Alabama pro leads by 1-pound, 13-ounce margin, Top 25 set for final-day in competition for up to $235,000
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Nov. 8, 2024) – Some flip-flopping on the leaderboard was expected on Day 2 of the 2024 Toyota Series Championship at Wheeler Lake Presented by Bass Boat Technologies. However, the move from 20th to first with a limit of bass weighing 27 pounds, 5 ounces by Keith Poche of Pike Road, Alabama, was not on the board. Of course, Poche rarely conforms to the norm, and his big day remade the tournament, putting him in the lead with a 42-13 total going into the final day of competition.
Day 1 leader Hayden Marbut of Birmingham, Alabama, tallied 19-10 to bring his total to an even 41 pounds and finish the day in second – more than 5 pounds clear of third place. However, instead of a wire-to-wire walk in the park for the young Alabama angler, it looks like Day 3 could be one of the most epic finishes to a tournament we’ve seen in some time.
Link to Photo Gallery of Toyota Series Championship Day 2 Highlights
On Day 1, Poche caught a solid 15 pounds and change – nothing to write home about, but a good start. According to him, 27 pounds wasn’t in the picture at all.
“That was unbelievable,” Poche gushed. “You know, after yesterday and the bites I had in practice, I thought maybe upper teens, 20 – if everything goes right, and I get lucky. But 27 pounds, I don’t even know, I mean, I don’t even know if the scales are right,” he said. “I mean, I know they were big, but that was unbelievable. That’s the biggest bag I’ve ever weighed in in my life.”
Considering Poche has fished around the country as a pro for years, it’s a wild statement, and true or nearly true, it’s a testament to just how amazing a day he had. Catching 27 pounds of largemouth is not something that’s supposed to happen at Wheeler this time of year. To top it off, he caught almost all of them in about 40 minutes and was done by 10 o’clock.
Poche said he doesn’t have company, and that there are fish left – he saw them busting and chasing bait at the end of the day. He’s just not sure what the difference between the first day and today was.
“Execution was part of the difference between having upper teens or 20,” Poche said. “But today, I really don’t know – that’s what we battle all the time as fishermen. These fish are like us. I mean, we’re moody. We have feelings. The big ones just didn’t bite as well yesterday, they were nipping at it, and I guess the big ones were just going crazy today.”
From the sounds of it, a limit shouldn’t be a problem, but to stay ahead of Marbut, Poche likely needs another strong day. Today, Poche may have figured out how to go from good to very good.
“There’s so many fish in this area,” he said. “There’s hundreds of fish. Yesterday, there were fish blowing up everywhere. Most of them small, but there’s key little places in there where I’ve noticed that I’m getting the bigger bites.”
Maybe he does it again – or even in the ballpark – and he’ll get what he came for: the $200,000 winner’s check.
“I want the money,” he said. “Show me the money; that’s what I want.”
The top 25 pros that advanced to the final day of competition on Wheeler Lake are:
1st: Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., 10 bass, 42-13
2nd: Hayden Marbut, Birmingham, Ala., 10 bass, 41-0
3rd: Laker Howell, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 35-4
4th: Jack Daniel Williams, Kingsport, Tenn., 10 bass, 33-8
5th: Dillon Falardeau, Hixson, Tenn., 10 bass, 33-5
6th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 10 bass, 31-10
7th: Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., 10 bass, 31-9
8th: Caleb Kuphall, Mukwonago, Wis., 10 bass, 31-6
9th: Austin Swindle, Parrish, Ala., 10 bass, 31-4
10th: Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, 10 bass, 31-4
11th: Mike Raber, Elkhart, Ind., 10 bass, 30-12
12th: Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 10 bass, 30-10
13th: Brock Reinkemeyer, Warsaw, Mo., 10 bass, 30-6
14th: Kennie Steverson, Umatilla, Fla., 10 bass, 29-15
15th: Philip Dutra, Arab, Ala., 10 bass, 29-3
16th: Andrew Campbell, Rama, Ontario, 10 bass, 28-13
17th: Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., 10 bass, 28-9
18th: Fisher, Anaya, Eva, Ala., 10 bass, 28-7
19th: Levi Thibodaux, Thibodaux, La., 10 bass, 28-6
20th: Jake Lawrence, Buchanan, Tenn., 10 bass, 28-3
21st: Ryan Kirkpatrick, Benton, Ky., 10 bass, 28-1
22nd: Mickey Beck, Lebanon, Tenn., 10 bass, 27-12
23rd: Jeremy Gordon, Rutledge, Tenn., nine bass, 27-6
24th: Britt Myers Jr., Lake Wylie, S.C., 10 bass, 27-5
25th: Zane Parker, Kingwood, Texas, 10 bass, 27-5
For a full list of results visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 688 bass weighing 1,589 pounds, 9 ounces Friday caught by 157 boaters. The catch included 110 five-bass limits.
