When you host nearly 200 tournaments across 11 months, there’s bound to be a bit of drama. But at just about every level of Major League Fishing competition, the 2025 season felt especially exciting.
This year delivered some of the most thrilling finishes in tournament fishing history, from the winning 5-pounder getting caught on the last cast to a literal tie with $200,000 on the line. We saw new stars emerge and familiar faces show why they are the best at what they do. Several records fell.
Narrowing down the best moments wasn’t easy, but here are our picks for the top 25 storylines, anglers, events and other things that stood out across 2025, listed in chronological order.
1. Close friends fight it out on Conroe
The first event of the 2025 Bass Pro Tour season on Texas’ Lake Conroe delivered a nail-biter, with three anglers (Justin Cooper, Colby Miller and Jacob Wall) trading the top spot during the final period of the Championship Round. Ultimately, it came down to Cooper and Miller – two close friends who grew up fishing Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn. When Miller caught a 2-10 with about 2 minutes left, it looked like he might steal the victory in his first career BPT event. But Cooper mustered one more scorable bass in the final minute to reclaim the top spot and earn his first BPT win.
2. Old-school flippin’ in Florida
Much ado has been made about the proliferation of the jighead minnow and other finesse techniques in recent years, but the second event of the Bass Pro Tour season showed that old-school power tactics can still play. Flipping vegetation – particularly with straight-tail worms – emerged as the dominant technique on Florida’s Harris Chain of Lakes. Florida resident Bobby Lane used his Sunshine State savvy to make the right move during a windy Championship Round. He erased a nearly 20-pound deficit to Hall of Famer Mark Davis and rallied for the win. Then, a week later, Ryan Armstrong flipped his way to victory at the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals season-opener on the Kissimmee Chain.
3. Robinson wins with whole family on hand
Of all the on-stage trophy celebrations this season, the scene after Mitchell Robinson won Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 2 on Lake Hartwell might have been the most memorable. First off, the weigh-in was about as suspenseful as it gets – Robinson overcame a deficit of more than 4 pounds to edge Dustin Smith by just 2 ounces. Plus, his older brother, Marshall, and father, Marty, both competed in the event as well, so the whole family piled on stage to celebrate the 19-year-old’s first win above the high school level.
4. Harris drops 30 on final day to win on Rayburn
Sam Rayburn is one of those fisheries where no lead is ever safe. However, local hammer turned touring pro Dakota Ebare felt like a pretty solid bet entering Day 3 of the second Toyota Series Southwestern Division event with an 8-pound cushion. But while Ebare struggled, Riley Harris put together a massive limit of 30-9 to rocket to the top spot. Harris’ three-day total of 82-10 easily surpassed the previous three-day weight record on Rayburn in MLF/FLW competition. He wasn’t the only angler to catch a megabag during the epic event, either – five total 30-pound sacks hit the scales, including a 36-2 limit from runner-up Cody Ross on the final day.
5. Nutt goes back-to-back
One of many early-20s anglers making waves in bass fishing these days, Dylan Nutt broke out in a big way in 2025. First, the University of North Alabama angler sacked up 30 pounds on the final day to run down Tennessee River hammer Jake Lawrence and win a slugfest at the Toyota Series Central Division opener on Pickwick. When the Central Division headed to Chickamauga a month later, Nutt topped 30 pounds yet again both on Days 1 and 2. Needless to say, he won that event, too, taking home more than $75,000 in a two-event span.
6. Dylan Quilatan’s unlikely Florida heater
Seeing a 17-year-old notch eight Top 10s and two wins is plenty impressive. But considering Dylan Quilatan grew up in New York and got his start fishing in Central Park, his dominant run in Florida this year was especially noteworthy. Quilatan’s family relocated to Florida five years ago so he could chase his bass fishing dream, and he paid off the decision by winning a BFL on the Harris Chain and then winning the Toyota Series Southern Division event on the same fishery in record fashion a week later. His 83-8 total marked the highest three-day Toyota Series winning weight ever, not just at the Harris Chain, but at any Florida venue.
