Illinois pro catches 22 bass totaling 58-14 on final day to earn
top award of $100,000
Over the past two years, Bass Pro Tour rookie Drew Gill of Mount
Carmel, Illinois, has rocketed up the tournament-fishing ranks
about as rapidly as any angler in recent memory. Competing in his
fifth Bass Pro Tour event at the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass
Pro Tour U.S. Air Force Stage Five Presented by WIX Filters on the
Chowan River, he made it to the mountaintop.
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Rookie pro Drew Gill of Mount Carmel,
Illinois, weighed in 22 bass totaling 58 pounds, 14 ounces, to win
the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour U.S. Air Force Stage
Five Presented by WIX Filters on the Chowan River and the top prize
of $100,000. (Photo: Business Wire)
Gill put together an epic run during the second period of
Sunday’s Championship Round on the Chowan River. In a little less
than 2 hours, the 22-year-old rookie stacked 10 bass totaling 31
pounds, 12 ounces onto SCORETRACKER®. The best period logged by any
angler during the event, it turned a nearly 9-pound deficit to
Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, into better than a 14-pound
advantage. The rest of the way, Gill would add another 10 pounds
and change, bringing his total to 58-14 — also the best day for any
angler all week. That topped Neal by 14 pounds, earning Gill
$100,000 and his first BPT trophy.
Link to Hi-Res Photo of U.S. Air Force Stage Five Presented
by WIX Filters Winner Drew Gill Link to HD Video –
Fish-Catch Highlights of Championship Round on Chowan River
Link to Photo Gallery of Championship Round On-The-Water
Highlights on Chowan River
“All I’ve wanted for the last few years was to just make it to
this field and get to compete against these guys,” Gill said. “To
make it to this field and get to compete against them and get a win
in my rookie season, the feeling is absolutely unquantifiable.”
On one hand, it might seem like Gill, who started fishing
tournaments in 2021 and was competing at the Abu Garcia College
Fishing level as recently as this January, came out of nowhere to
reach this point. On the other, the victory almost feels like a
long time coming.
After qualifying for the Bass Pro Tour during his first season
fishing the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Gill wasted little time
showing he could hang with the best. He finished third in his debut
event on Toledo Bend, then fourth at Stage Three on Dale Hollow and
second in his most recent BPT start on Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma.
Add in his three Top 10s at the Invitationals level this season —
including his first pro win on Sam Rayburn Reservoir in February —
and it seemed like only a matter of time until Gill would hoist a
Bass Pro Tour trophy.
“It's not really felt like a long time coming, it’s just felt
like a lot of chances coming,” Gill said.
Still, Gill admitted he didn’t think this would be the week he
broke into the winner’s circle. While he cruised through the
Qualifying Rounds, finishing second in Group B, he said Friday
afternoon that he hadn’t expected to make the Knockout Round
following a “mediocre at best” practice, and he worried that he was
running out of water to fish.
“I’ve always been a small-wins guy, a small-victories guy —
like, a check here, making a Top 10 when you don’t expect it,
things like that,” Gill said. “I’ve never been the kind of guy to
expect to win.”
While he wound up making the Top 10 with relative ease, Gill’s
chances of winning looked especially slim at 9:45 a.m. Sunday. At
that point, he’d caught just two scorable bass for 3-15 — 24-9 back
of Neal, who stacked up more than 17 pounds in 18 minutes during a
furious flurry.
That all changed when Gill made a move to an area he’d
discovered on the second day of Qualifying Rounds. Already one of
the savviest strategists in the game, Gill marked the spot while
searching for new water once he knew he’d secured a spot in the
Knockout Round. Then, after a quick start Saturday, he decided to
keep it in reserve for the Championship Round.
“I found that at the end of the Qualifying Round,” he said. “I
actually was about to go pull the trigger and go there yesterday,
and I caught a couple scorable bass, and it kept me from
going.”
Even Gill didn’t realize how important that decision would
be.
“I thought it had like 10- or 12-pounds’ worth of potential, and
just went to absolutely waylaying on them.”
Gill described the area as the mouth of a major tributary of the
Chowan River. While offshore, the water was “decently shallow” and
dotted with fallen cypress trees, brushpiles and other wood cover.
It produced not only numbers of bites but big ones — seven of the
10 fish he caught during the second period weighed 3 pounds or
more.
“There was a good baitfish population in that area,” Gill
explained. “The water fell a little bit today, and any time you’re
fishing out in front of a major tributary and the water falls,
you’re going to gain a population. And man, it was textbook, the
fish were a little more grouped up per piece of cover, and the more
you had on a single piece of cover, the more likely you were to get
bit.”
It’s no secret that Gill’s rise has resulted from his mastery of
Garmin LiveScope. On paper, this didn’t figure to be an event that
would fit that skillset — what little local knowledge there was of
the Chowan River prior to the first national event on its waters
suggested that shallow, target-oriented power fishing would be the
way to win.
