at 6:15 a.m. to one of five launch ramps located around the fishery. Anglers will return to Trinity Ecumenical Parish each evening following the end of competition at 3:45 p.m. 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 B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters, the weight of an angler’s single-largest bass from each event of the seven 2024 Bass Pro Tour events was recorded. The 30 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 on each day 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.

Television coverage of B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters 2025 Presented by Bass Pro Shops will be showcased across six two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, July 26 and running each Saturday through Aug. 30 on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on the Outdoor Channel.

Proud sponsors of the 2025 B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Barbasol, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, MillerTech, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO Boats, Onyx, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Star brite, Toyota, YETI 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 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.