7. Connell continues REDCREST reign
Dustin Connell had to be considered the angler to beat entering REDCREST 2025 on Lake Guntersville. After all, the Alabama native was the defending champ and had won both of the previous two editions of REDCREST held in his home state. But no one would have predicted how Connell claimed title No. 3. Running nearly 70 miles away from the areas that usually dominate tournaments on the legendary lake, Connell fished the tailrace beneath Nickajack Dam for a mixture of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. Stormy conditions on the final day caused his bite to fire while hurting those targeting bedding bass down the lake, but Connell still had to survive a late charge from Wesley Strader, who also ran to the upper end of the fishery and pulled within 10 pounds of stealing the win.
8. Buzzbait buzzer-beater for the win
With five Top 10s in eight events and a runner-up finish in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race, Jake Lawrence put together a dream debut season on the Bass Pro Tour. While he caught them everywhere, it’s not hard to pinpoint the highlight – not only of Lawrence’s season but perhaps the entire 2025 calendar.
Lawrence dueled with Jacob Wheeler for the top spot throughout the Championship Round of Stage 4 on Nickajack Lake. Wheeler, who was targeting smallmouth in the tailrace at the upper end of the lake, caught a 3-12 about 6 minutes before lines out to grab the lead. Chasing largemouth on the other end of the fishery, it took Lawrence until his last cast to get the bite he needed to reclaim the top spot. A 5-12 beast engulfed his buzzbait, and he swung it over the gunwale with less than 15 seconds to spare. Wheeler, meanwhile, hooked another smallmouth that might have put him back on top but couldn’t land it in time.
9. Shaw tops Tennessee River hammers in Pickwick shootout
There’s never an easy field at a tour-level event, but the number of proven performers competing at Invitationals Stop 4 on Pickwick stood out. The cast of competitors included seven past winners on Pickwick alone, not to mention several more who had won elsewhere on the Tennessee River system. Banks Shaw beat them all for the crowning moment of his AOY-winning season. The top contenders caught their fish in several different ways, with some targeting isolated offshore cover, others fishing the tailrace beneath Wilson Dam and a few sprinkling in a shad spawn bite. Shaw’s approach stood out – he primarily targeted offshore schools, both deep on Days 1 and 3 (when he had forward-facing sonar at his disposal) and around shallow bars on Day 2.
10. Turano wins big-bass battle at All-American
The Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American returned to historic Lake Hamilton this year, and the Arkansas gem kicked out an impressive number of 7- to 10-pound largemouth. Catching those kickers turned out to be key, and no one did so better than Matteo Turano. The Tennessee transplant caught fish over 7 pounds to anchor limits of more than 19 pounds on each of the first two days, then added 17-4 on Day 3 to claim the $120,000 prize and add his name to the illustrious list of All-American champions.
11. Wheeler wins one for dad
Coming off consecutive near-misses at regular-season events, Jacob Wheeler was especially hungry for his first Bass Pro Tour win of 2025 at Stage 5 on Kentucky Lake. Jake Lawrence, who lives and guides on the lake, looked like the favorite throughout the week, but Wheeler put on a clinic on the lake’s famed offshore ledges during the Championship Round, making the right moves at the right time and rotating baits to keep the bass biting. The result was a 110-pound day, which earned him some revenge over Lawrence. Far sweeter was the fact that, two months after the passing of his father, Wheeler won on a fishery where the two of them fished some of his first tournaments together.
12. Poche goes off the grid to win on James River
There’s no pro better at finding (and accessing) hard-to-reach bass than Keith Poche. Poche uncovered the ultimate juice hole at Invitationals Stop 5 on the James River in the form of a small creek and backwater pond. He blasted 23-15 from the area on Day 1 – the biggest bag of the event by 3 1/2 pounds – then held on from there to deliver a wire-to-wire win.
