FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. — Saturday’s opening day of qualifying for Group A at B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops also marked the first time Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake has appeared on the national tournament stage since 2015. Even though the field of 15 pros had to contend with a morning storm that gave way to windy, high-pressure conditions (as well as the boat traffic you’d expect on a sunny Saturday), the fishery produced plenty of chunky largemouth and smallmouth.
No one caught them better than Michael Neal, who spent nearly the entire day winding a spinnerbait around steep banks and hauling in bass. He stacked up 75 pounds, 14 ounces on 26 scorable bass to take a commanding early lead, 28-8 ahead of Mark Daniels Jr. in second.
Full results can be found here.
Neal smashes with a spinnerbait
Like many anglers, Neal admitted he doesn’t reach for a spinnerbait too often these days, especially on a clear-water fishery like Smith Mountain. He felt good about a few of the areas up the Roanoke River he’d located during practice, but he started Saturday morning throwing a topwater.
It wasn’t until he saw some baitfish flickering in the area that he picked up a spinnerbait and unleashed a beatdown reminiscent of a past Heavy Hitters performance, when Alton Jones Jr. romped the field with a spinnerbait to win the Championship Round on Bussey Brake in 2023.
“It’s been a while,” Neal said when asked the last time he’d experienced a spinnerbait bite like that. “I really hardly even throw one anymore besides just dirty water. But there’s not much better than a good, hard spinnerbait bite.”
Neal caught all but two of his scorable bass on a shad-colored SPRO Blade spinnerbait with a Big Bite Baits Kamikaze Swimon split-tail trailer. Initially, he figured the bait was working so well because of an ongoing shad spawn – he said he could see and feel baitfish bumping his lure as he retrieved it. However, shad spawns typically wane after the early morning hours. Neal’s bite just kept getting better.
After catching 10 scorable bass for 30-1 in the opening period, which gave him a lead of 3-10 over Jones, he added 12 more bass totaling 34-3 during Period 2. That pushed his advantage all the way to 27-6. Once he crossed the 75-pound mark with about an hour left in the day, he left his area and went searching for a big bass.
Neal admitted he was surprised the spinnerbait continued to produce, but he’s not questioning it.
“I wish I knew if it was a shad or a herring deal, because I feel like if that was just threadfins (spawning) like they do at home, I feel like it would have been done by lines in, or at least halfway through the first period when the sun came out,” he said. “But they bit it on up into the third period, too. So, I don’t know if that’s a blueback thing or what.
“The bass were literally touching the bank. I don’t know if they just sit there and wait until something comes by, if they swim that tight to the bank all day or what they really do, but I’m not going to try and figure it out a whole lot. I’m just going to keep slinging.”
Once Neal identified the right banks, he spent most of the day running water he hadn’t practiced. He’s cautiously optimistic those areas can continue to produce across the six-day event.
“I don’t think it will go away real soon,” he said. “The shad spawn usually lasts a week or two. Of course, I don’t know how long it’s been going on here. I don’t know if we’re just starting, if we’re in the middle, if we’re at the tail end. But I really don’t think the fish are going to move a whole lot based on where they’re at now. So, I feel like it can be a sustainable pattern, shad spawn or not, throughout the tournament.”
Good news for Neal is that, with a cushion of more than 50 pounds over the elimination line, he’ll be free to utilize Group A’s second day of qualifying to search out new water and chase the big bass bonus offered each day during Heavy Hitters. He plans to do a bit of both on Monday.
“I’m going to go explore some stuff,” he said. “I’m going to keep working on expanding that area out as far as I can go each direction. But also, I want to try to catch a big one.”
Lefebre, Roumbanis split big bass cash
The first of the big bass prizes up for grabs each day during Heavy Hitters will be split between two anglers. Dave Lefebre and Fred Roumbanis each caught largemouth that weighed 6-7, so both will receive $5,000.
According to SCORETRACKER INSIDER™ Presented by Strike King, Lefebre caught his 6-7 around the midpoint of the second period on a fluke. For three and a half hours, it looked like that fish would be big enough to earn him $10,000, but with 50 minutes left before lines out, Roumbanis boated a 6-7 of his own on a glide bait.
The big bass award will remain at $10,000 for each of the remaining three Qualifying Round days before jumping to $30,000 for the Knockout Round and a whopping $100,000 during the Championship Round.
What’s next at Heavy Hitters
Group A will get Sunday off as the 15 anglers in Group B take the water for their first taste of Smith Mountain. When Group A returns to action Monday, it will be a battle to finish among the top eight and earn qualification to the Knockout Round.
Roumbanis currently sits in eighth place with 24-9 on seven scorable bass. His late 6-7 helped him bounce Lefebre, of all people, to the wrong side of the elimination line; but Lefebre is just 1-7 back of Roumbanis. Jones and Jacob Wheeler are bunched within 2 pounds of Roumbanis’ total on the positive side of the cut.
Continue to stream all the action on MLFNOW! from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET each day through Thursday at MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and the Major League Fishing channel on Rumble.