Landrum, South Carolina pro catches final day limit weighing 17-5 on Championship Sunday to earn $115,000 top prize
ANDERSON, S.C. (March 16, 2025) – The final day of Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 2 Presented by Suzuki Marine on Lake Hartwell turned out to be a classic. Big spotted bass and largemouth hit the scales left and right, and the event went down the wire, as all the leaders struggled to put it away.
Going out with the lead, Dustin Smith weighed an even 13 pounds on the final day for a 53-11 total, which was not quite enough to hold off young Mitchell Robinson . Starting the day in second, Robinson never caught more than 20 pounds any day of the week, but he managed to scrape up 17-5 on Day 3 for a 53-13 total to earn his first win above the high school level. For the win, Robinson takes home the trophy plus $115,000, which is a lot of money to win at 19 years old.
Link to Photo Gallery of Day 3 Championship Sunday Weigh-In
Link to Photo Gallery of Day 3 on-the-water Highlights
Link to Video of Fish-Catch Highlights of Day 3 from Lake Hartwell
In July 2023, Robinson and partner Cody Abbott won the Bassmaster High School National Championship at Lake Hartwell – at the time, it was the culmination of years fishing Hartwell and Keowee, the home lakes for the Robinson family. Robinson and Abbott split $5,000 in scholarship money in that one – not insignificant, but maybe not a huge factor for someone diving headlong into the family plumbing and fishing businesses.
This week, Robinson made some real money, combining knowledge he learned fishing with family and top-tier skills with forward-facing sonar. His best days, Day 1 and Day 3, Robinson was allowed full use of forward-facing sonar, and he ran a pattern that relied on moving fast and looking for fish off the beaten path.
“Those fish have always been there, but they’ve never been fished for,” said Robinson. “So, now with LiveScope, you can target them, because these fish are a cast off the bank. They’re under people’s boats. It’s probably the fish they used to see on 2D. So, that little ‘Scope pattern panned out really good for me.”
Keeping the trolling motor moving, Robinson scanned banks that might not look like much but had the right characteristics for him.
“These banks are either sand, clay or pea gravel – any sort of flatter bank, but not like a big, long flat,” he explained. “A lot of times it is just it’s a little flat, but then it has a drop or a ditch running by it. And transitions, too: If you see some rock and then it switches to sand real quick and then back to rock.
“You want something for them to ease up there and just cruise around and eat. That’s about all they’re doing is feeding. I think it’s the same fish you see cruising down the bank that you try to catch. There’s a group that cruises shallower and then a little deeper and a little deeper. I think that’s all these fish do on this lake.”
The beauty of the mid-depth cruisers is that Robinson could catch them at a much higher rate than he could have on the bank. Though they’re not hidden anymore, Robinson still thinks that they’re more willing to bite.
“When they see your boat, you’re done with the ones way up shallow. They’re already skittish to be up there because they know they can be seen by everything,” he said. “But these I’m fishing for, they know they’re a little hidden.”
Putting his boat in about 10 feet of water, Robinson panned to each side, looking as deep at 20 to 25 feet and as shallow as he can see. He likes to run his forward range at about 80 feet, his color gain at 55 and his gain at 70.
Today, because of the pollen washed in from overnight rains, he ran his noise reject on medium.
Pollen is often the bane of forward-facing sonar, and really one of the few environmental conditions outside of wind that can slow the experts down. It looked for a bit like it might end Robinson’s comeback bid.
“The pollen and the wind ruined my entire area where I caught 20 pound of spots Day 1,” said Robinson. “So, I went back today and I got one bite. It was a good one, but literally one bite there, and it kinda spun me out a little bit.”
To catch his fish, Robinson used the same things that have been working for spotted bass for years – a shaky head and a Neko rig.
For both, he used a 5-inch Yamamoto Senko, putting it on a light shaky head or using a 1/16-ounce nail weight. The key for both baits was to go light, so he could keep it out of the low and sticky grass and moss growing on the bottom. For his shaky head, he used a 7-foot, 2-inch, medium Phenix M1, and he used a 7-1, medium-light Phenix K2 Torzite for his Neko.
On Day 2, fishing without forward-facing sonar, Robinson used the shaky head to catch two big fish from a little bridge – no ‘Scope needed. Even with ‘Scope, the fishing wasn’t point and shoot – according to Robinson, even the easier ones he’s targeting aren’t easy.
