INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. (Nov. 20, 2024) – The Team REDCON1 duo of longtime West Coast friends John Murray and Skeet Reese picked up right where they had left off Tuesday at the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches.

After catching fire in the final period of Tuesday’s Elimination Round match on Headwaters Lake, Team REDCON1 found itself on a new fishery for the Knockout Round Wednesday – Florida’s famed Stick Marsh.  But the West Coast gurus managed to keep their momentum and the strong spinnerbait bite that worked so well at Headwaters rolling on Stick Marsh.

Murray and Reese caught 46 bass weighing 87 pounds, 2 ounces to become the first team to advance to Friday’s Championship Round. Also advancing, representing Team Lucas Oil, were pros Britt Myers and Terry Scroggins, who caught 22 bass weighing 54-6 to end the day in second place. Team Knighten Industries – Brandon Coulter and John Hunter – finished in third place with 19 bass weighing 39-3 and were eliminated from competition.

Match 2 of the Knockout Round is now set for Thursday, with the top two finishing teams joining Team REDCON1 and Team Lucas Oil in Friday’s Championship.  This event is the fourth and final General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops event of the 2024 season.

“That was one heck of a day,” Reese said in his postgame interview. “I hope that everyone at home enjoyed that today, because we sure as hell did. I’m not even sure how many fish we caught, but I know it was a lot. To be out here competing with one of my best friends on the planet, this week has already been such a blast.”

After Murray found the spinnerbait bite on Tuesday afternoon, he picked up the old school bait again on Wednesday and, after a brief morning lull, went to work. Murray threw the spinnerbait for most of the morning and boated eight keepers. He then switched to a speed worm in the afternoon and added another 10 scorable bass, before picking up the spinnerbait again late in the day and adding three more. All but one of the 25 scorable bass that Reese weighed in came on a junebug-colored swimming worm.

“John and I just kicked butt together as a team today” Reese said. “We’d get on the grass lines, and I’d be throwing the worm on the inside line and John would be chunking the spinnerbait on the outside.”

“With the little bit of wind, it created a diamond ripple on the water, and with the little bit of clouds that we had they were really eating the spinnerbait today,” Murray said. “There isn’t as much grass here as there is in Headwaters, but it didn’t seem to matter – they were biting for us.”

This Summit Cup event means a little bit more to these West Coast buddies and longtime travel partners, as Murray is fishing what could be his final MLF Cup event.

“This is likely going to be John’s last Cup event with us – he’s heading off to fish the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, so we really wanted to finish with a bang on this one,” Reese said. “Now that we’ve made the finals, we’ve got a shot. And coming in, that’s all we wanted and cared about – we wanted to have a shot at the end. It’s been a really great event so far, and hopefully we can come out here on Friday and send John out with the W.”

The top two teams from the first match of the Knockout Round at the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches that now advance to Friday’s Championship are:

1st:        Team REDCON1, 46 bass, 87-2
John Murray, Spring City, Tenn., 21 bass, 40-6
Skeet Reese, Auburn, Calif., 25 bass, 46-12
2nd:       Team Lucas Oil, 22 bass, 54-6
Britt Myers, Lake Wylie, S.C., eight bass, 22-13
Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla., nine bass, 31-9

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team Knighten Industries , 19 bass, 39-3
Brandon Coulter, Knoxville, Tenn., 10 bass, 17-12
John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., nine bass, 21-7

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

Overall, there were 87 bass weighing 180 pounds, 11 ounces caught by the three teams Wednesday on Stick Marsh. Lucas Oil pro Britt Myers earned the Berkley Big Bass of the day with an 8-pound, 9-ounce largemouth that he caught in the second period.

The Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches is hosted by Visit Indian River County and Play Treasure Coast Sports Tourism and takes place over six days in Indian River County, Florida. 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 8:45 a.m.

The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live each day of competition from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

The Summit Cup features 12 two-man teams divided into three groups as they entered 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 advancing to the Knockout Round on Days 4 & 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 Day 6 Championship Round, the final four teams will compete in a one-day shootout to determine which team will win the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer HItches.

The 2024 General Tire Team Series is comprised of four events – Challenge Cup, Heritage Cup, Patriot Cup and Summit Cup – featuring two-man teams of MLF Bass Pro Tour pros competing from the same boat. Each event features a roster of 24 anglers, teamed up and working together to claim part of a season purse of more than $720,000. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams have competed throughout the fall of 2024.

Television coverage of the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches will premiere on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour episodes in May 2025. New MLF General Tire Team Series episodes will premiere each Saturday morning on Outdoor Channel and posted to MOTV.

Proud sponsors of the MLF General Tire Team Series include: 7 Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Barbasol, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Builders FirstSource, C-MAP, Coign, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Fishing Clash, General Tire, Knighten Industries, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Nitro Boats, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala Baits, REDCON1, Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff, Star brite, Toyota, USAA, WIX Filters and YETI.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops, 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 17 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.