{"id":8558,"date":"2026-01-19T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2026\/01\/19\/3220681\/0\/en\/Drew-Gill-Wins-MLF-Bass-Pro-Tour-B-W-Trailer-Hitches-Stage-1-on-Lake-Guntersville-Presented-by-Mercury.html3220681"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T02:22:48","slug":"drew-gill-wins-mlf-bass-pro-tour-bw-trailer-hitches-stage-1-on-lake-guntersville-presented-by-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoinsider.asia\/vi\/drew-gill-wins-mlf-bass-pro-tour-bw-trailer-hitches-stage-1-on-lake-guntersville-presented-by-mercury\/","title":{"rendered":"Drew Gill Wins MLF Bass Pro Tour B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 on Lake Guntersville Presented by Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GUNTERSVILLE, Ala., Jan. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — When he launched his boat onto Lake Guntersville for the Championship Round of B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 Presented by Mercury<\/a> Sunday morning, pro Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Illinois,<\/a> never considered that he would end the day hoisting his third Bass Pro Tour<\/a> trophy. <\/p>\n

Gill has been a mainstay in the Top 10 during his young BPT career. This marked his ninth Championship Round appearance in his first 17 events. But after leaning hard on all the productive spots he\u2019d found to make the Knockout and Championship Round cuts, it was the first time he entered the final day thinking he didn\u2019t have a shot to keep pace with the leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve made a Top 10 where I\u2019ve been like, \u2018I know it\u2019s not possible tomorrow,\u2019\u201d Gill said. \u201cBecause I had burned my \u2018Scope stuff. I mean, I caught 150 pounds off one place for the last three days, and they got progressively harder to catch every day. And I couldn\u2019t get a no-\u2018Scope bite going yesterday to save my life. So, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m cooked.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out, Gill was still able to use his mastery of forward-facing sonar to stack up weight in a hurry. The 23-year-old boated 20 scorable bass for 53 pounds, 5 ounces in the first period, building a lead of more than 24 pounds over his nearest pursuer. Then, he did just enough to hold off hard charges from Jacob Walker<\/a>, Jacob Wheeler<\/a> and others. Walker landed a 6-9 brute right before lines out, but it wasn\u2019t quite enough. Gill\u2019s 82-4 total edged him by 1-5.<\/p>\n

The win marks Gill\u2019s third Bass Pro Tour victory and fourth total MLF win and earned him the first $125,000 paycheck of the season. He\u2019s also the early leader in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year<\/a> race, a title he\u2019s coveted since arriving on tour. <\/p>\n

Link to Hi-Res Photo of B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville Winner Drew Gill<\/a><\/b>
Link to Day 4 Photo Gallery: Anglers hit Lake Guntersville with guns blazing for first Championship Round of 2026<\/b><\/a>
Link to Day 4 Photo Gallery: Lake Guntersville shootout on Championship Sunday<\/a><\/b>
Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 4 Championship Round Competition<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Even more important for the hyper-competitive Gill, it broke him out of a streak of near-misses. Since the end of the 2025 regular season, he\u2019s finished second in two Team Series<\/a> events as well as the Toyota Series Championship in November, where he missed out on a $200,000 win by tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I just hate coming close and losing,\u201d Gill said. \u201cMoney and points aside, how you feel after the tournament is over, I would way rather finish between like third and sixth than I would second. Second is a hard pill. And I knew, with how tight it was getting in the last 20 minutes, I was like, \u2018If I don\u2019t win, I\u2019m finishing second.\u2019 I had to not psych myself up that I was going to win mentally, because I knew if I had worked myself up to it and got excited for it and it didn\u2019t happen, I would have been really, really crushed. So it means the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gill reminded fans this week why he\u2019s widely considered one of the best anglers alive at using modern technology to catch bass. He knew he would need to take full advantage of his one allotted period per day with forward-facing sonar to have a chance to win, and he did just that. <\/p>\n

After catching 43-8 during the first period on Day 1, he topped 50 pounds each of the following three days for a grand total of just over 200 pounds using forward-facing sonar throughout the event. Gill caught just about all of those fish using a 4 1\/4-inch Big Bite Baits Spotlight Minnow<\/a> in blue gizzard on a 3\/16-ounce jighead with a 2\/0 hook.<\/p>\n