“I think I’ve seen five bass for 30 to 35 pounds a day on ‘Scope,” said Robinson. “That big one had 25 or 30 with him, and most of them were the same size. To show you how finicky they are, seven or eight went down. ‘Donk.’ I set the hook. Nothing. ‘Donk.’ He drops it. And then ‘donk,’ he swims off with it, and then I get that 5 1/4. You know he don’t have no trouble sucking that 5-inch Senko in, so they just don’t want to bite.”
Of course, if you give yourself enough opportunities and convert at an above average rate, you can overcome a finicky bite.
With father Marty and older brother Marshall fishing on the Bass Pro Tour , Mitchell looks to be on track to join the duo in short order. That’s a goal for the future – in the present, the youngest Robinson got the job done on the home pond again.
“Winning here might be a little less impressive than winning somewhere else, but it definitely feels the best winning on the home pond,” said Robinson. “I put in a lot of time here, so I think winning here is probably the best feeling ever.”
Based on the reaction of the crowd of friends and family at weigh-in, he’s probably right.
The top 30 pros at the Tackle Warehouse Invitational Stop 2 on Lake Hartwell Presented by Suzuki Marine finished:
1st: Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 15 bass, 53-13, $115,000 (includes $35,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus)
2nd: Dustin Smith, Trussville, Ala., 15 bass, 53-11, $30,000
3rd: Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, 15 bass, 51-13, $20,000
4th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 15 bass, 51-7, $18,000
5th: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 15 bass, 50-7, $17,000
6th: Jayme Rampey, Liberty, S.C., 15 bass, 50-0, $16,000
7th: Kyle Cortiana, Broken Arrow, Okla., 15 bass, 49-13, $15,000
8th: Ken Thompson, Roaring Springs, Penn., 15 bass, 49-8, $14,000
9th: Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 15 bass, 49-1, $13,000
10th: Brian Latimer, Belton, S.C., 15 bass, 48-15, $12,000
11th: Levi Thibodaux, Thibodaux, La., 15 bass, 47-8, $10,000
12th: Jack Daniel Williams, Kingsport, Tenn., 15 bass, 47-2, $10,000
13th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, 15 bass, 47-1, $10,000
14th: Emil Wagner, Marietta, Ga., 15 bass, 47-0, $10,000
15th: Lucas Black, Saint Simons Island, Ga., 15 bass, 46-11, $10,000
16th: Joseph Webster, Hamilton, Ala., 15 bass, 45-9, $10,000
17th: Hayden Marbut, Birmingham, Ala., 15 bass, 45-7, $10,000
18th: Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., 15 bass, 45-6, $10,000
19th: Cole Breeden, Lebanon, Mo., 15 bass, 45-5, $10,000
20th: Flint Davis, Leesburg, Ga., 15 bass, 45-4, $10,000
21st: Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 15 bass, 44-12, $9,500
22nd: Ethan Greene, Eufaula, Ala., 15 bass, 44-2, $9,000
23rd: Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas, 15 bass, 43-8, $9,000
24th: Alex Bradley, Wellford, S.C., 15 bass, 43-4, $9,000
25th: Austin Swindle, Parrish, Ala., 15 bass, 42-13, $9,000
26th: Gary Adkins, Green Bay, Wis., 15 bass, 42-1, $9,000
27th: Samuel Fish, Chelsea, Ala., 15 bass, 41-15, $9,000
28th: Boyd Duckett, Guntersville, Ala., 15 bass, 41-1, $9,000
29th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 15 bass, 40-7, $9,000
30th: Donnie Davis, Greer, S.C., 15 bass, 40-0, $9,000
Complete results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 150 bass weighing 459 pounds, 13 ounces caught by the final 30 pros on Sunday. The catch included 30 five-bass limits.
The three-day tournament, hosted by Visit Anderson, featured pro anglers competing for a top prize of up to $115,000 and valuable points to qualify for the 2025 Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Championship in September. The full field of anglers competed in the two-day opening round on Friday and Saturday in a five-fish, weigh-in format. Only the top 30 pros, based on their two-day cumulative weight, advanced to the final round on Championship Sunday, where they competed for the grand prize of up to $115,000.
Television coverage of the MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 2 at Lake Hartwell Presented by Suzuki Marine will air as a two-hour episode, premiering at 9 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 11 on CBS Sports Network.
The next event on the schedule for 2025 is the MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 3 at Lewis Smith Lake Presented by Phoenix Boats, set for April 15-17 in Cullman, Alabama.
Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitationals include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Bubba, Deep Dive App, E3 Sports Apparel, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Humminbird, Lew’s, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, WIX Filters and YETI.
For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Tackle Warehouse Invitationals updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook , Instagram and YouTube.
