|
Final 10 anglers set for Championship Sunday, heaviest one-day total earns top prize of $150,000
CALVERT CITY, Ky. (June 7, 2025) – Prior to the start of Lowrance Stage 5 Presented by Mercury, Brent Ehrler’s only goal was to finish among the top 30 and earn a paycheck. As the Qualifying Round progressed, he shifted his sights to advancing to the Knockout Round, which he managed in clutch fashion, catching two scorable bass in the last 12 minutes Friday to secure his spot in the Top 20.
When he launched on Kentucky Lake Saturday, Ehrler didn’t think he’d have much left in the tank. Turns out, he only needed one period to amass the weight he’d need to advance to Championship Sunday.
Ehrler stacked up 41 pounds, 4 ounces on 19 scorable bass during the opening stanza, second only to Kentucky Lake local Jake Lawrence. He finished the day with 75-2, besting Jacob Wall by 7-4 to top SCORETRACKER®.
“I kind of struggled yesterday; that’s why I was shocked that I was able to catch what I caught today,” Ehrler said. “But I found an area that was a lot better than I thought, and I was able to capitalize on it in the morning.”
Ehrler will now advance to his 18th career Championship Round, where he’ll set a new goal: claiming his first Bass Pro Tour victory. Doing so won’t be easy. He’ll be joined by the rest of the top nine finishers from Saturday — a group that includes Lawrence and fellow Kentucky Lake veterans Cole Floyd and John Hunter plus other ledge experts such as Wall and Michael Neal – not to mention Qualifying Round winner Jacob Wheeler. With nine of the Top 10 fishing offshore on Kentucky Lake, it should be an explosive finale reminiscent of the legendary lake’s glory days.
Link to Hi-Res Photo of Day 3 Leader Brent Ehrler
Link to Photo Gallery of Day 3 On-the-Water Highlights
Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 3 Competition
Ehrler echoed a common refrain from the pros competing in the first ever Bass Pro Tour event on Kentucky Lake: While the numbers on SCORETRACKER® might look gaudy, the bass aren’t everywhere. Ehrler noted that, in its heyday, the reservoir’s famous river-channel ledges would be teeming with bass. This week, anglers can still find schools, but there aren’t as many, and those that they have found have seen a lot of pressure over the past three days.
“There’s not a lot of them there, but some of them are biting,” he said. “It’s weird. Normally, I find a lot of schools. This time, I only found about four. And out of the four, only two of them are pretty good. So, I’ve narrowed it down to where I can catch one or two on one or two spots, and I can catch more than that on another spot. It’s not like before, where you’d have 20 schools to run to. I don’t have that.”
That’s why, when Ehrler started Saturday on the school that had produced most of his weight during the first two days of competition, he wasn’t sure there would be many bass left willing to bite. He was happy to be proven wrong. His 33 scorable bass were easily the most anyone caught on the day.
Ehrler mixed traditional ledge lures (a deep-diving crankbait and a hair jig) with some more modern finesse offerings (a drop-shot and jighead minnow). He said maximizing his lone period with forward-facing sonar, which he chose to deploy in Period 1, was vital to fooling the pressured fish.
“The key was being able to see them on my Garmin,” Ehrler said. “I could see them and cast to them.”
Once he topped the 60-pound mark, Ehrler used just about all of Period 3 to idle and scan new water. He said he found two new schools of fish that he’s hoping can produce during the Championship Round.
“When I knew I had enough weight, I went and looked, and I actually found two more schools,” he said. “So, that’s good. I don’t think they’re giant schools, but it’ll give me some stuff to fish, because I have very few areas. I have like three spots to fish, and I think only one of them is really good. And, at some point, it’s not going to be good. I may have hurt them to the point that it’s not going to be good.”
While it would be poetic for an angler who’s had so many close calls to earn his first BPT win at an event where he never saw it coming, Ehrler doesn’t like his chances of taking home the trophy. He predicted it’ll take well over 100 pounds to top the loaded field. Still, he said he’s excited for a Championship Round where “I’ve got nothing to lose.”
