EARLY – When Jacob Wheeler launched on Lake O.H. Ivie for the second day of the Qualifying Round at the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Suzuki Marine Stage 4 Presented by Plano, the Day 1 leader was unsure whether he wanted to try to win the round and earn the automatic trip to the Championship Round.
Eight hours later, after lines out, Wheeler joked that he was “still unsure.” But while he never fully committed to holding the top spot on SCORETRACKER®, the bass made his decision for him.
Wheeler added 13 scorable bass for 24 pounds, 12 ounces on Friday to win the Qualifying Round with a two-day total of 78-12. That cleared second-place Wesley Strader by more than 12 pounds.
“I was just like, the hell with it,” Wheeler said. “When you can get a good finish, take a guaranteed good finish.”
As a result, Wheeler will skip Saturday’s Knockout Round, which will pit the rest of the Top 25 finishers on a new fishery in Lake Brownwood. Wheeler will join the top nine anglers from that round in Sunday’s Championship Round, where he’ll try to extend his Bass Pro Tour-best win total to 11.
Wheeler may have wrestled with the decision, but said he ultimately caught enough fish to keep himself atop the leaderboard all day Friday because he doesn’t know Lake Brownwood well enough to guarantee he’d make the Top 10 via the Knockout Round. He thinks spending Saturday on the fishery, which is about 75 miles northwest of O.H. Ivie, would help his chances of winning the event. Then again, you can’t win if you’re not in the final-day field, and he’s now guaranteed that.
“If I was super dialed in on Brownwood, I probably would have just laid up today, because I would have caught them (Saturday morning), and then I would have been able to go practice,” Wheeler explained. “But I’m not super dialed.”
He won’t be entering the Championship Round blind, though. Wheeler fished two days on Brownwood during the 2024 Patriot Cup, a Fishing Clash Team Series event in which he competed alongside Dustin Connell. He also spent about seven hours of the three-day official practice window on the lake.
“I have enough stuff there that I feel like I’ll catch some bass, and I know the lake well enough because I fished two days of a Team Series event there,” he said. “So, I know how it sets up. I’ll be able to go run around a little bit, which will be important.”
Wheeler also said he won the round because he couldn’t resist the topwater frog bite he found Friday morning.
Late on Day 1, Wheeler spied a school of bass busting on shad, and he quickly caught four scorable bass on a frog and a swim jig. He returned to that spot Friday morning and was able to generate some explosive blowups as he stacked nine scorable bass for 23-11 on SCORETRACKER® in the first 70 minutes.
“I’m a topwater addict,” Wheeler said. “I love throwing topwater baits. If I could only have one bait to throw the rest of my life, it would have to be a topwater. So, when I get the opportunity to throw a frog in heavy cover, and they’re blowing it out of the water and eating it and coming 4 foot out of the water with it, you can’t ask for anything more. It was a lot of fun.”
Wheeler solved a tricky bite on O.H. Ivie with a two-pronged approach. He caught most of his weight on Day 1 flipping a Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug to flooded bushes in 5 to 8 feet of water, targeting spawning bass in doing so.
“Those fish were spawning a little bit deeper on those bushes, and that was definitely the best deal,” he said. “Really taking your time and fishing around slowly – trying to pitch to the outside of the bush first, then fish the center of it. Because the center of it, you’re going to get the bite, but typically you’re going to lose them. So, being methodical, being smart about the entry and the exit helped me throughout the week.”
That bite faded as the tournament progressed. Wheeler attributed that to the fish being in between spawning waves, so more were leaving the beds than arriving. He adjusted by targeting schools feeding on shad with the aforementioned reaction baits – a pattern several anglers exploited for hot starts on Day 2.
Taking advantage of the morning bite proved pivotal, as the action slowed for everyone as the sun got higher and the wind gained steam. Wheeler amassed 48-11 of his 78-12 total during the opening periods on Thursday and Friday.
“You had a little bit of a shad spawn in the morning, and also you just were able to fish those bushes so much more efficiently without the wind,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler will spend Saturday strategizing for his 41st Championship Round in 63 career Bass Pro Tour events. But that’s not all he has on the docket. He’s also hoping to pull off a last-minute turkey hunt, followed by a hunt for his first win of 2026 on Sunday.
Weights were stacked tight around the Lucas Oil Cut Line throughout the two Qualifying Round days, and for the second event in a row, the final spot in the Knockout Round field (and the last $15,000 check) was decided by tiebreaker.
