Dayton, Tennessee pro catches 28 bass weighing 88-14 to clinch victory and earn $100,000 top prize
MASSENA, N.Y. (Aug. 11, 2024) – The mighty St. Lawrence River provided a fitting end to the 2024 Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour season at Minn Kota Stage Seven Presented by Humminbird – a season full of drama and excitement, new winners and superstars adding to their résumés. Ultimately, after a back-and-forth third-period slugfest between pros Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, and Shelbyville, Kentucky’s John Hunter, Neal sealed the deal with 28 bass for 88 pounds, 14 ounces. His margin of victory over Hunter was 15-3, but the final day was much closer than the final SCORETRACKER® would indicate.
Hunter led for much of the day, trading blows and the lead with Neal before Neal hit another gear. The final hour saw the eventual winner catch six bass for 17-2 to put it away. The win marks Neal's first since the 2021 season finale on Lake St. Clair and comes after many close calls, including two runner-up finishes this season.
Neal finished the year strong with the win and joined the exclusive list of two-time Bass Pro Tour winners. Both of his victories came on famed northern smallmouth fisheries and both were Stage Seven events.
With 15 regular season Bass Pro Tour Top 10s (second only to three-time Angler of the Year Jacob Wheeler), it's surprising that this is only Neal's second win. The Championship Round experience paid off as he sealed the victory, and Neal was as relieved as anyone.
"It's been a long time coming," he said. "Today was starting to feel like the Chowan River (at Stage Five), where I got out to a big lead, and it slipped away from me. I've had a ton of seconds in my career and felt like I was on that path again. When I won the last event in 2021, I won the first event of the 2022 season on the [Tackle Warehouse] Invitationals, and hopefully I can get on another hot streak like that."
This win here is special to Neal as he was able to clinch his first major title, the 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Angler of the Year, on these same waters. It also cements him as a certified smallmouth specialist after claiming his previous win on Michigan's Lake St. Clair.
"I won my first AOY title right here on the same spot,” he said on the MLFNOW! broadcast. “This place will always be special to me. Growing up on Lake Chickamauga, if I caught a smallmouth, it was by accident. I've never considered myself a smallmouth fisherman, and I never thought I'd win a smallmouth tournament once, let alone twice."
Neal spent much of his time in deeper water than many competitors. He stuck with the tried-and-true drop-shot rig with a slight twist while also mixing in a finesse jig.
"I primarily stayed in the 40 to 60 feet depth range keying on rock, but my biggest fish on the last day was in 65 feet of water," he said. "I don't think depth mattered a lot, and the current was the main thing, and the fish, especially the bigger ones, were on sharper drops. The fish were either on the up-current side or down current, using the breaks as current drops. Most of my weight this week came from one stretch where the bottom was wavy looking with a bunch of rolling ups and downs."
Instead of rigging up a standard drop-shot worm, Neal improvised and went with the current trend of soft plastics with protruding silicone skirting material. His version was homemade, with a Big Bite Baits Scentsation Quarantine Craw serving as the plastic.
"I went to Walmart and bought some sewing needles and cut a banded skirt in half," he said. "I threaded eight stands into each one, so the bait had 16 strands coming out of the bait. They were green pumpkin baits with some green pumpkin purple skirt materials, and they looked just like the gobies the bass were spitting out. I was fishing around guys all week and felt like that got me more bites."
Neal fished his creation on a 7-foot, 6-inch medium Denali Kovert, a 3000-sized spinning reel and 10-pound-test Sunline Overwatch braid with a leader of 7-pound-test Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon. He threaded the bait on a 1/O Gamakatsu G-Finesse Stinger drop-shot hook with a 3/8-ounce Denali Kovert tungsten weight.
"That setup was key for me, and I didn't break off a fish all week," he said. "I also caught some fish on a 1/2-ounce Beast Coast OW Sniper Jig and used that same rod but modified to be a casting model. I had a guy back home turn that blank into a casting rod by changing the handle and the first couple of guides. It's the perfect rod for fighting big smallmouth with a lot of line out because you had to let a lot of line out to keep it on the bottom. And when you'd hook one, there'd be 100 feet of line out there, and you can still land them with that rod."
As much thought as Neal put into his setups for Stage Seven, it begs the question: How did he transform into a smallmouth guru? Neal said a change in thinking and a better understanding of the species are likely the culprits.
"I think it's all because I knew nothing about them,” he admitted. “I've learned that you must have an open mind when smallmouth fishing because they move so much daily. Largemouth are always going to be right on some cover, and smallmouth will always just be around something. That took me a while to figure out. I'm still not sure I like smallmouth fishing, but it seems to suit me."
Hard to argue. He now has two BPT wins to show for it.
The top 10 pros from the Minn Kota Stage Seven Presented by Humminbird at the St. Lawrence River are:
1st: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 28 bass, 88-14, $100,000
2nd: John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., 23 bass, 73-12, $45,000
3rd: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 15 bass, 55-14, $38,000
4th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 18 bass, 55-6, $32,000
5th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 17 bass, 53-12, $30,000
6th: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 18 bass, 52-1, $26,000
7th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 13 bass, 42-6, $23,000
8th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 13 bass, 40-8, $21,000
9th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 13 bass, 38-4, $19,000
10th: Marty Robinson, Lyman, S.C., 12 bass, 34-12, $16,000
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 170 bass weighing 535 pounds, 9 ounces caught by the 20 pros Sunday, which included one 6-pounder, two 5-pounders, and 25 4-pounders.
Pro Nick Hatfield of Greeneville, Tennessee, earned Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a smallmouth bass weighing in at 6 pounds even that he caught during Period 3. The $3,000 prize for heaviest bass of the tournament went to Louisiana’s Cliff Crochet, who caught a largemouth weighing 6 pounds, 7 ounces on Day 2 of Group A competition.
Harrison, Tennessee, pro Jacob Wheeler, clinched the 2024 Fishing Clash Angler of the Year honors and the $100,000 payout on Friday – Wheeler’s third AOY title in the last four years.
Fishing Clash, an interactive 3D fishing simulation game that’s played by more than 80 million people worldwide, is the official AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League. You can download Fishing Clash for free in the App Store and on Google Play or log on to www.fishingclash.game for more information.
The Minn Kota Stage Seven at the St. Lawrence River Presented by Humminbird featured 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 six-day tournament, hosted by the Town of Massena, showcased 78 of the best professional anglers in the world competing for a purse of more than $805,000, with a top prize of $100,000 going to the winner.
Television coverage of the Minn Kota Stage Seven at the St. Lawrence River Presented by Humminbird will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Nov. 16 on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
The 2024 Bass Pro Tour featured a field of 78 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 General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2025, the Bass Pro Tour championship, set for April 3-6, 2025, on Lake Guntersville in Huntsville, Alabama.
