INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. (Nov. 22, 2024) – In a field of anglers that included a former REDCREST champion and multiple Bassmaster Classic winners, it was a pair of young guns that absolutely ran away with the event. Representing Team Coign, 22-year-old pro Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Illinois, and 21-year-old pro Marshall Robinson of Landrum, South Carolina, combined to catch 38 bass weighing 69-11 on Lake Garcia – more than double the total weight of second place – to win the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches.
The event was the fourth and final General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops event of the 2024 season.
Finishing in second place was Team Star brite, represented by brothers Bobby and Chris Lane, who caught 23 bass weighing 31-7. Team REDCON1 – Skeet Reese and John Murray – finished in third with 13 bass weighing 31-3, while Terry Scroggins and Britt Myers, representing Team Lucas Oil, weighed in 12 bass totaling 21-6 to finish fourth.
“Oh my gosh, what a week,” an elated Gill said in his post-game interview. “It’s been a long week, and we’ve put in a lot of work: three different lakes, no practice. We came out here and got it done today and had an absolute ball. This lake was a super good time.”
Lake Garcia was the playing field for the anglers in the Championship Round, and like Headwaters and Stick Marsh earlier this week, vibrating jigs, lipless crankbaits and flipping and punching were expected to dominate. Gill and Robinson bucked that trend completely, pairing spinning rods and drop-shot rigs with forward-facing sonar to run away with the victory Friday.
“I knew right away from the start that we had made a good decision,” Robinson said. “We caught a couple early and we had the momentum rolling right away within the first 45 minutes. It kind of happened just like it did yesterday (in the Knockout Round) – we got out to an early lead and then just tried to maintain it and keep the pace.”
In a fishery that is known for its plentiful grass and vegetation, MLF NOW! host and Western Florida native J.T. Kenney joked that the duo went out in the 30-minute ride around prior to the start of competition and located one of maybe three locations in the entire lake that could be fished in that style. That location was all that the two young anglers, known for being proficient with their electronics, needed.
“The deal for me, the last two days specifically, was the drop-shot,” Gill said. “I was throwing a 7-inch finesse worm on a 1/0 medium-wire drop-shot hook with a 1/4-ounce drop-shot weight. I was using a 14-pound test leader – a little bit over a foot – and throwing an upsized worm, which was really important. It's been windy with adverse conditions, and being able to make precise casts and cut through that wind with the heavier weight, upsized worm and thicker leader but also (light enough) to help keep that bait falling nice and slow, allowing it to drift where it needed to go, was super important.
“We switched between a couple of colors – mainly green pumpkin and plum,” Gill continued. “It was a 1-2 punch for us. We came out and won our Knockout Round with this bait on Stick Marsh, and then came out here on Garcia. We fished the offshore sand flats and hydrilla clumps and looked for clean water and isolated targets. That was the deal for us today.”
“We'd been talking about it all week – how badly we wanted to win this one,” Robinson said. “There were some really big names in this tournament, and to get the win today and get to bring one of these trophies home, it’s pretty sick. These trophies are huge, and I’m so pumped.”
The top four teams at the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches finished:
1st: Team Coign, 38 bass, 69-11
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 23 bass, 45-15
Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 15 bass, 23-12
2nd: Team Star brite, 23 bass, 31-7
Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 14 bass, 18-9
Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., nine bass, 12-14
3rd: Team REDCON1, 13 bass, 31-3
John Murray, Spring City, Tenn., four bass, 7-9
Skeet Reese, Auburn, Calif., nine bass, 23-10
4th: Team Lucas Oil, 12 bass, 21-6
Britt Myers, Lake Wylie, S.C., six bass, 10-14
Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla., six bass, 10-8
Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 86 bass weighing 153 pounds, 11 ounces caught by the four teams competing in the Championship Round Friday on Lake Garcia. Gill caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day on a drop-shot rig – a largemouth weighing 4 pounds, 7 ounces.
The Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches was hosted by Visit Indian River County and Play Treasure Coast Sports Tourism and took place over six days in Indian River County, Florida. The competition water for each day was top-secret and only revealed to the anglers when they arrived at the boat ramp each morning.
The Summit Cup featured 12 two-man teams, divided into three groups as they entered the one-day Elimination Round matches. Each of the three Elimination Round matches featured four new teams, with the top two teams from each match of the Elimination Round advancing to the Knockout Round on Days 4 & 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams competed each day, with the top two teams from each Knockout Round match moving on to the Championship Round on Day 6. In Tuesday’s Day 6 Championship Round, the final four teams competed in a one-day shootout to determine which team was the winner of the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer HItches.
The 2024 General Tire Team Series was comprised of four events – Challenge Cup, Heritage Cup, Patriot Cup and Summit Cup – and featured two-man teams of MLF Bass Pro Tour anglers competing from the same boat. Each event featured a roster of 24 anglers, teamed up and working together to claim part of a season purse of more than $720,000. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams have competed throughout the fall of 2024.
Television coverage of the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches will premiere on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour episodes in May 2025. New MLF General Tire Team Series episodes will premiere each Saturday morning on Outdoor Channel and posted to MOTV.
