GUNTERSVILLE, Ala., Jan. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – When pro angler Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Illinois, launched his boat onto Lake Guntersville for the Championship Round of the B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 Presented by Mercury on Sunday morning, he never imagined he would end the day hoisting his third Bass Pro Tour trophy.
Gill has been a consistent presence in the Top 10 during his young Bass Pro Tour (BPT) career. This tournament marked his ninth Championship Round appearance in just his first 17 events. However, after relying heavily on the productive spots he found to make both the Knockout and Championship Round cuts, Sunday was the first time he entered the final day doubting his chances of keeping pace with the leaders.
“This is the first time I’ve made a Top 10 where I’ve been like, ‘I know it’s not possible tomorrow,’” Gill said. “Because I had burned my ‘Scope stuff.’ I mean, I caught 150 pounds off one place for the last three days, and they got progressively harder to catch every day. And I couldn’t get a no-‘Scope bite going yesterday to save my life. So, I was like, ‘I’m cooked.’”
Despite his doubts, Gill was able to leverage his mastery of forward-facing sonar to quickly build an impressive weight. The 23-year-old boated 20 scorable bass weighing 53 pounds, 5 ounces during the first period, creating a lead of more than 24 pounds over his nearest competitor.
In the remaining periods, Gill did just enough to hold off fierce challenges from anglers like Jacob Walker and Jacob Wheeler. Walker landed a 6-pound, 9-ounce brute fish right before lines-out, but it wasn’t enough. Gill’s total weight of 82 pounds, 4 ounces edged Walker by 1 pound, 5 ounces.
This victory marks Gill’s third Bass Pro Tour win and his fourth Major League Fishing (MLF) victory overall. It also earned him this season’s first $125,000 paycheck. Additionally, he takes an early lead in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race, a coveted title since his arrival on the tour.
### Breaking the Streak of Near-Misses
The win was crucial for Gill, who had been on a frustrating streak of second-place finishes. Since wrapping up the 2025 regular season, he placed second in two Team Series events and narrowly missed a $200,000 win at the Toyota Series Championship last November due to a tiebreaker.
“Man, I just hate coming close and losing,” Gill admitted. “Money and points aside, how you feel after the tournament is over – I would way rather finish between like third and sixth than I would second. Second is a hard pill. And I knew, with how tight it was getting in the last 20 minutes, I was like, ‘If I don’t win, I’m finishing second.’ I had to not psych myself up that I was going to win mentally, because I knew if I had worked myself up and got excited and it didn’t happen, I would have been really, really crushed. So it means the world to me.”
### Mastering Modern Technology
Gill reinforced why he is widely regarded as one of the best anglers at using modern technology to catch bass. Knowing he needed to maximize his one allotted period per day with forward-facing sonar, he did precisely that.
He caught 43 pounds, 8 ounces during the first period on Day 1, then exceeded 50 pounds each of the next three days for a combined total exceeding 200 pounds over four days. He caught nearly all those fish using a 4 1/4-inch Big Bite Baits Spotlight Minnow in blue gizzard on a 3/16-ounce jighead with a 2/0 hook.
Even more impressively, all these fish were caught from a single spot. During the last hour of practice, Gill discovered a massive school of bass chasing bait near a bridge at the mouth of a creek. The location offered ideal wintertime habitat: plenty of baitfish, a pinch-point where bass could corral prey, and resting spots for the fish when not feeding.
“That place was perfect,” Gill said. “Right out from the bridge, there’s a roadbed about 10 feet deep where they could rest when not feeding, and there was baitfish presence not even 100 yards away.
“Two hundred pounds in four days — an average of 50 pounds a ‘Scope period. That is absolute filth. That is murder.”
Interestingly, Gill had the spot to himself on Sunday. Banks Shaw, who had been fishing right alongside Gill during the first periods of the previous three days, moved to a different starting point for the Championship Round after feeling the bite slow down.
“I couldn’t win if we were sharing that water, because it just gets diluted,” Gill explained. “That was critical, for sure.”
### Holding Off Challengers in the Afternoon
Although his 24-pound lead after the first period seemed substantial, Gill was well aware it might not be enough. The shallow, winding bite had been improving in the afternoons all week, enabling some anglers to stage big comebacks during the third period.
Gill had also struggled to keep his pace once he turned off his forward-facing sonar. On Day 1, he caught no fish after the first period. Day 2 was better, with eight scorable bass for 23 pounds, 13 ounces, but the bite cooled again during the Knockout Round, where he caught seven for 17 pounds, 11 ounces.
On Sunday, Gill started his second period using a jerkbait, adding four fish in the frame, but the action was inconsistent. Noticing the wind pick up, he switched to a crankbait — a tactic that helped him the previous day — and moved to a shallow bar.
