CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Feb. 28, 2026) – The final day of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech finally started on time and went a lot better for most of the field. Stop 2 Presented by Star brite at Santee Cooper was pegged as one to watch, and today showed why, as 13 pros caught more than 25 pounds.

Leading after the first day, Aaron Yavorsky kept right on chugging, adding an even 32 pounds to his 35-4 to total up 67-4 and earn the win in style. Finishing second, Matteo Turano backed up his first day with 28-10 to also cross the 60-pound barrier with 60-3, and Cal Lane tallied up 59-7 on nine bass to finish third.

For the win, the 19-year-old Yavorsky takes home $100,000 and a REDCREST qualification. He also moves into the lead for 7 Brew Angler of the Year – narrowly ahead of Brody Campbell. Pro Circuit action resumes in late March on the Tennessee River for Stop 3 Presented by Suzuki Marine on Wheeler Lake.

In terms of two-day cumulative weights on the Pro Circuit, Yavorsky’s winning total is actually the fifth-highest all-time. And the young pro has now qualified for both the Bassmaster Classic and REDCREST before his 20th birthday.

Those accomplishments aside, he fished very well this week, but he didn’t do anything crazy to win – a minnow on offshore targets is a pretty solid game plan in the prespawn.

“I did some research; I heard Marion is a little sketchy to run, so I went to Moultrie,” he said. “I fished the wind-protected side the first day and fished some grass, didn’t do good, and then found some brush and stumps that had fish. I caught a 6-pounder on my first one, and that was interesting. Day 2 was slick calm, and I got to ride around the whole lake – there really wasn’t much stuff, but I found a couple places that had some giants. I didn’t really know the potential, but I would throw and see a bunch of big ones chasing my bait.”

Throwing a 7-inch 6^th Sense Shindo Shad on a 4.4-gram head with an 8-pound leader and a 7-foot Fitzgerald Fishing spinning rod was the ticket for Yavorsky. With it, he attacked brush and stumps in and on the edges of ditches in 15 to 20 feet.

“Day 1, I pulled up to one pile and they were just stacked – I caught 35 [pounds] in like 30 minutes,” he said. “In practice, that same pile, I threw my bait over it and like 30 big ones came out. I tried catching them, and they wouldn’t eat – I think it was a timing thing.”

Day 2, Yavorsky had to move a lot more, and he burned a pretty solid chunk of his three-hours of sonar running from target to target.

“Today, I went there first thing and caught a 6-pounder, and they didn’t turn on,” he said. “I ran around, and I went back to that place – I probably had 24 or 25 [pounds] at the time – and I caught an 8 and a 6. In my last 15 minutes of ‘Scope, I hit a stump I had, and I caught one almost 7 to put me over 30 pounds.

“I knew I had to run and gun; it was my whole game plan,” he said. “But it does get to you – I made a run down to the south end today to fish one brushpile, and somebody was already there. I probably wasted 20 minutes making that run – it’s stressful.”

This week, Yavorsky thinks that not having too many options actually helped him – a windy practice and it being his first time to the lake allowed him to focus on the best things he found.

“I usually like to pre-practice places, and I feel like if I pre-practiced here, it might have hurt me,” he said. “If you don’t, you never really know, but I think it helped this week. I think I would have had too much stuff to run and check. This week, I had a nice amount of stuff, and I stuck with it.”

One of the last anglers to sign up for all six events on the Pro Circuit schedule, Yavorsky actually rode the waitlist for a while. After the first two events, it’s already looking like a great decision.

“When they released the schedule, I saw that Harris was first and Kissimmee had the championship,” he said. “I knew that I needed to try to get in this. I had already visited like half the schedule – it looked good. But it took me a little while to figure out if I would be able to afford expenses.”

Now, he’s leading the points, a champion and rolling after a whirlwind start.

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. “After Harris, taking the lead on Day 1 and then just bombing, I was pretty hungry for this one. I practiced pretty hard, I stayed focused, I locked in. Hopefully I can do that all year.”

The top 20 pros at the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Stop 2 on Santee Cooper Presented by Star brite finished:

1st:         Aaron Yavorsky, Palm Harbor, Fla., 10 bass, 67-4, $100,000
2nd:       Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., 10 bass, 60-3, $24,800
3rd:        Cal Lane, Grant, Ala., nine bass, 59-7, $20,400
4th:        Hayden O’Barr, Scottsboro, Ala., 10 bass, 57-13, $17,900
5th:        Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, 10 bass, 55-0, $16,900
6th:        Levi Thibodaux, Thibodaux, La., 10 bass, 53-15, $15,900
7th:        Austin Pemberton, Tuscola, Texas, 10 bass, 53-5, $15,000
8th:        Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 10 bass, 52-3, $14,000
9th:        T.J. McKenzie, Georgetown, S.C., 10 bass, 49-14, $13,500
10th:      Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., nine bass, 47-11, $12,000
11th:      Tyler Campbell, Martin, Ga., 10 bass, 46-11, $10,000
12th:      Marty Robinson, Lyman, S.C., eight bass, 46-0, $10,000
13th:      Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 10 bass, 45-6, $10,000
14th:      Dylan Hays, Pearcy, Ark., 10 bass, 45-1, $10,000
15th:      Kyle Austin, Ridgeville, S.C., nine bass, 44-12, $10,000
16th:      Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 10 bass, 44-9, $10,000
17th:      Dylan Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., 10 bass, 44-8, $10,000
18th:      Britt Myers Jr., Clover, S.C., 10 bass, 43-7, $10,000
19th:      Fred Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., eight bass, 39-9, $10,000
20th:      Clint Knight, Russellville, Ky., nine bass, 39-8, $10,000

Complete results for the event can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 380 bass weighing 1,492 pounds, 9 ounces caught by 116 pros on Saturday. The catch included 40 five-bass limits.

Pro Cal Lane of Grant, Alabama, earned the Day 2 Berkley Big Bass award of $500 on Saturday after weighing in a bass that totaled 9 pounds, 15 ounces.

The Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech Stop 2 at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Star brite was hosted by Destination Clarendon.

After Day 1 on Thursday was canceled due to strong winds, the full field of pros competed on Friday and Saturday in a five-fish, weigh-in format. The winner was determined by heaviest cumulative two-day weight and earned the grand prize of $135,000.

Television coverage of the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech Stop 2 on Santee Cooper Presented by Star brite will air as a two-hour episode, premiering at 9 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 13 on Vice TV.

The 2026 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech features a field of up to 150 professional anglers competing across six tournaments around the country, for a total purse of $3.8 million and valuable 7 Brew Angler of the Year (AOY) points to qualify for the Pro Circuit Championship, set for Sept. 18-20 on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and a coveted spot on the MLF Bass Pro Tour – the sport’s premier circuit.

The next event for 2026 is the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Stop 3 at Wheeler Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine, set for March 19-21 in Decatur, Alabama.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, Bubba, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook, 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, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV, 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.