Mitchell Robinson and Colby Miller both finished with 33-2, but Robinson won the tiebreaker thanks to his 7-1 big bass. He also caught a 6-14 on Friday, and those two big bites accounted for more than 40 percent of his total. Anthony Gagliardi and Nick LeBrun also finished one scorable bass shy of making the cut.
None of the double-digit giants that O.H. Ivie has been known to produce made an appearance at this event, but we did see two 8-pounders on Friday. Jacob Walker earned Berkley Big Bass honors for an 8-7 brute. That narrowly edged Wesley Strader, who caught an 8-4 as part of a furious start that saw him catch nine scorable bass for 31-2 in the first 35 minutes after lines in.
The top 25 pros that now advance in competition at Suzuki Marine Stage 4 Presented by Plano are:
*1st: Jacob Wheeler, Birchwood, Tenn., 26 bass, 78-12 – ADVANCES TO CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
2nd: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 23 bass, 66-10
3rd: Marshall Hughes, Hemphill, Texas, 22 bass, 59-15
4th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 16 bass, 54-0
5th: Bradley Roy, Lancaster, Ky., 17 bass, 48-5
6th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 12 bass, 45-15
7th: Takahiro Omori, Emory, Texas, 14 bass, 45-13
8th: Brent Chapman, Lenexa, Kan., 16 bass, 45-6
9th: David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 17 bass, 45-6
10th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 18 bass, 44-6
11th: Greg Vinson, Wetumpka, Ala., 16 bass, 44-0
12th: Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., 12 bass, 40-14
13th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 13 bass, 40-14
14th: Adrian Avena, Marmora, N.J., 12 bass, 40-7
15th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 12 bass, 39-10
16th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 14 bass, 38-14
17th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 13 bass, 38-1
18th: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 12 bass, 38-0
19th: James Elam, Cleveland, Okla., 15 bass, 37-15
20th: Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 12 bass, 37-11
21st: Alton Jones Jr., Lorena, Texas, nine bass, 37-9
22nd: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 12 bass, 36-8
23rd: Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C., 11 bass, 35-7
24th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 14 bass, 34-7
25th: Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., eight bass, 33-2
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 262 bass weighing 788 pounds, 8 ounces, caught by the 51 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Friday.
Friday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award was earned by Jacob Walker of Springville, Alabama, who caught an 8-pound, 7-ounce largemouth in the first period on a jighead minnow. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
Hosted by Visit Early, the four-day tournament features 51 of the world’s top professional anglers competing for a $125,000 top prize and their share of a $600,000 purse, along with valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for REDCREST 2027 – the Bass Pro Tour championship – and the Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event.
The full field of anglers competed in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday on O.H. Ivie. With the two-day Qualifying Round now complete, the pro with the heaviest two-day total – Jacob Wheeler – now advances directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. Anglers that finished 2nd through 25th now advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round on Lake Brownwood. 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 on Lake Brownwood, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $125,000.
Anglers will arrive Saturday and Sunday (March 28-29) at 6:15 a.m. CT to the Brownwood Reservoir Public Boat Ramp, located at 621 Spillway Road in Brownwood, Texas. Anglers will return to Brownwood Reservoir Public Boat Ramp each evening following the end of competition at 3:45 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to watch the event live online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® livestream and follow along with SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live each day of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
On Saturday and Sunday, March 28-29, from 3–6 p.m., MLF invites fans of all ages to the Early Town Center, located at 109 Kelcy Way in Early, for the MLF Fan Experience & Watch Party. Fans can watch the Bass Pro Tour pros live on the MLFNOW!® big screen, enjoy free food for the first 100 fans each day, enter hourly giveaways, browse MLF merchandise and the bargain bait bin, and cheer on their favorite anglers. Youth of all ages can take part in a fishing derby (gear and bait provided, weather permitting) and a casting contest. Live music with C.J. Briscoe and Caleb Wilbourn begins at 4 p.m., followed by Top 10 angler interviews and the trophy presentation at 5 p.m., including autographs and photos with Bass Pro Tour finalists. The first 50 kids ages 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel each day.
Student anglers from 6th grade through college are invited to join MLF pros at the free Columbia PFG Student Angler Clinic on Saturday, March 28, from 2–6 p.m. The clinic will also be held at Early Town Center, located at 109 Kelcy Way in Early, and offers a unique opportunity for students to learn from Bass Pro Tour pros, gain hands-on fishing instruction and compete in the national MLF Casting Competition. Click HERE for more details and to register for the event.
The Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood Presented by Plano features anglers competing with a 2-pound 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 2026 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 51 of the best 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 Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2027 championship.
Television coverage of the Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood Presented by Plano will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 12, on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Force, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota, Yuengling and Zenni.
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, 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.