But, as he’s proven multiple times this year, the type of
tournaments where many don’t think to lean on forward-facing sonar
are where Gill tends to shine. He’s not just a savant at beaming
bass, but understanding, anticipating and patterning their
behavior.
“Non-traditional ‘Scope tournaments are generally single-fish
tournaments where you’ve got to catch single fish off single
targets, and I feel like I’m really in tune with how to pattern
that and how to run around and find more when I need it,” Gill
said. “Just in terms of knowing when to make those decisions and
knowing how to keep fishing fresh water, knowing the importance of
it.”
Making short pitches to cover on the Chowan, Gill set his
LiveScope to 62 feet out and 16 feet down. All his fish Sunday ate
a Big Bite Baits Finesse Worm on a drop-shot with a 1/8-ounce
weight, which he threw on a 7-foot, medium-heavy, extra-fast Ark
Reinforcer spinning rod.
“I could keep it off the bottom, off the silt and off the little
stubble cover on the bottom, but I could still pitch it effectively
and quick,” Gill said of the drop-shot. “I could be real efficient,
and I could keep it from getting snagged up, because I had it
Tex-posed.”
Shortly after noon, Gill added a 3-14 to his rapidly rising
total and took the lead for the first time. At that moment, the
“small-wins guy” realized that the biggest win of his life was
there for the taking. After three close calls in the past four
events, he wasn’t about to let this one slip away.
“As soon as we took that lead, I kind of mentally just locked
into what I was doing and knew that I was probably going to get the
opportunities I needed to get it done this afternoon,” Gill said.
“Thankfully, I made good on most of those, and it ended up being
enough.”
The top 10 pros from the U.S. Air Force Stage Five at Chowan
River Presented by WIX Filters finished:
1st: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 22 bass, 58-14, $100,000
2nd: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 18 bass, 44-14, $45,000 3rd:
Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 20 bass, 41-14, $38,000 4th: Jacob
Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 12 bass, 36-1, $32,000 5th: Justin Lucas,
Guntersville, Ala., 12 bass, 31-4, $30,000 6th: Alton Jones Jr.,
Waco, Texas, 13 bass, 31-0, $26,000 7th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile,
Tenn., seven bass, 25-10, $23,000 8th: Zack Birge, Blanchard,
Okla., five bass, 11-8, $21,000 9th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., six
bass, 11-8, $19,000 10th: Fred Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., three
bass, 9-15, $16,000
A complete list of results can be found at
MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 118 scorable bass weighing 302 pounds, 8
ounces, caught by 10 pros Sunday, which included two 8-pounders,
one 6-pounder, four 5-pounders, four 4-pounders and 14
3-pounders.
Matt Becker of Ten Mile, Pennsylvania, earned Sunday’s $1,000
Berkley Big Bass Award with an 8-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass
that he caught on a jerkbait during Period 2. Berkley awards $1,000
to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and a $3,000
bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the
tournament.
Zack Birge of Blanchard, Oklahoma, had seven bass removed from
his total catch for violating Bass Pro Tour rule No. 18-A. Birge
ended the day with five bass weighing 11 pounds, 8 ounces and
finished the event in 8th place.
The stage is set for another four-way race for the Fishing Clash
Angler of the Year award down the season’s home stretch. Jacob
Wheeler, who entered Stage Five leading the season-long points
standings, padded his advantage a bit. The two-time AOY winner now
leads Alton Jones Jr. by 14 points, while Dustin Connell lurks 11½
points back of Jones with two events left.
Don’t discount Gill, either. The rookie climbed to fourth place
in the standings with his victory, just four points back of
Connell. While Gill would need the anglers in front of him to
stumble to become the second consecutive rookie to win AOY (he’s
28.5 points back of Wheeler), it’s not out of the question.
Fishing Clash, an interactive 3D fishing simulation game that’s
played by more than 80 million people worldwide, is the official
AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals,
Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League. You can download
Fishing Clash for free in the App Store and on Google Play or log
on to www.fishingclash.game for more information.
The U.S. Air Force Stage Five at Chowan River Presented by WIX
Filters featured the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in
which anglers caught as much weight as they could each day, while
also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER®
leaderboard. The tournament featured 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 six-day tournament, hosted by the Town of Edenton, the
Chowan County Tourism Development Authority and Harbor Towns
Cruises, showcased 78 of the top professional anglers in the world,
competing for a purse of $659,000, including a top payout of
$100,000 and valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points
in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star
event and REDCREST 2025, the Bass Pro Tour championship.
Television coverage of the U.S. Air Force Stage Five at Chowan
River Presented by WIX Filters Knockout Round will air as a
two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 26 on
Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Nov. 2. New
MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with
re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 79 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 2025 championship.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu
Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA,
Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Garmin, General Tire, Humminbird,
Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO,
Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Rapala, REDCON1, Star brite, Suzuki,
Toyota, WIX Filters and U.S. Air Force.
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.
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