Field of 66 Anglers Ready to Compete for Top Prize of $150,000 at B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 Presented by Power-Pole

CONROE, Texas (Jan. 22, 2025) – All eyes will be on Lake Conroe next week, Jan. 30 – Feb. 2, when Major League Fishing (MLF) kicks off the 2025 Bass Pro Tour (BPT) season with the B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 Presented by Power-Pole.

Hosted by Visit Conroe, the four-day tournament will feature a field of 66 top professional anglers, including reigning Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) Jacob Wheeler, REDCREST 2024 Champion Dustin Connell, and fan-favorites Ott DeFoe and Edwin Evers, who won the last time the BPT visited Lake Conroe in 2019. Six Texas pros will also be looking to defend their home turf as they compete for a boosted $150,000 top prize at each tournament, a share of the $6.49 million season purse, and valuable AOY points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026, the Bass Pro Tour championship.

This event will mark the second time that the MLF’s top level, the Bass Pro Tour, has visited Lake Conroe. The tour last visited in 2019, the second event of its inaugural season. In that event Oklahoma’s Evers won by flipping his way down the bank with a black and blue Berkley PowerBait Pit Boss, picking out small indentations and grassy, undercut banks and flipping his bait as close to the bank as he could. He also caught some key fish on a vibrating jig.

California pro Brent Ehrler has only fished Conroe a handful of times but may have the best résumé on the lake of anyone in the field. He finished third there in the 2017 Bassmaster Classic and fourth at the 2019 BPT stop. Ehrler believes that the lake’s multitude of options make it a very good tournament fishery.

“About two-thirds of the lake is completely developed, and there’s so much available cover that it can be hard to pinpoint the fish,” he said. “It’s completely covered with docks, seawalls and dredged-out canals that it can almost be hard to figure them out because there’s so many potential targets. The northern section is the same, but undeveloped and all rock, brush and trees. That’s not counting the marinas and offshore brushpiles; the lake has almost everything.”

Ehrler hasn’t been to Conroe since the BPT event in 2019, but he knows what the lake is capable of.

“It’s known as a big-fish lake, and that time of year, we’re likely to see the biggest bass we’ll see all year,” he said. “It’s never been a numbers lake in my experience, but the chance to catch a huge one is always there.”

Ehrler expects many different techniques to be a factor. Nothing should be off the table at this event.

“You name it – you can catch them on just about anything on that lake and that time of year,” he said. “You can crank or throw a ChatterBait or jerkbait there, but you can also fish a shaky head or drop-shot. There will also be guys throwing a jig and Carolina rig and catching fish.”

Ehrler expects forward-facing sonar to play a factor, but the new rules limiting its use to just one period each day should mitigate its impact.

“I’m sure guys will catch them with LiveScope, and it’s never really been a factor here because all of the other tournaments were before we all had it,” Ehrler said. “I know it won’t be won solely with forward-facing sonar because we’re now limited. You’ll have to find ways to catch some in those other two periods.”

Anglers will arrive each morning at 5:30 a.m. CT to the Outlets at Conroe, located at 1111 League Line Road in Conroe. The Bass Pro Tour trailering policy has been enacted for this event, so anglers will depart the Outlets each morning at 6:30 a.m. to one of five optional launch ramps located around the fishery. Anglers will return to the Outlets at Conroe each evening, following the end of competition at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com .

On Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 1-2, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the Outlets at Conroe for the MLF Fan Experience & Watch Party. Fans can watch the pros live on the MLFNOW! big screen, enjoy free food, enter to win hourly giveaways and cheer on their favorite pros. The first 50 kids 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel each day. The Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand both days to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.

The B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Conroe Presented by Power-Pole will feature anglers competing with a 1-pound, 8-ounce minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

The 2025 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 66 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2026 championship.

The full field of anglers will compete in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday. After the two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the pro with the highest two-day total will advance directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. Anglers that finish 2nd through 20th will advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining anglers compete to finish in the top nine to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round. In the final-day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $150,000.

The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on the final four days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!®  will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

Television coverage of the B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Conroe Presented by Power-Pole will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Aug. 30 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering the following Saturday on Sept. 6. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, 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.