The last time the full Bass Pro Tour field took the water, at O’Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries, the Championship Round showdown between Jake Lawrence and Jacob Wheeler on Nickajack Lake delivered an instant classic. Trailing by 6 ounces in the final minute, Lawrence boat-flipped a 5-pound, 9-ounce largemouth with about 12 seconds left before lines out to claim his first Bass Pro Tour win.
The thrilling final minutes provided the latest example of the drama created by SCORETRACKER®, the BPT’s live scoreboard. But was it the best ending in the six-and-a-half-year history of the tour? We set out to rank the Top 10 most exciting Bass Pro Tour endings. The criteria, of course, were subjective, but we focused on the ending specifically and sought to rank the most exciting events rather than the most impactful. Here’s the list in reverse order.
10. 2019 Stage 3 on Shearon Harris
The third ever Bass Pro Tour event took the field to three different fisheries in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area. The Championship Round on Shearon Harris delivered the first real comeback in tour history. Wheeler – who, at the time, had yet to win his first BPT event or tour-level AOY title – caught an 8-pounder (on a frog!) in the final minute of Period 2 to extend his lead over Jacob Powroznik to more than 9 pounds. But Powroznik caught two 4-pounders and a 6-4 in the last hour to cap off a 32-pound final period. That put him 3-10 ahead of Wheeler, who ran around trying to generate one more big bite on his frog at the end of the day but couldn’t quite make it happen.
9. 2022 Heavy Hitters on Lake Palestine
The 3-pound variable minimum weight during the Championship Round of the 2022 Heavy Hitters event made for a slow day overall but a tight finish. In the final 40 minutes, Ott DeFoe – who had boated just two scorable bass all day – sight-fished a 4-10, then followed it up with a 3-10 8 minutes later. That put him 12 ounces ahead of Justin Lucas, with Ish Monroe and Fletcher Shryock also within 4-5. Even though DeFoe found another bedding bass and tried to get it to bite as time expired, he wouldn’t need it, as he collected his fourth BPT win.
8. 2024 Heavy Hitters on Kissimmee Chain of Lakes
If we were ranking the entertainment value of entire events, last year’s Heavy Hitters would have to be higher – it featured lots of big bass eating frogs, squabbling between competitors and Kevin VanDam’s final tournament. Still, the ending wasn’t too shabby, either. Keith Poche, who had yet to catch a scorable bass at noon, ventured into a canal and caught five for 23-10 in less than two hours. That allowed him to overtake Jordan Lee, who had dominated each of his first three days on the water throwing a Berkley Swamp Lord and winching bass out of thick hydrilla mats. However, Lee landed a 3-2 with about 30 minutes remaining to reclaim the lead, while Poche hooked and lost a couple bass that would have put him back atop SCORETRACKER®. With 7 minutes left, Lee added a 3-15 to seal his win. Meanwhile, VanDam caught a 7-12 in the final period to earn the $100,000 big bass bonus – a fitting end to his legendary career.
7. 2021 Stage 1 on Sam Rayburn
Employing an unusual strategy for Sam Rayburn by running way up the Angelina River to fish flooded timber, DeFoe rocketed out of the starting blocks during the Championship Round. He stacked up 22-8 in the opening period … then hit a major drought, going more than 5 hours without a scorable bass. During that time, Luke Clausen and Gerald Spohrer both closed hard, with Clausen taking over the lead and pushing his advantage to as much as 4-13 in the last hour. DeFoe also had the added challenge of battling poor cell service, as his SCORETRACKER® data couldn’t load where he fished up the river. So, he was limited to 15 minutes when he ran back to his honey hole, but that was enough time to catch a 2-12, which tied him with Clausen, then a 2-13 for the win. It wasn’t until after lines out that DeFoe’s data updated and he (and the rest of the field) learned that he’d won.
6. 2021 Stage 2 on Lake Travis
DeFoe’s dramatic win was one-upped at the very next regular-season event, as Wheeler’s 2-ounce victory over Bobby Lane on Lake Travis remains the closest finish in Bass Pro Tour history. Running up the Colorado River and targeting boat docks with a bladed jig, swim jig and buzzbait, Wheeler built a lead of more than 10 pounds, but his bite fizzled during Period 3. Lane, meanwhile, steadily tracked him down, catching a 2-0 with less than 4 minutes left to pull within 2 ounces of Wheeler’s 28-13 total. Lane had time to make a few more casts to the same marina dock, but as much as he begged another bass to bite, Wheeler held on. The victory made Wheeler the first angler to earn three BPT victories, and he’s maintained the lead in the trophy count ever since.