After accidentally breaking the bill off his shad-colored plug and almost leaving, he noticed a “divot” with cleaner water. He made one more cast with a craw-colored bait, catching a 2-pound, 14-ounce bass, followed immediately by a 2-pound, 3-ounce catch.
“That was when I thought, ‘Dang, maybe there’s something to this,’” Gill recalled. “I ran to another stretch, caught a non-scorable fish, then fired back out there and caught a 4-pound, 8-ounce. A few minutes later, I caught a 3-pound, 8-ounce. At that point, with about an hour left, I was sold. I decided to commit to that spot for the rest of the day.”
He caught six bass on the crankbait in the second period, bringing his non-forward-facing sonar total on the day to 10 scorable bass weighing 28 pounds, 15 ounces — every ounce of which he would need.
### Intense Competition in the Final Stretch
Throughout the third period, Gill kept hearing updates of big moves by his competitors on the SCORETRACKER®. Jacob Walker caught a 7-pound bass, trimming the deficit to 5 pounds. Zack Birge and Banks Shaw both made strong charges, pulling within 20 pounds — a margin easily closed on Lake Guntersville.
Jacob Wheeler, a 10-time BPT winner and one of Gill’s fiercest rivals, made a roughly 50-mile run to the upper end of the fishery. There, he caught 22 pounds of smallmouth bass in just 16 minutes, reducing his deficit to 7 pounds with about 10 minutes remaining.
“It was awful,” Gill said. “Banks went on a tear, Jacob Walker was relentless with his big-fish bite all day, and anytime you’ve got Wheeler behind you with less than a double-digit deficit, it’s not ideal.”
Walker, who caught four bass over 6 pounds on Sunday, including a 7-pound, 4-ounce largemouth earning him the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award, seemed poised for a last-minute comeback. However, his final fish came up just shy.
That left Gill to celebrate a hard-fought victory — one he hadn’t expected — surrounded by family and friends on shore.
“I’ve won a Pro Circuit event and now three Bass Pro Tour tournaments, but I’ve never had my family present for one,” Gill said. “My parents and fiancée were here, and that’s super, super cool. It means the world to me to experience this with them.”
### Final Standings: Top 10 Pros at B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville
| Position | Angler | Hometown | Bass Caught | Total Weight |
|———-|——————–|———————-|————-|—————-|
| 1st | Drew Gill | Mount Carmel, Ill. | 28 | 82 pounds, 4 oz|
| 2nd | Jacob Walker | Springville, Ala. | 20 | 80 pounds, 15 oz|
| 3rd | Jacob Wheeler | Harrison, Tenn. | 22 | 75 pounds, 4 oz|
| 4th | Zack Birge | Blanchard, Okla. | 19 | 65 pounds, 12 oz|
| 5th | Banks Shaw | Harrison, Tenn. | 21 | 63 pounds, 14 oz|
| 6th | Justin Cooper | Zwolle, La. | 18 | 49 pounds, 12 oz|
| 7th | Wesley Strader | Spring City, Tenn. | 17 | 48 pounds, 8 oz |
| 8th | Mark Daniels Jr. | Tuskegee, Ala. | 17 | 44 pounds, 1 oz |
| 9th | Chris Lane | Guntersville, Ala. | 12 | 37 pounds, 10 oz|
| 10th | Keith Carson | DeBary, Fla. | 11 | 36 pounds, 14 oz|
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, the top 10 Bass Pro Tour anglers caught a total of 185 bass weighing 584 pounds, 14 ounces on Sunday.
### Berkley Big Bass Award
The $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award for Sunday went to Jacob Walker, who weighed in a 7-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass during the third period using a bladed swimjig. Berkley awards $1,000 daily to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass.
### Event Overview
The four-day B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville Presented by Mercury was hosted by Marshall County Tourism & Sports. It featured an elite roster of 51 of the world’s top professional anglers competing for a $125,000 top prize and a share of the $600,000 purse. Anglers also competed for valuable Angler of the Year (AOY) points to help qualify for the MLF Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2027, the Bass Pro Tour championship.
The 2026 Bass Pro Tour spans seven regular-season tournaments across the country, showcasing 51 of the best anglers competing for millions in prize money and valuable points to qualify for prestigious events like Heavy Hitters and REDCREST 2027.
### Television Coverage
Television coverage of the B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 at Lake Guntersville Presented by Mercury will premiere in a two-hour episode 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.
### Sponsors
Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Cigars International, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota, Yuengling, and Zenni.
### Stay Connected
For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit [MajorLeagueFishing.com](https://www.majorleaguefishing.com). For regular updates, photos, tournament news, and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
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### About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing over 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries worldwide. MLF broadcasts to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV, and on demand via MyOutdoorTV (MOTV).
Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, MLF’s roster includes the world’s top pros and over 30,000 competitors across all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport with premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving bass quality of life through research, education, fisheries enhancement, and fish care.
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*Attachment: Drew Gill Shows Off No. 3!*
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