INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. (Nov. 18, 2024) – Four new teams set out on Headwaters Lake early Monday morning for Elimination Match 2 of the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches, the final event of the 2024 General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops season. Whether due to the fact that he was the only Florida native in the field or celebrating his birthday, no one could keep pace with Terry Scroggins.

The Team Lucas Oil duo of Scroggins and Britt Myers held the top spot on SCORETRACKER® for much of the day and finished in first place with 43 pounds, 10 ounces on 18 scorable bass. Scroggins accounted for 38-9 of that by himself — more than any other two-angler team. That tally was bolstered by a 7-8 lunker, which easily represented the biggest bass caught through two days of competition on Headwaters.

Meanwhile, the other three teams waged a tight race for second place during an explosive third period. Team Coign, made up of Drew Gill and Marshall Robinson, ultimately slid into the second-place spot thanks to a 3-9 in the final 2 minutes. They finished the day with 15 scorable bass weighing 28-15.

Team Lucas Oil and Team Coign will advance to the Knockout Round, to be contested Wednesday and Thursday. The Ferguson team of Marty Robinson and Jonathon VanDam and Team Builders FirstSource – Nick Hatfield and Takahiro Omori – were eliminated from the competition.

Team Lucas Oil spent the competition day on the east side of Headwaters Lake punching heavy, dense vegetation. The pair held the lead most of the day, relinquishing it briefly to Team Ferguson at the end of the first period. But as the sunshine peeked out, burning off the cloud cover, Team Lucas Oil regained the lead and never looked back.

“We started off this morning, hit a little stretch and had seven or eight bites real quick,” said Scroggins. “We caught a few, lost a few, and then we ran away from them — there’s just so many targets out here to fish. So, we went back to that area during Period 2 and was able to capitalize on them.

“It’s like a needle in a haystack out there — there are mats and hydrilla everywhere. You can go and go and not get a bite, but then you’ll run into seven or eight bites. So, we knew we just needed to keep moving. Once we had a little sun and had a break from the cloud cover, that made a big difference for us.”

The duo spent the day targeting fish in big fields of hydrilla but said the key was finding the matted pennywort and water hyacinth on top of the hydrilla.

“That’s what the fish were keying in on, so we just kept running those mats,” said Scroggins. “Today was just one of those absolute fun days fishing. We only fished two baits — a little creature-style bait, black, blue and silver-colored, and then a craw in the same color — on 65-pound braid. We threw that on a little MHX light flipping stick with a 1 1/2-ounce weight on a 3/0 hook.”

“I couldn’t ask for a better General Tire Team Series event, being out here with one of my best friends,” said Myers. “We room together, but when the tournaments are over, we’re both busy. We hardly ever get to fish together, so this has been great.”

After a rough start to the day, Team Coign was 9 pounds 14 ounces below the Elimination Line at the start of the third and final period. The duo racked up nearly 21 pounds in Period 3 alone to finish in second place.

“It was on overwhelming first period to say the least,” said Gill. “We had five or six scoreable bites but only put two of them in the boat. We just had several missed opportunities. It’s easy to get lost in the sauce in a place like Florida and all of the good options, all the good-looking cover.

“We tried to run some places that might have some flow, some depth access and places with a clean bottom. We just tried to fish a little fast, burn some water and stay around one of those deeper stretches.”

With two minutes remaining in the final period, Robinson boated a 3-9 to put them over the Elimination Line and earn the berth to the Knockout Round — knocking his father, Marty, out of the second spot in the process.

“That was freaking clutch,” said Gill. “That was our second-biggest fish of the day. We said we just needed one fish a piece in the last hour or so, and we did it.”

“I’d just told Drew we needed a 5-pounder, and we immediately caught a 3-9 and a 4,” said Robinson, laughing.

The top two teams from Elimination Match 2 at the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches that now advance to the Knockout Round are:

1st:         Team Lucas Oil, 18 bass, 43-10
Britt Myers, Lake Wylie, S.C., three bass, 5-1
Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla. 15 bass, 38-9
2nd:        Team Coign, 15 bass, 28-15
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., five bass, 8-11
Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 10 bass, 20-4

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:         Team Ferguson, 14 bass, 27-3
Marty Robinson, Lyman, S.C., eight bass, 16-8
Jonathon VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., six bass, 10-11
4th:         Team Builders FirstSource, 13 bass, 24-0
Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., three bass, 4-3
Takahiro Omori, Tokyo, Japan., 10 bass, 19-13

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

Overall, there were 60 bass weighing 123 pounds, 12 ounces caught by the four teams in Elimination Match 2 on Headwaters Lake. Team Lucas Oil pro Terry Scroggins caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a largemouth weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces.

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 every 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 enter the one-day Elimination Round matches. Each of the three Elimination Round matches will feature 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 will compete 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.