13. Saginaw Bay delivers record-setting power fishing
Normally, a Great Lakes tournament means spinning rods and smallmouth. That couldn’t have been farther from the case when the Bass Pro Tour closed the season on Saginaw Bay. The event turned into a shallow, power fishing slugfest, with swim jigs and topwaters dominating. Edwin Evers rode an epic buzzbait bite to the Qualifying Round win, then Jacob Wheeler caught almost all of his 110 pounds during his Championship Round victory on a frog. It wasn’t just that pros were cracking hooksets with braid and wrenching largemouth out of grass, either – the field landed scorable bass at an unprecedented rate. The opening day of the event set the Bass Pro Tour record for the most total weight caught, and then Day 2 topped it with 3,219 pounds, 4 ounces of bass hitting SCORETRACKER®.
14. A 31-pound sack of smallmouth
Seemingly every year, the St. Lawrence River raises the bar for top-end weights at a Northern smallmouth fishery. This year was no different – Chris Johnston won the Invitationals event on the river with 76-1 despite not having forward-facing sonar at his disposal one day, then Brody Campbell set a new three-day weight record on the fishery with 79-1 at the Toyota Series event the following month.
But no St. Lawrence stat was more impressive than Erik Luzak’s 31-5 limit on Day 2 of said Toyota Series event. The Canadian pro only got six bites all day, but he made them count, including a personal-best 7-14 kicker. That easily earned the record for the heaviest five-fish limit on the St. Lawrence River in MLF/FLW history, topping the previous mark by 2-7.
15. Father and son team up to win Challenge Cup
The revamped Fishing Clash Team Series has produced a lot of fun pairings the past two years, perhaps none more easy to root for than the father-son duo of Alton Jones and Alton Jones Jr. A year after the Joneses fell just short of winning the 2024 Heritage Cup, they teamed up again at the Challenge Cup and put on a smallmouth-catching clinic on the St. Clair River. The Joneses topped 60 pounds and won all three days they competed, edging Adrian Avena and Dustin Connell by less than 3 pounds to win a Championship Round thriller.
16. Lopez wins Championship in home state
The Invitationals Championship returned in style this year. Conditions changed every day on the Upper Mississippi River, and several pros entered Day 3 with a legitimate shot to take the title. Ultimately, Wisconsin native Steve Lopez’s knowledge of the Mighty Mississippi prevailed. Fishing the same way he had when he fell just short of a win on the fishery in 2023, this time Lopez rallied from fourth place after Day 2 to claim the $100,000 prize.
17. The best statistical season ever
Throughout the history of tournament bass fishing, there have been some impressive hot streaks. But no one has ever put together a season quite as dominant as Banks Shaw’s 2025.
Shaw won both the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year and Polaris Rookie of the Year titles on the Invitationals with ease, but that’s not all. The 22-year-old finished in the Top 10 of all seven Invitationals events, which had never been done before on the Invitationals or Pro Circuit. His average finish of 4.29 is the best ever on any MLF/FLW national trail. Oh by the way, he also won Angler of the Year in the stacked Toyota Series Central Division and notched another eight Top 10s across Toyota Series, Phoenix Bass Fishing League and Abu Garcia College Fishing competition, setting another all-time MLF mark with 15 Top 10s in 2025.
18. Smith qualifies for BPT without forward-facing sonar
Each of the four anglers who qualified for the Bass Pro Tour from the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals has a cool story, but Dustin Smith stands out. The bass fishing everyman works a full-time job, had little to no sponsor backing and initially only signed up for a couple Invitationals events in 2025. But after finishing 12th at the Kissimmee Chain and second at Hartwell, Smith figured he better see the rest of the season through. He wound up finishing fifth in the points, and he did so by fishing his way. He never put a forward-facing sonar transducer on his Phoenix and leaned on flipping and a buzzbait all season, including at the James River, where he notched another top-three finish.