5. 2025 Stage 1 on Lake Conroe
The first BPT event in which pros were limited to just one period per day with forward-facing sonar proved to be a resounding hit, with anglers having to combine multiple different patterns and big swings occurring on SCORETRACKER® depending when they turned on their transducers. At various points in the last 45 minutes, it looked like three anglers would claim their first BPT win. While Justin Cooper led for much of the day, Jacob Wall made the clutch call to fish a boat dock he hadn’t hit all week. He caught three bass for nearly 10 pounds off it, tying Cooper for the lead. Cooper quickly regained the top spot with a 2-9, but Colby Miller continued his hard charge, catching consecutive scorables with about 35 minutes left to move into second, just 2-1 behind Cooper. Then, 2 minutes before lines out, Miller landed a 2-10, which looked like it might be the winner. His lead lasted all of 22 seconds, as Cooper caught a 1-10 at virtually the same time to edge his close friend by 1-1.
4. 2022 Stage 7 on Mille Lacs Lake
Seeking his second consecutive win targeting summertime smallmouth and his third victory of the 2022 season, Dustin Connell overcame an early deficit to Michael Neal on Mille Lacs and surged to the top of SCORETRACKER® late in the second period. With about 15 minutes remaining, the trophy looked to be in his grasp – he led Neal by 9-7 and David Waker by 13-9. But Walker found a magic spot, catching four for 15-6 in less than 10 minutes, the last of which hit the scales with less than 4 minutes to go and brought him within 4 ounces of Connell’s total. Neal also pulled within 4-6, but neither could get the last bite they needed to track down Connell. A 2-1 he caught with 9 minutes left – his smallest scorable bass of the day – turned out to be the winner, while Walker was left to rue two fish he’d hooked and lost earlier in the last 30 minutes.
3. 2023 Stage 1 on Kissimmee Chain of Lakes
During the first event of the BPT’s lone year with best-five-fish scoring, Mark Davis looked like he’d built an insurmountable lead entering the Championship Round on the Kissimmee Chain. The Bass Fishing Hall of Famer stacked up 34-10 during the Knockout Round – exactly 10 pounds better than his nearest pursuer – and those weights carried over to the Championship Round. However, a wind shift killed Davis’ bite, and Chris Lane slowly gained ground all day. Lane, who grew up fishing Kissimmee and the surrounding lakes, caught a 5-4 with about an hour left to bring his bag to 24-2 on the day and pull within a pound of Davis, but he would need at least a 4-12 to take over the lead. Lane himself didn’t even realize the situation – when he hooked a big one with about 1:45 left and finally lipped it after a 50-second rodeo, he declared, “I think she’s short” and hustled back to the front deck to make another cast. Turns out, the 5-5 boosted his limit to 26-1 and his two-day total to 49-3, 9 ounces more than Davis. It wasn’t until a few minutes after lines out that Lane got the news he’d won, to which he responded with “you’re kidding me,” followed by a celebratory “POW!”
2. 2022 REDCREST on Grand Lake
The third iteration of REDCREST delivered by far the most dramatic finish in the history of the Bass Pro Tour championship event. With less than 5 minutes left, the top four anglers were separated by under 4 pounds: Wheeler led, with Connell, Bobby Lane and Clausen all one bite away from passing him. Lane had put together a major rally in the third period, swapping his crankbait for a jig and stacking up 17-10 on five fish, but he still trailed by 6 ounces (and needed a 2-pound scorable bass to add to his total). With about 4 minutes left, Lane set the hook and swung a bass into the boat. The scale read 1-15. Lane took the valuable time to re-weigh the fish not once but twice. Finally, on the third and final try, it hit 2-0. Right around the same time, Clausen caught a 4-2 that he thought had given him the lead, but he didn’t yet know about Lane’s latest fish. With 29-14, Lane would up edging Clausen by 1-3 and Wheeler by 1-10.
1. 2025 Stage 4 on Nickajack
If you’re reading this article, you don’t need a recap of how the final minutes went down on Nickajack. But does it deserve the top spot? It’s debatable – Bobby Lane’s winning bass came on a championship stage and earned him $300,000, after all, plus there were more than two anglers involved in that frantic finish. However, the sum total of mayhem that occurred on Nickajack can’t be topped. The lead changed hands twice in the last 7 minutes. Lawrence’s winning fish was the biggest of any on this list, and he caught it on topwater. He horsed it to the boat in less than 10 seconds and swung it over the gunnel with less time remaining than any of the other winning fish. Plus, Wheeler actually hooked up in the final seconds, too, but couldn’t get his smallmouth in the boat in time (he never actually landed the fish, so whether it would have weighed 5-4 and put him back in the lead, we will never know). Thus, Stage 4 earns the crown as the most exciting Bass Pro Tour finish ever – at least for now. Who knows, maybe we’ll be updating this list again after Lowrance Stage 5 Presented by Mercury hits Kentucky Lake next week.