Emptying the notebook from the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season

The back-and-forth battle between Michael Neal and John Hunter during the Championship Round of Minn Kota Stage Seven Presented by Humminbird on the St. Lawrence River represented a fitting end to the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season. The sixth year of Major League Fishing’s top circuit once again delivered plenty of drama from start to finish.

We got to see the top pros take on several fisheries that were either new to the BPT’s every-fish-counts scoring format or new to the national tournament scene as a whole. Those bodies of water produced some epic, triple-digit days as well as some grueling grinders. Several rookies proved that they could hang with the best, a handful of anglers won for the first time and Jacob Wheeler continued one of the most dominant runs in tournament bass fishing history. 

The good news is, this year, we don’t have to wait until 2025 to watch more live bass fishing. The General Tire Team Series will stream live on MLFNOW! and kicks off later this month. However, it’s still worth taking a look back at a few storylines that flew under the radar this season.

The arrival of Drew Gill

For most of the year, the fight for the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year award looked to be a three-man race between Wheeler, Alton Jones Jr. and Dustin Connell. While Wheeler ultimately pulled away, claiming the AOY title for the third time in the past four years, it was BPT rookie Drew Gill who finished second behind him, thanks in large part to a fifth-place showing on the St. Lawrence. 

That put a bow on a stupendous season for Gill. His 482-point total, which represents an average finish of 12.1, is the highest ever for a BPT newcomer — ahead even of Matt Becker’s AOY-winning tally from 2023. In fact, with all due respect to Wheeler and Tackle Warehouse Invitationals AOY Alec Morrison, who both put together dominant seasons, one could easily make the case that no pro across MLF’s two national circuits had a better 2024 than Gill. 

The 22-year-old kicked off his Bass Pro Tour career with a third-place finish on Toledo Bend, then followed it up with his first national win on Sam Rayburn. He wasn’t done hoisting trophies, picking up his first BPT victory in June on the Chowan River. In all, Gill finished among the Top 10 nine times out of 12 events that he fished across the two trails. Seven of those were top-five finishes. That amounted to a cool $390,000 in winnings. 

Sophomore success

Here’s a scary thought: If this year was any indication, Gill and the other five BPT rookies who qualified for REDCREST 2025 should get even better next year. The five second-year pros on the roster all had excellent sophomore seasons, each of them finishing among the top 30 in the points.  

Nick LeBrun headlined that list, making a pair of Championship Rounds and finishing eighth in the season-long standings. Matt Becker was right behind him in ninth, showing that his rookie AOY triumph was no fluke. Spencer Shuffield made four Championship Rounds and finished 11th; it feels like a matter of time before he lifts his first BPT trophy. Hunter climbed to 23rd with his runner-up showing on the St. Lawrence, while Jacob Wall put together a solid season and finished 28th. 

Finishing strong

Momentum is real in tournament bass fishing, and through the years, there have been several instances of anglers finishing one season strong and carrying that success into the start of the following year. A few anglers stand out as contenders to do so after solid finishes to the 2024 slate. 

The most obvious is Neal. After an uncharacteristic dud at Lake Eufaula, Neal finished second on the Chowan River and fifth on the James River before winning on the St. Lawrence. That wrapped a season with five Championship Round appearances for Neal. Had it not been for the slip-up on Eufaula, he would have been right there in the AOY chase. 

Others who finished strong included Bryan Thrift. Thrift had a slow start to the season that included a head-scratching 77th-place finish at Santee Cooper, a fishery he’s dominated in the past. But consecutive Championship Round appearances to close the year allowed him to rally and qualify for REDCREST with ease. Speaking of REDCREST, Mark Daniels Jr. fished his way inside the cut line for the second year in a row thanks to a 12th-place finish at the Chowan and a 13th-place showing at the St. Lawrence. Finally, needing a strong finish to cement his spot on the BPT in 2025, Jonathon VanDam came through in the clutch. He finished 10th on the James River and 20th on the St. Lawrence to assure he’ll receive an invitation to rejoin the tour. 

Lucas the heaviest hitter

We’ve referenced anglers qualifying for REDCREST 2025 a few times. That field is just about set, with the Toyota Series Championship winner and the top Abu Garcia College Fishing angler from that championship in line to receive the final two berths. Thanks to both Connell and Gill double qualifying, it’ll be the top 41 finishers in the Bass Pro Tour AOY race who compete on Lake Guntersville next March. 

As for Major League Fishing’s other “all-star” event, General Tire Heavy Hitters, the 30-angler field is now set. Justin Lucas qualified in first place. Each angler’s qualification weight is determined by his biggest bass from each of the seven regular-season events, and Lucas’ total of 41-15 narrowly edged Wheeler and Neal for the top spot. While he never took home the $3,000 Berkley Big Bass award from any of the seven tournaments (although he won the $1,000 daily prize a couple times), Lucas never had an event without a solid fish and boosted his total with a pair of 8-pounders – an 8-15 from his epic Knockout Round on Santee Cooper and an 8-1 from the Chowan River.

One other interesting Heavy Hitters note: Seven of the 30 anglers who will compete on Smith Mountain Lake will make their Heavy Hitters debut. Gill, Marshall Robinson, Nick Hatfield, Matt Stefan, Cole Floyd, Martin Villa and Nick LeBrun all qualified for the first time. Shin Fukae will be in the field, as well. His only prior Heavy Hitters appearance came at the inaugural event in 2020, when the entire 80-angler BPT field competed. 

Hard baits aren’t dead yet

Forward-facing sonar and its effect on the bass fishing industry continued to be one of the hottest talking points of the season. There’s no denying that the technology made its presence felt during the 2024 campaign: At least a handful of high finishers utilized live sonar and the finesse techniques that go hand in hand with it (namely the jighead minnow) at every event, and we saw a few (Toledo Bend and Dale Hollow come to mind) where it seemed like if you weren’t beaming, you weren’t competing. 

That said, the talk of forward-facing sonar and the jighead minnow being the only way to win these days doesn’t jive with what we saw in 2024. Hard baits and power tactics still produced plenty of success, especially during the second half of the season.  

Topwater frogs — namely the Berkley Swamp Lord — dominated Heavy Hitters on the Kissimmee Chain. Zack Birge mixed in a frog with a vibrating jig to win on Lake Eufaula. Skeet Reese grabbed his first BPT win bumping a squarebill off docks and other shallow cover on the James River. None of those winners ever mentioned forward-facing sonar. Overall, both jerkbaits and vibrating jigs earned mention in just about every Top 10 baits article from Lake Eufaula through the end of the season. While there’s no denying the effectiveness of the jighead minnow, especially during times of year when bass are schooled up chasing bait, the results show us that it’s far from the only way to catch a bass in 2024.