“I think a guy like Jake Lawrence is just toying with us,” Ehrler said. “I mean, he caught 60 pounds in the first period and quit fishing. So, I could honestly see him catching 100-plus pounds no problem. I’m going to have to fight tooth and nail to catch 60 pounds tomorrow. He’s going to go out and catch 120 pounds like it’s nothing.”
Shortly after lines in, Lawrence said his goal was to weigh 60 pounds as quickly as possible, then spend the rest of the day idling in search of more schools.
Mission accomplished.
Lawrence rocketed out of the starting blocks. Using his forward-facing sonar during Period 1, he boated 20 bass for 56-1. He then added three more scorables in the early minutes of Period 2 before strapping down his rods and spending the rest of the day in search mode.
Lawrence has spent by far the most time of anyone in the field scouting Kentucky Lake during competition hours – after cracking 100 pounds on Day 1, he didn’t make a single cast on the second day of qualifying. That could make him especially dangerous since the former guide also entered the event with the most prior experience on the fishery.
“We have put miles and miles on the Mercury this week, all for tomorrow,” he said.
Lawrence will be looking to claim his sixth career win on Kentucky/Barkley in MLF competition but his first at the national level. If he can pull it off, it would mark his second consecutive BPT win (and could require a second straight shootout with Wheeler) after he won Stage 4 on Chickamauga and Nickajack in thrilling fashion.
Lawrence has plenty of spots at his disposal; it’ll just be a matter of hitting them at the right times and avoiding schools that are getting pressured. More than anything, he’s “extremely excited” to finally have a day during which he can reel in as many bass as possible.
“I feel really good,” he said. “I wish that there were bigger groups of them out there. But I’ve got way more groups than what I’ve got time to fish tomorrow, so I’m really excited about that. We’re just going to have to make the right stops at the right time. It’s an age-old saying on the TVA in the summertime, timing is everything. A few of these schools are getting grouped up really well early, and a few schools are getting grouped up really late. So, it’s just going to be a matter of getting in the right rotation.”
The top nine pros from the Knockout Round that now advance to Championship Sunday on Kentucky Lake are:
1st: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 33 bass, 75-2
2nd: Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., 28 bass, 67-14
3rd: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 24 bass, 63-8
4th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 24 bass, 61-13
5th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 23 bass, 53-3
6th: John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., 20 bass, 52-2
7th: Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., 17 bass, 49-3
8th: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 23 bass, 46-1
9th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 17 bass, 44-4
*QR Winner: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn.
Eliminated from competition are:
11th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 19 bass, 40-0
12th: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 15 bass, 39-5
13th: Jesse Wiggins, Addison, Ala., 17 bass, 36-10
14th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 17 bass, 35-13
15th: Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., 13 bass, 35-0
16th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 12 bass, 33-10
17th: Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, 11 bass, 26-15
18th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 11 bass, 26-6
19th: Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 10 bass, 23-14
20th: Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, seven bass, 15-15
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Alton Jones Jr. earned the Day 3 Berkley Big Bass Award Saturday with a 5-pound, 8-ounce largemouth that he caught on a crankbait in Period 3. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
The full field of anglers competed in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday. After the two-day Qualifying Round was complete, leader Jacob Wheeler advanced directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. The anglers that finished 2nd through 20th competed in Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights were zeroed, and the top nine finishers now join Wheeler in Sunday’s Championship Round. In the Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $150,000.
On Championship Sunday, the final 10 anglers will launch at 7:15 a.m. CT from the Kentucky Dam Marina, located at 466 Marina Drive in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. The takeout will be held at the same location beginning at 3:45 p.m. daily. 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.
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on Championship Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
On Sunday, June 8, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the Kentucky Dam Swim Beach at 466 Marina Drive in Gilbertsville 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, listen to live music and cheer on their favorite pros. The first 50 kids 14 and under will receive a free Abu Garcia rod and reel. The event also includes a youth fishing derby and a casting contest. The Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.
Hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Calloway County Tourism Commission, the Lowrance Stage 5 at Kentucky Lake Presented by Mercury features 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 Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2026 championship.
Television coverage of the Lowrance Stage 5 at Kentucky Lake Presented by Mercury will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 25 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Saturday, Nov. 1. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine and Toyota.
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 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.
|
