Team Kubota duo of Floyd and Hatfield advance with second-place finish, final four teams set for Friday’s Championship Round

SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY, La. (Nov. 20, 2025) – A mid-match slump turned into a dominant closing run for Team Ferguson, who unlocked a crucial dock bite in the final period, Thursday, to win Knockout Round Match 2 of the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by Zenni on Cypress Bayou and punch their ticket to Friday’s Championship Round. Team Ferguson’s Brent Ehrler of Redlands, California, and Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Alabama, closed out a tense, back-and-forth battle with a total of 30 pounds, 5 ounces on 18 scorable bass to overtake a tight field in the closing stretch and secure the win.

Team Kubota (Cole Floyd and Nick Hatfield) held steady throughout the day to finish second with 13 bass for 23 pounds, 7 ounces, earning the final berth in the Championship Round.

Meanwhile, Team Fishing Clash – Keith Carson and Ron Nelson – struggled to maintain momentum in the third period, weighing 10 bass for 18-9 and falling 4-14 below the Lucas Oil Cut Line to end their Summit Cup run.

Team Ferguson opened the match strong, targeting a hard spot along the dam with a Lucky Craft 1.5 Square Bill crankbait to set an early pace. But as the bite faded, their momentum stalled, and the team temporarily fell to the bottom of SCORETRACKER® before a critical adjustment reignited their day.

“Justin and I really took turns catching them today,” said Ehrler in his postgame interview. “We started off great and were leading the pack but then stalled out midday and found ourselves in last place there for a second.”

The turning point came when Ehrler fired a Lucky Craft Pointer 78DD jerkbait to the corner of a dock, hooking up almost instantly.

“We got on a really good pattern going into the third period,” said Lucas. “Brent caught a fish on the jerkbait and that changed things up for us. I picked up the drop-shot rig and caught some on that. We had a nice little one-two punch going.”

From that moment on, Team Ferguson dialed in a consistent rhythm, targeting docks sitting over a distinct 4- to 8-foot break along the bank. The combination of Ehrler’s jerkbait paired with Lucas’ drop-shot rig and occasional Neko rig with a Yamamoto Baits Sensei Worm allowed them to systematically pick apart productive water and regain control of the round.

“It seemed like the bite just completely turned midday,” Ehrler said. “They were chasing bait in the morning, kind of through midday, and then they just stopped, and they were on the bottom.”

“I got one that weighed 1-3 about halfway through the second period and I was like, ‘Oh my god. I got a bite,’ said Lucas. “Then I caught another one and that gave me all the confidence in the world. That was a game-changer in our day for sure.”

Together, the duo managed the emotional roller coaster of fluctuating leaderboard positions and switched up their pattern at exactly the right time.

“It was a stressful day because it was really close for a long time, and we just started to pull away at the end,” said Lucas. “But I think we had a nice little back-and-forth pattern going.”

The Knockout Round win marks the second Championship Round appearance together in three Team Series events for Ehrler and Lucas.

Team Kubota’s Floyd and Hatfield stayed committed to a single productive area all day, never firing up their Mercury outboard as they worked their way through a shallow, bait-rich zone in 2 to 3 feet of water. They rotated through vibrating jigs, crankbaits and topwater baits to generate enough steady action to remain above the Lucas Oil Cut Line despite a bumpy final period that included lost fish and several non-scorable hookups.

The top two teams from Knockout Round Match 2 at the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by Zenni that now advance to Friday’s Championship Round are:

1st:         Team Ferguson, 18 bass, 30-5
Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 12 bass, 20-8
Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., six bass, 9-13
2nd:        Team Kubota, 13 bass, 23-7
Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, seven bass, 13-6
Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., six bass, 10-1

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:         Team Fishing Clash, 10 bass, 18-9
Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., eight bass, 13-3
Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., two bass, 5-6

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

Overall, there were 41 bass weighing 72 pounds, 5 ounces caught by the three teams Thursday in Knockout Round Match 2 on Cypress Bayou. Team Fishing Clash pro Ron Nelson caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a largemouth bass weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces.

The final four teams that will compete in Friday’s final-day Championship Round at the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by Zenni are:

Team B&W Trailer Hitches:
Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas
Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La.

Team Ferguson:
Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif.
Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala.

Team Kubota:
Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio
Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn.

Team Lucas Oil:
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill.
Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C.

The Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by Zenni is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission and takes place over six days in Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana. 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 9:15 a.m.

The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on Championship Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps, RFD-TV Now, Game & Fish TV and Rumble. The final period of every day of competition of the 2025 Fishing Clash Team Series is broadcast live on RFD-TV, from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. CT.

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 competed each day, with the top two teams from each Knockout Round match now 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 2025 Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by Zenni.

The MLF Fishing Clash Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops features four Cup events in 2025 – the Challenge, Heritage, Patriot, 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 2025 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2025.

The MLF Fishing Clash Team Series Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by Zenni will also air on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour original episodes each Saturday afternoon starting May 9, 2026. The complete television schedule for the Fishing Clash Team Series on Outdoor Channel will be posted at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Fishing Clash Team Series include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Fishing Clash, Knighten Industries, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, NITRO Boats, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Smokey Mountain Caffeinated Pouches, Star brite, Toyota, YETI and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on the MLF Fishing Clash 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, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV and Game & Fish TV, 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.