Gill joins 100-pound club on St. Lawrence River
MASSENA, N.Y. — Drew Gill has enjoyed a lot of memorable days on the water during his rapid rise through the tournament ranks. The Bass Pro Tour rookie has two wins this season — one at BPT Stage Five on the Chowan River and one at the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals season opener on Sam Rayburn Reservoir — and has finished in the Top 10 eight times in 11 total events across those two circuits.
But Gill’s first day of competition at Minn Kota Stage Seven Presented by Humminbird earned a special place in his memory bank. Gill racked up 36 scorable bass for 100 pounds, 4 ounces. That has him atop SCORETRACKER® after the first day of qualifying for Group B, 16-6 ahead of Spencer Shuffield.
“If you want to rank the level of fun, it’s like not even on the grading scale,” Gill said. “It’s like S-Tier levels of fun. It is absolutely a blast. I think today was probably the most fun day of smallmouth fishing I’ve ever had in a tournament.”
Gill was far from the only angler to stack up a gaudy total on the fruitful fishery. As was also the case for Group A’s first day on the water, it took more than 58 pounds to claim a spot in the Top 10, and nine anglers crossed the 60-pound mark.
Full results can be found here.
Multiple patterns produce for Gill
Gill admitted that it can feel at times like catching bass on the St. Lawrence is easy. In some ways, though, that actually makes strategy more stressful for the pros, as they have to be just about perfect in order to keep up with the pace.
While some anglers (like Shuffield, who boated eight smallmouth of 4 pounds or heavier) targeted a bigger average size, and a few even amassed strong totals of all or mostly largemouth, Gill’s gameplan focused on maximizing his catch rate. He started fishing right at “lines in” (not a given this week with much of the field making an hour-plus drive from Massena before launching) and only spent about 20 minutes of his day running his Mercury. His resulting tally of 36 scorable bass (35 of them being smallmouth) bested his next-closest competitor by seven and marked the most fish he’s boated in a day of competition this season.
“Time management and keeping the pace is the most important thing in a slugfest tournament,” Gill said. “And the best way to keep that pace is to make the run time as manageable as possible. … Just making decisions that are really time-management conscientious and focusing on maximizing fishing time, because every interaction you have with a fish here can be a 3- to 5-pound smallmouth.”
While Gill noted that his catch count could have been even higher had he not lost nine or 10 scorable bites, he’s excited by the fact that he maintained his rapid rate despite sampling several different areas and techniques. A forward-facing sonar guru who can often be spotted with just a handful of rods on his front deck, Gill said that’s not the case this week. He caught bass from as little as 5 feet of water to as deep as 54. He also found a new stretch of productive water during Period 3 that he’d never fished before and caught nearly 20 pounds off it in 22 minutes.
Gill believes having multiple options at his disposal will be key as the fishery evolves throughout the event.
“This is not one of those tournaments where you’ve got primary stuff and you’ve got some stuff in your back pocket,” he said. “Dude, you’ve got to be in all the pockets in this tournament. Front pockets, back pockets, side pockets, all the pockets, because if you’re not firing on all cylinders, you’re getting left behind.”
Gill will look to add to his repertoire of areas and techniques when he returns to the water Friday. With more than 45 pounds of cushion over 11th place, he can use the day as extra practice in advance of the Knockout Round. And with northern smallmouth known for their transient nature plus stormy weather from Hurricane Debby forecast to arrive this weekend, Gill knows he’ll need to adapt if he wants to add another trophy to his rapidly growing collection.
“Now that we’ve given ourselves a little bit of a head start, I’m looking forward to the time to expand the strategy,” he said. “I’m going to go expand on it, hopefully go find a few more areas, keep an eye on the stuff I’m fishing and try to prepare for the weekend.”
What’s next for Stage Seven
Group A will return to the water Thursday to wrap up its Qualifying Round, with the Top 10 anglers from the group earning spots in Saturday’s Knockout Round. Group B will follow suit on Friday. It’s shaping up to be a crowded race to stay above the cut line. Chris Lane currently occupies the 10th-place position as five anglers lurk within 7 pounds of his 59-2 total.
There’s extra on the line this week in addition to the trophy and $100,000 payday for the tournament winner. This marks the last chance for anglers to secure spots in REDCREST 2025 on Lake Guntersville and Heavy Hitters on Smith Mountain Lake, as well as to earn invitations to return to the Bass Pro Tour next season. We’ll have full coverage of all the important developments throughout the event on MajorLeagueFishing.com, and you can view all the on-water action on MLFNOW! Thursday through Sunday from 7:45 a.m. ET until 4:30 p.m. each day.
Fishing Clash Angler of the Year
Jacob Wheeler entered Stage Seven needing only to advance to the Knockout Round to clinch his third Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title in the past four years. He’s off to a strong start.
Wheeler totaled 74-5 on 29 bass, which has him third in Group B. He’s nearly 20 pounds clear of 11th place. One more day like that and Wheeler will join a select group of anglers to win three AOY crowns on national tours. Should he falter, Alton Jones Jr. would be best positioned to take advantage, as he entered the regular-season finale 19 points behind Wheeler.
Fishing Clash, an interactive 3D fishing simulation game played by over 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.