Even more impressive is that all those fish came off one spot. During the last hour of practice, Gill found a huge school of bass chasing bait by a bridge at the mouth of a creek. The area had all the ingredients of prime wintertime habitat \u2013 plenty of baitfish, a pinch-point for bass to corral them and a place for them to rest while not feeding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat place was perfect,\u201d Gill said. \u201cRight out from the bridge, there\u2019s a roadbed that\u2019s about 10 feet deep, and so they had a place where they could sit when they weren\u2019t feeding, and they had that baitfish presence not even 100 yards away. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo hundred pounds in four days \u2013 an average of 50 pounds a \u2018Scope period. That is absolute filth. That is murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason the spot surprised Gill Sunday is he was no longer sharing it. Each of the first three days, Banks Shaw<\/a> had started the first period fishing right next to Gill, also using his forward-facing sonar. But Shaw, who felt the bite slowing down Saturday, opted to start the Championship Round elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t win if we were sharing that water, because it just gets diluted,\u201d Gill said. \u201cThat was critical, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a 24-pound lead after the first period might seem like significant breathing room, Gill knew it wouldn\u2019t be nearly enough to win. All week, the shallow winding bite had been getting better in the afternoon, leading to some big third-period comebacks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, keeping the pace once he turned his transducers off had been a challenge for Gill. On Day 1, he didn\u2019t catch a single fish after the first period. He fared better on Day 2, catching eight scorable bass for 23-13, but found the bite tougher again during the Knockout Round, when he caught seven for 17-11.<\/p>\n

Gill started the second period with a jerkbait and added four scorable bass in the frame, but it was just one here, one there \u2013 not steady action. Noticing that the wind had picked up, he switched to a crankbait, which had keyed his solid afternoon on Day 2. He went to a shallow bar and, after breaking the bill off his shad-colored plug, nearly left. But he saw a \u201cdivot\u201d with cleaner water and made one more cast to it with a craw-colored bait, which produced a 2-14. The very next cast, he caught a 2-3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Dang, maybe there\u2019s something to this,\u2019\u201d Gill recalled. \u201cSo, I go run to another stretch. As soon as I pull up, I catch a non-scorable. Fire back out there, catch a 4-8. Go another like 8 minutes, fire out there, catch a 3-8. At that point, it was an hour and change left, and I was sold. I was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to commit to this the rest of the day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gill caught six bass on the crankbait to bring his non-FFS total on the day to 28-15 on 10 scorable bass. He would need every single one of them.<\/p>\n

Throughout the third period, he kept getting word of other anglers making big moves up SCORETRACKER\u00ae. Right before Gill\u2019s flurry early in the third period, Walker had caught a 7-pounder to pull within 5 pounds. Zack Birge<\/a> and Shaw both made charges to pull within 20 pounds \u2013 a deficit that could be erased in five casts on Guntersville. Then there was Wheeler. The 10-time BPT winner, who Gill (and everyone else on Tour) always seems to be battling for his wins, made a roughly 50-mile run to the upper end of the fishery and caught 22 pounds of smallmouth in 16 minutes to trim his deficit to 7 pounds with about 10 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awful,\u201d Gill said. \u201cBanks hit a streak where he started smashing them. Jacob Walker was there all day long, and man, his big-fish bite that he had going on this week was horrifying, because he could make up so much ground in the blink of an eye with how many big fish he was catching. And then obviously, anytime you\u2019ve got Wheeler behind you in a less-than-double-digit pursuit, it\u2019s not ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker, who caught four bass over 6 pounds on the day, including a 7-4 that earned Berkley Big Bass honors, looked for a moment like he had pulled off a second miraculous buzzer-beater in his BPT debut, but his last-minute fish weighed just a little light. <\/p>\n

That left Gill to celebrate a win he never saw coming with his parents and fianc\u00e9e watching from shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten to win a Pro Circuit and now three Bass Pro tour events, but I\u2019ve never had my family present for one,\u201d Gill said. \u201cMy parents are here, and my fianc\u00e9e is here, and that\u2019s super, super cool. It means the world to me to get to experience this with them.\u201d <\/p>\n

The top 10 pros at the B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville Presented by Mercury finished:<\/p>\n

1st:        Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 28 bass, 82-4
2nd:      Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 20 bass, 80-15
3rd:       Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 22 bass, 75-4
4th:        Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 19 bass, 65-12
5th:        Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 21 bass, 63-14
6th:        Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 18 bass, 49-12
7th:        Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 17 bass, 48-8
8th:        Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 17 bass, 44-1
9th:        Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 12 bass, 37-10
10th:     Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 11 bass, 36-14<\/p>\n

A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overall, there were 185 bass caught weighing 584 pounds, 14 ounces, caught by the final 10 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award went to pro Jacob Walker who weighed in a 7-pound, 4-ounce largemouth during the third period on a bladed swimjig. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.<\/p>\n

The four-day B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville Presented by Mercury was hosted by Marshall County Tourism & Sports<\/a> and featured a roster of 51 of the top professional anglers in the world competing for a $125,000 top prize and their share of the $600,000 purse, along with valuable Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the MLF Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2027, the Bass Pro Tour championship.<\/p>\n

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 Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2027 championship.<\/p>\n

Television coverage of the B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville Presented by Mercury will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, July 4, on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.<\/p>\n

Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Cigars International, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota, Yuengling and Zenni.<\/p>\n

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com<\/a>. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF\u2019s social media outlets at Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About Major League Fishing<\/u><\/b>
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world\u2019s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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