Rookie Jacob Walker rallies late with a final-minute largemouth to top fellow first-timer Banks Shaw at Guntersville
GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (Jan. 16, 2025) – The Bass Pro Tour’s live scoring has delivered several dramatic, buzzer-beater finishes during its first seven seasons. But rarely, if ever, has there been a more closely contested end to a Qualifying Round than at B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 Presented by Mercury.
Rookies Banks Shaw of Harrison, Tennessee, and Jacob Walker of Springville, Alabama, both fishing their first regular-season Bass Pro Tour event, spent much of the day dueling for the top spot on SCORETRACKER®, hoping to earn the automatic trip to the Championship Round awarded to the Qualifying Round winner. For a while it looked like that spot would belong to Shaw – with 40 minutes left before lines out, he led Walker by 17 pounds.
But Walker hit a late flurry winding a bladed jig around shallow vegetation and slowly reeled Shaw in. It took him until the final minute, when he swung a 4-pound, 2-ounce Lake Guntersville largemouth into the boat with 20 seconds left, to finally take the lead.
“That was awesome,” Walker said. “That’s why this format is so good. I’m glad to have one of those moments.”
That last-minute catch brought Walker’s two-day total to 174-9 on 48 scorable bass, 12 ounces ahead of Shaw. The two rookies topped the rest of the field by more than 30 pounds. However, with weights zeroing overnight, the race to join Walker in Sunday’s Championship Round will be wide open when the rest of the Top 25 takes the water for the Knockout Round.
Link to Day 2 Photo Gallery: Stage 1 action resumes on Lake Guntersville
Link to Day 2 Photo Gallery: Anglers gunning for a Knockout Round qualification on Guntersville
Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 2 Competition
While Stage 1 marks the first regular-season Bass Pro Tour event for Walker, he had some experience with the format – and on Guntersville, too. He competed in REDCREST last spring and finished 17th – a solid showing, but one that Walker felt could have been higher with better strategy.
In that event, Walker said he burned too many fish trying to win the Qualifying Round. So, he started Friday with no real plan to win the round, but understanding how to use SCORETRACKER® to gauge how much it might take to do so. When the catch rates were slower than he expected among the leaders, he did some calculations and decided it might actually be worth it to shoot for an automatic spot in the Top 10, as the payout jumps $5,000 from 11th place to 10th and he could give his areas a day to rest Saturday.
“I started poking around on that shallow stuff and started fishing some stuff, just practicing, and I noticed how slow it was,” Walker said. “I’m like, man, it’s so slow, I might be able to win today. So, I kind of let everybody else’s fish catches tell me what I needed to do.”
Walker got back on the shallow bladed jig bite that had carried him on Day 1 and caught more than 50 pounds in periods 2 and 3. He boated seven for 23-2 in the last 37 minutes.
“A lot of these guys are fishing strictly hydrilla or strictly milfoil, strictly eelgrass, and a lot of what I’m doing, I’ll get to hit hard bottom, eelgrass and hydrilla all in one cast,” Walker explained. “I’ve got two or three defined changes and edges those fish use, and that’s why I think it’s so good.”
His most clutch call came with about 6 minutes left. Walker had ceded a stretch of grass to a local boat but noticed that angler didn’t hit one prime corner. When they left, Walker ran back to it, and it produced the last-minute 4-pounder.
Walker, who is throwing his bladed jig on straight braid, called the power fishing “extremely fun.”
“If you get wind, it’ll blow that fluorocarbon over and you’ll have a big bow in your line, and a lot of times when these big ones come up and bite it, they’re eating it and moving toward you,” he said. “They’re always moving after they eat the bait. And so having that braid allows me to feel the bite. And you get one of those big 6, 7-pounders, they’ve got big mouths, and when they eat that bait and move toward you, that braid doesn’t stretch. That’s why you see me hammer them. Like, I hammer them as hard as I can with braid, and my drag is tightened down as far as it can get.”
Walker’s shallow bite has been so productive that he’s considering not even using a period targeting suspended fish with forward-facing sonar during the Championship Round. While he’ll have a day off to ponder his strategy, he’s not going to hyper-fixate on it. In fact, he’s planning to fish a tournament on nearby Smith Lake with some friends and possibly add $25,000 to his weekend earnings total.
That should indicate that Walker is confident in his preparation for this event. He’s hopeful his best areas will reload by Sunday, but he also knows it’ll likely take a huge day to win.
“My confidence level is good, but I also understand this is an unbelievable fishery, and a lot of guys probably just didn’t go hard today,” he said. “So, it’s not going to be easy. I know I’m going to have to work for it.”
The top 25 pros that now advance in competition on Lake Guntersville are:
*1st: Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 48 bass, 174-9 – ADVANCES TO CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
2nd: Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 53 bass, 173-12
3rd: Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., 45 bass, 143-11
4th: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 46 bass, 142-1
5th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 48 bass, 140-4
6th: Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., 44 bass, 133-13
7th: Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 45 bass, 127-7
8th: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 38 bass, 127-2
9th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 38 bass, 123-1
10th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 43 bass, 118-9
11th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 37 bass, 117-8
12th: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 36 bass, 109-5
13th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 37 bass, 107-7
14th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 38 bass, 106-3
15th: Dean Rojas, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 32 bass, 105-1
16th: Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 35 bass, 104-0
17th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 33 bass, 103-10
18th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 34 bass, 103-0
19th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 36 bass, 102-3
20th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 33 bass, 101-8
21st: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 30 bass, 96-9
22nd: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 31 bass, 93-13
23rd: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 31 bass, 91-14
24th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 32 bass, 90-6
25th: Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C., 29 bass, 90-4
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 709 bass caught weighing 2,161 pounds, 14 ounces, caught by the 51 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Friday.
Friday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award went to hometown favorite Chris Lane of Guntersville, who boated a 7-pound, 8-ounce largemouth during the third period on a bladed swimjig. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
Hosted by Marshall County Tourism & Sports, the four-day event features 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.
The full field of 51 anglers competed in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday. With the two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the pro with the heaviest two-day total – Banks Shaw – now advances directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. Anglers that finished 2nd through 25th now advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining anglers compete to finish in the top nine to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round. In the final-day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $125,000.
Anglers will arrive each morning at 5:30 a.m. CT to the Civitan Park Boat Launch, located at 1130 Sunset Drive in Guntersville, Alabama. The Bass Pro Tour trailering policy has been enacted for this event, so anglers will depart Civitan Park each morning at 6 a.m. to launch ramps located around the fishery. Anglers will return to the Civitan Park Boat Launch each evening following the end of competition at 3:45 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to watch the event live online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® livestream and follow along with SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on all four days of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
On Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 17–18, from 3–6 p.m., MLF invites fans of all ages to Nash’s at City Harbor, located at 299 Scott St., in Guntersville, for the MLF Fan Experience & Watch Party. Fans can watch the Bass Pro Tour pros live on the MLFNOW!® big screen, enjoy free food for the first 100 fans each day, enter hourly giveaways, browse MLF merchandise and the bargain bait bin, and cheer on their favorite anglers. Youth of all ages can take part in a fishing derby (gear and bait provided, weather permitting) and a casting contest. Live music from Jackson Cannon begins at 4 p.m., followed by Top 10 angler interviews and the trophy presentation at 5 p.m., including autographs and photos with Bass Pro Tour finalists. The first 50 kids ages 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel each day.
The B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville Presented by Mercury will feature 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 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.
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.