Dayton, Tennessee pro catches 28 bass weighing 88-14 to clinch
victory and earn $100,000 top prize
The mighty St. Lawrence River provided a fitting end to the 2024
Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour season at Minn Kota Stage
Seven Presented by Humminbird – a season full of drama and
excitement, new winners and superstars adding to their résumés.
Ultimately, after a back-and-forth third-period slugfest between
pros Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, and Shelbyville, Kentucky’s
John Hunter, Neal sealed the deal with 28 bass for 88 pounds, 14
ounces. His margin of victory over Hunter was 15-3, but the final
day was much closer than the final SCORETRACKER® would
indicate.
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Pro Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee,
won the final regular-season event of the 2024 Major League Fishing
Bass Pro Tour season - the Minn Kota Stage Seven at the St.
Lawrence River Presented by Humminbird, and earned the top payout
of $100,000. (Photo: Business Wire)
Hunter led for much of the day, trading blows and the lead with
Neal before Neal hit another gear. The final hour saw the eventual
winner catch six bass for 17-2 to put it away. The win marks Neal's
first since the 2021 season finale on Lake St. Clair and comes
after many close calls, including two runner-up finishes this
season.
Neal finished the year strong with the win and joined the
exclusive list of two-time Bass Pro Tour winners. Both of his
victories came on famed northern smallmouth fisheries and both were
Stage Seven events.
Link to Hi-Res Photo of Stage Seven Winner Michael Neal
Link to HD Video – Fish-Catch Highlights of Championship Round
on the St. Lawrence River Link to Afternoon Photo Gallery of
Stage Seven Championship Round Highlights
With 15 regular season Bass Pro Tour Top 10s (second only to
three-time Angler of the Year Jacob Wheeler), it's surprising that
this is only Neal's second win. The Championship Round experience
paid off as he sealed the victory, and Neal was as relieved as
anyone.
"It's been a long time coming," he said. "Today was starting to
feel like the Chowan River (at Stage Five), where I got out to a
big lead, and it slipped away from me. I've had a ton of seconds in
my career and felt like I was on that path again. When I won the
last event in 2021, I won the first event of the 2022 season on the
[Tackle Warehouse] Invitationals, and hopefully I can get on
another hot streak like that."
This win here is special to Neal as he was able to clinch his
first major title, the 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Angler of
the Year, on these same waters. It also cements him as a certified
smallmouth specialist after claiming his previous win on Michigan's
Lake St. Clair.
"I won my first AOY title right here on the same spot,” he said
on the MLFNOW! broadcast. “This place will always be special to me.
Growing up on Lake Chickamauga, if I caught a smallmouth, it was by
accident. I've never considered myself a smallmouth fisherman, and
I never thought I'd win a smallmouth tournament once, let alone
twice."
Neal spent much of his time in deeper water than many
competitors. He stuck with the tried-and-true drop-shot rig with a
slight twist while also mixing in a finesse jig.
"I primarily stayed in the 40 to 60 feet depth range keying on
rock, but my biggest fish on the last day was in 65 feet of water,"
he said. "I don't think depth mattered a lot, and the current was
the main thing, and the fish, especially the bigger ones, were on
sharper drops. The fish were either on the up-current side or down
current, using the breaks as current drops. Most of my weight this
week came from one stretch where the bottom was wavy looking with a
bunch of rolling ups and downs."
Instead of rigging up a standard drop-shot worm, Neal improvised
and went with the current trend of soft plastics with protruding
silicone skirting material. His version was homemade, with a Big
Bite Baits Scentsation Quarantine Craw serving as the plastic.
"I went to Walmart and bought some sewing needles and cut a
banded skirt in half," he said. "I threaded eight stands into each
one, so the bait had 16 strands coming out of the bait. They were
green pumpkin baits with some green pumpkin purple skirt materials,
and they looked just like the gobies the bass were spitting out. I
was fishing around guys all week and felt like that got me more
bites."