One of the most successful Strike King co-anglers of all-time, with almost half of a million in earnings in his career, Keith Honeycutt of Temple, Texas, leads the Strike King co-angler division. Having limited two days in a row, the Texas angler will go out in the lead tomorrow with a two-day total of 21-7. In second, Stephen Draghi of Sparrow Bush, N.Y. , has 19-9 to his credit, and Jonathan Green of San Pablo, California, is a hairsbreadth off that pace with 19-7.
The top 25 Strike King co-anglers that will fish the final day on Wheeler Lake are:
1st: Keith Honeycutt, Temple, Texas, 10 bass, 21-7
2nd: Stephen Draghi, Sparrow Bush, N.Y., 10 bass, 19-9
3rd: Jonathan Green, San Pablo, Calif., 10 bass, 19-7
4th: Tyler Nekolny, Coral Springs, Fla., 10 bass, 18-13
5th: David Bozarth, Montgomery, Texas, six bass, 18-11
6th: Casey Dunn, North Highlands, Calif., 10 bass, 18-4
7th: Pop Catalin, Cookeville, Tenn., nine bass, 18-2
8th: Jeffrey Hamm, Thomasville, Ga., nine bass, 18-1
9th: Matt Krekovich, Granite City, Ill., nine bass, 18-0
10th: Justin Hoffman, Hindsville, Ark., seven bass, 17-13
11th: Justin Parchman, Oologah, Okla., 10 bass, 17-10
12th: Rabih Itani, Granville, Australia, 10 bass, 16-15
13th: Rich Frey, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 16-14
14th: Brock Blazier, Dunlap, Ill., 10 bass, 16-4
15th: Joe Lee, Midlothian, Texas, eight bass, 15-9
16th: Darren Kelly, Wartburg, Tenn., seven bass, 15-7
17th: William Lisenby, Centreville, Va., 10 bass, 14-14
18th: Eric White, Cullman, Ala., six bass, 14-11
19th: Alejandro Morales, San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico, seven bass, 14-9
20th: Will Lancett, Jacksonville, Ark., eight bass, 14-7
21st: Jerry Armstrong, Shelbyville, Tenn., seven bass, 14-2
22nd: Mike Urbania, Mentor, Ohio, seven bass, 13-15
23rd: James Steve Burgess, Killen, Ala., nine bass, 13-14
24th: Dennis Young, Olathe, Kan., seven bass, 13-11
25th: Steven Schantz, Alexandria, Va., six bass, 13-9
The final 25 pros and Strike King co-anglers will take off Saturday at 7 a.m. CT from Ditto Landing, located at 293 Ditto Landing Road, in Huntsville. Saturday’s Championship weigh-in will also be held at the landing and will begin at 3 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend the takeoff and weigh-in and also follow the action online through the “MLF Live” weigh-in broadcast and daily coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com. The 2024 Toyota Series Championship Presented by Bass Boat Technologies will premiere on CBS Sports in 2025.
Hosted by the Huntsville-Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Madison County Commission and the Huntsville Sports Commission, the championship event features more than 400 pros and co-anglers from around the world, competing for a top cash award of up to $235,000. The field is now cut to just the top 25 pros and Strike King co-anglers heading into the final day of competition, the culmination of the 2024 Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats season.
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and Rob Newell will break down the extended action live on Championship Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
The full field of anglers competed on Days 1 and 2 of the event Thursday and Friday, with the top 25 pros and top 25 Strike King co-anglers based on cumulative weight from the first two days now continuing to the third and final day Saturday. The 2024 Toyota Series champions will be determined by the heaviest three-day total weight.
Pros and co-anglers can qualify for multiple contingency awards based on final standings in the championship, including the lucrative $35,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus for pros and an invitation to REDCREST 2025 – MLF’s most prestigious event. The winning Strike King co-angler will earn a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor.
The 2024 Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats consisted of six divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern, Southwestern and Western – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International division and the Wild Card. The highest finishing pro from each division at the championship will claim a $10,000 bonus. The bonus will go to the second-highest finishing pro in the division represented by the overall champion.
The 2024 Toyota Series Championship field features the top 25 pros, top 25 Strike King co-anglers and tournament winners from each of the six divisions; the top 25 pros and 25 co-anglers from the Wild Card division plus tournament winners; the highest finishing boater and co-angler from each of the six Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Regionals and the TBF at the All-American; the top three teams from the College Fishing National Championship; High School Fishing National Champions; TBF National Champions; and MLF International anglers from Australia, Canada, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, Spain and Zimbabwe.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Toyota Series include: 7 Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, FX Custom Rods, General Tire, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak Fishing, Onyx, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, REDCON1, Simms, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, WIX Filters and YETI.
For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Toyota Series updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
