Star brite duo of Miller and Cooper advance to Knockout Round with second-place finish on Day 1 of first event of Starlink Team Series season

CHARLES COUNTY, Md. (Aug. 16, 2026) – The first event of the 2026 Starlink Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops  launched on Sunday, and the Team B&W Trailer Hitches duo of Mark Davis of Mount Ida, Arkansas, and Marshall Hughes of Hemphill, Texas, left their competition in the dust. The duo established an early lead that left no question they would be claiming one of the two spots above the elimination line, rallying for 16 scorable bass weighing 31 pounds, 11 ounces, to win Elimination Match 1 of Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches.

Meanwhile, the other three teams were in a tight race throughout the day; often with a single scorable bass separating second place from fourth place. Team Star brite’s Justin Cooper and Colby Miller pulled ahead in the home stretch to claim second place with 18-14 on 13 scorable bass. Team Ferguson’s  Drew Gill and  Mitchell Robinson put up a good fight, finishing third with 13-9 on seven scorable bass and Team Kubota’s Edwin Evers and Alton Jones Jr.  were close behind them with 12-7 on eight scorable bass.

On a Potomac River that proved stingy for much of the field, the B&W duo found the most consistent bite by targeting scattered grass with soft plastics. Davis worked slightly deeper water primarily with a drop-shot and a Texas-rigged stick worm, while Hughes stayed shallower with a weightless watermelon-red Yamamoto Senko, giving the team unique presentations throughout the day.

“We found some grass, and it seemed like there wasn’t a whole lot of grass this year in that area, but the grass that we found had fish in it,” Hughes said. “We kind of hit them with a one-two punch. I was behind Mark throwing a weightless Senko at those little isolated grass patches and along the edges, and he was throwing that drop-shot.”

Davis said the ability to cover different portions of the water column proved to be a key to their consistency on a day when bites were difficult to come by.

“I was throwing a little Robo Worm on a drop-shot and caught several like that, and I also caught several on a Senko, Texas-rigged,” Davis said. “I fished a little deeper and Marshall stayed a little shallower, so we had that little one-two punch going. It worked. It wasn’t easy out there, but it was a fun day.”

Hughes led the way for Team B&W Trailer Hitches with nine scorable bass weighing 18-6, while Davis added seven bass for 13-5. Their steady production proved especially valuable as the Potomac became increasingly difficult through the afternoon. Team Star brite made a furious late charge with 10 scorable bass in the final period, but Davis and Hughes had already created enough separation to comfortably secure the victory and advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round.

The top two teams from Elimination Round Match 1 at the Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches that now advance to the Knockout Round are:

1st:        Team B&W Trailer Hitches, 16 bass, 31-11
Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., seven bass, 13-5
Marshall Hughes, Hemphill, Texas, nine bass, 18-6
2nd:      Team Star brite, 13 bass, 18-14
Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., four bass, 5-12
Colby Miller, Elmer, La., nine bass, 13-2

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team Ferguson, seven bass, 13-9
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., four bass, 6-5
Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., three bass, 7-4
4th:       Team Kubota, eight bass, 12-7
Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., five bass, 8-5
Alton Jones Jr., Lorena, Texas, three bass, 4-2

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

Overall, there were 44 bass weighing 76 pounds, 9 ounces caught by the four teams in Elimination Round Match 1 on the Potomac River Sunday. Team Ferguson pro Mitchell Robinson caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a 3-pound, 2-ounce largemouth bass.

The Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches is hosted by the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism and takes place over six days in Charles County, Maryland. 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 10:15 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 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and Rumble. The final hour of each day of competition will be broadcast live from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET on RFD-TV.

The Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches 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 2026 Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches.

The MLF Starlink Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops features four Cup events in 2026 – the Patriot, Heritage, Challenge, and Summit Cups – with 12 two-man teams of Bass Pro Tour anglers competing for a share of  $560,000 in prize money. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2026 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2026.

The MLF Starlink Team Series Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches will also air on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour original episodes each Saturday afternoon beginning in January 2027. The complete television schedule for the Starlink Team Series on Outdoor Channel will be posted at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Starlink Team Series include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Bass Force, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Grizzly, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Starlink, Toyota, YETI, Yuengling and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on the MLF Starlink Team Series, 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, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and 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.