EDENTON — Bass Pro Tour rookie Drew Gill put together an epic run to win Sunday’s championship round of Major League Fishing’s U.S. Air Force Stage Five at the Chowan River fishing tournament.
Gill, 22, reeled in 10 bass totaling 31 pounds, 12 ounces in just under two hours, a performance that converted an almost nine-pound deficit to Michael Neal, of Dayton, Tennessee, to a more than 14-pound advantage. Gill, who is from Mount Carmel, Illinois, finished the day adding another 10 pounds of fish for a winning combined weight of 58 pounds, 14 ounces.
Gill also compiled the best single-day of fishing for any of the 78 participants throughout the six-day tournament. For his winning efforts, Gill won his first Bass Pro Tour trophy and the tournament’s grand prize of $100,000.
“All I’ve wanted for the last few years was to just make it to this field and get to compete against these guys,” Gill said. “To make it to this field and get to compete against them and get a win in my rookie season, the feeling is absolutely unquantifiable.”
Rounding out the remainder of the top 5 finishers in Sunday’s championship round were Neal, who caught 18 bass for a total of 44 pounds, 14 ounces, $45,000 prize; Dustin Connell, 20 bass, 41 pounds, 14 ounces, $38,000; Jacob Wheeler, 12 bass, 36 pounds, one ounce, $32,000 and Justin Lucas, 12 bass, 31 pounds, four ounces, $30,000.
Connell, of Clanton, Alabama, advanced to Sunday’s round by finishing at the top of the leaderboard on both days of Group A qualifying, which were Tuesday and Thursday. Wheeler, of Harrison, Tennessee, led the leaderboard after the first day of Group B qualifying, which was Wednesday.
Matt Becker, who finished in 7th place on Sunday, wrapped up Friday at the top of the Group B leaderboard.
Zack Birge, of Blanchard, Oklahoma, led the field of top 10 finishers in Saturday’s tournament elimination, or knockout round and finished in 8th place on Sunday with five bass for 11 pounds, 8 ounces. Birge had seven bass removed from his total catch for violating Bass Pro Tour rule No. 18-A, which according to MLF forbids MLF anglers from leaving their boat “to make the boat more accessible to fishing waters.” Professional angler Randy Blaukat has an explanation of what happened at his YouTube channel, Intuitive Angling with Randy Blaukat.
Gill said he didn’t think Sunday would mark the week he broke into the winner’s circle.
“I’ve always been a small-wins guy, a small-victories guy — like, a check here, making a Top 10 when you don’t expect it, things like that,” Gill said. “I’ve never been the kind of guy to expect to win.”
Gill’s chances of winning looked slim at 9:45 a.m. Sunday. At that point, he’d caught just two scorable bass for 3 pounds, 15 ounces.
That changed when Gill moved to an area he’d discovered on the second day of qualifying rounds.
“I found that at the end of the qualifying round,” he said. “I actually was about to go pull the trigger and go there yesterday, and I caught a couple scorable bass, and it kept me from going.”
Gill described the spot as being located at the mouth of a major tributary of the Chowan River. While offshore, the water was “decently shallow” and dotted with fallen cypress trees, brush piles and other wood cover, he said. It produced not only several bites but big fish, as seven of the 10 he caught weighed 3 pounds or more.
Overall, a total of 118 scorable bass weighing a combined 302 pounds, 8 ounces were caught by the top 10 field of competitors on Sunday. That included two 8-pounders, one 6-pounder, four 5-pounders, four 4-pounders and 14 3-pounders.
The U.S. Air Force Stage Five at the Chowan River was sponsored by Wix Filters and hosted by the town of Edenton, the Chowan County Tourism Development Authority and Harbor Towns Cruises. The week-long tournament began Tuesday and ended Sunday and included a total prize purse of $659,000.
https://youtu.be/f290-AgSjIQ?si=lfRazd5Ns-Q0JPSD
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