Neal fished his creation on a 7-foot, 6-inch medium Denali
Kovert, a 3000-sized spinning reel and 10-pound-test Sunline
Overwatch braid with a leader of 7-pound-test Sunline Shooter
fluorocarbon. He threaded the bait on a 1/O Gamakatsu G-Finesse
Stinger drop-shot hook with a 3/8-ounce Denali Kovert tungsten
weight.
"That setup was key for me, and I didn't break off a fish all
week," he said. "I also caught some fish on a 1/2-ounce Beast Coast
OW Sniper Jig and used that same rod but modified to be a casting
model. I had a guy back home turn that blank into a casting rod by
changing the handle and the first couple of guides. It's the
perfect rod for fighting big smallmouth with a lot of line out
because you had to let a lot of line out to keep it on the bottom.
And when you'd hook one, there'd be 100 feet of line out there, and
you can still land them with that rod."
As much thought as Neal put into his setups for Stage Seven, it
begs the question: How did he transform into a smallmouth guru?
Neal said a change in thinking and a better understanding of the
species are likely the culprits.
"I think it's all because I knew nothing about them,” he
admitted. “I've learned that you must have an open mind when
smallmouth fishing because they move so much daily. Largemouth are
always going to be right on some cover, and smallmouth will always
just be around something. That took me a while to figure out. I'm
still not sure I like smallmouth fishing, but it seems to suit
me."
Hard to argue. He now has two BPT wins to show for it.
The top 10 pros from the Minn Kota Stage Seven Presented by
Humminbird at the St. Lawrence River are:
1st: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 28 bass, 88-14, $100,000 2nd:
John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., 23 bass, 73-12, $45,000 3rd: Nick
Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 15 bass, 55-14, $38,000 4th: Drew
Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 18 bass, 55-6, $32,000 5th: Matt Becker,
Ten Mile, Tenn., 17 bass, 53-12, $30,000 6th: Chris Lane,
Guntersville, Ala., 18 bass, 52-1, $26,000 7th: Brent Ehrler,
Redlands, Calif., 13 bass, 42-6, $23,000 8th: Spencer Shuffield,
Hot Springs, Ark., 13 bass, 40-8, $21,000 9th: Bryan Thrift,
Shelby, N.C., 13 bass, 38-4, $19,000 10th: Marty Robinson, Lyman,
S.C., 12 bass, 34-12, $16,000
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 170 bass weighing 535 pounds, 9 ounces
caught by the 20 pros Sunday, which included one 6-pounder, two
5-pounders, and 25 4-pounders.
Pro Nick Hatfield of Greeneville, Tennessee, earned Sunday’s
$1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a smallmouth bass weighing in at
6 pounds even that he caught during Period 3. The $3,000 prize for
heaviest bass of the tournament went to Louisiana’s Cliff Crochet,
who caught a largemouth weighing 6 pounds, 7 ounces on Day 2 of
Group A competition.
Harrison, Tennessee, pro Jacob Wheeler, clinched the 2024
Fishing Clash Angler of the Year honors and the $100,000 payout on
Friday – Wheeler’s third AOY title in the last four years.
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 Minn Kota Stage Seven at the St. Lawrence River Presented by
Humminbird featured 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 six-day tournament, hosted by the Town of Massena, showcased
78 of the best professional anglers in the world competing for a
purse of more than $805,000, with a top prize of $100,000 going to
the winner.
Television coverage of the Minn Kota Stage Seven at the St.
Lawrence River Presented by Humminbird will premiere as a two-hour
episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Nov. 16 on Discovery.
New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with
re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
The 2024 Bass Pro Tour featured a field of 78 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 REDCREST 2025, the Bass Pro Tour
championship, set for April 3-6, 2025, on Lake Guntersville in
Huntsville, Alabama.
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, PowerStop Brakes, 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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JOE OPAGER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS p: 218.434.0748 e:
joe.opager@majorleaguefishing.com www.majorleaguefishing.com