19. Schmitt continues Potomac dominance
Arguably the best tidal fisherman in America and the clear king of the Potomac River, Bryan Schmitt added yet another trophy to his collection when the Toyota Series Northern Division visited the fishery in September. The win marked Schmitt’s seventh Toyota Series title – extending his record as the most by any angler – and fourth on the Potomac. Those stats might make it sound like the victory was inevitable, but Schmitt had to pull out all his tricks to maximize a tough bite. He mixed and matched techniques, targeting everything from shallow hydrilla to matted grass to docks to an underwater rock jetty. The junk-fishing master class saw him increase his weight each day, climbing from fifth place after Day 1 to second to the win.
20. Wheeler, Daniels come through in the clutch
An action-packed Heritage Cup in Minocqua, Wisconsin, culminated in the Championship Round on Tomahawk Lake, where Drew Gill and Marshall Robinson jumped out to an early lead and maintained it for most of the day. But Jacob Wheeler and Mark Daniels Jr. steadily chipped away during the third period. The two tandems traded flurries before Wheeler and Daniels made a clutch move and caught six of the final seven scorable bass of the day (including the last four) to complete their comeback and earn the first Team Series trophy for each of them.
21. Luckey, Buchmann win four BFLs apiece
It had been more than a quarter century since one angler won four BFL events in the same season. Two did so in 2025 – and not far apart from one another, either. Brody Luckey won back-to-back events on Smith Mountain Lake in the same March weekend, then added two more victories on the James River, one in July and the other in the Piedmont Division Super Tournament. That was part of a season that saw Luckey notch nine total Top 10s. Meanwhile, Kaden Buchmann won two events on Lake Norman as part of his AOY season in the North Carolina Division, and he added victories on Kerr Lake and Lake Hartwell for good measure.
22. Montevallo remains the class of College Fishing
Alabama football had a generational run under Nick Saban, but the University of Montevallo’s fishing team might be making a push for the most impressive dynasty to come out of the state. Montevallo’s Brody Robison and Peyton Sorrow topped a heavyweight battle on Wheeler Lake at the College Fishing National Championship with 64-15. Their teammate, Nick Dumke, placed second fishing solo, plus the Falcons had another tandem in the Top 10 in Brenton Goodwin and Hunter Odom. That performance helped Montevallo claim Tackle Warehouse School of the Year honors for the second year in a row and fourth time in the past five years. Robison will represent the program at REDCREST next spring.
23. Fitzpatrick wins closest Toyota Series Championship ever
It doesn’t get much more dramatic than four anglers finishing within 4 ounces of one another, especially with $200,000 on the line. Such was the case at the Toyota Series Championship on Grand Lake. The storied fishery proved stingy, and that made for tight weights. Roger Fitzpatrick, Drew Gill, Tucker Smith and Riley Harris all finished between 41-1 and 40-13 for the event, with Fitzpatrick and Gill posting the same total. The 61-year-old Fitzpatrick won the tiebreaker, holding off the cadre of tech-savvy young pros to get by far the biggest victory of his career. He did so in old-school Ozark fashion, too, picking apart boat docks with a 1-ounce spinnerbait.
24. Gill wins again, hits $1 million mark
A major question entering the new year was how Drew Gill would fare with forward-facing sonar limited on both the Bass Pro Tour and Tackle Warehouse Invitationals. Turns out the young phenom was just fine. Gill notched four Top 10s in BPT competition en route to a third-place finish in the Angler of the Year standings. The high point came when he edged Jacob Wheeler by just over 2 pounds for the win at Stage 3 on Lake Murray. He added another seven Top 10s (in nine events) at the Invitationals and Toyota Series levels to bring his career earnings over the $1 million mark at just 23 years old, making him the youngest bass fishing millionaire in MLF/FLW history.
25. Team West Coast out-duels local favorite
It looked for the first two rounds like hometown favorite Nick LeBrun would be impossible to beat at the season-ending Summit Cup in Bossier City, Louisiana – the beatdown LeBrun and partner Todd Faircloth unleashed during the Knockout Round, when they caught 91-13 in the first period alone and 139-15 total, represented the most impressive day we’ve seen in two-man Team Series competition. But during the Championship Round on a stingy Cross Lake, it was California natives Brent Ehrler and Justin Lucas who showcased perfect team chemistry by cranking and flipping their way to an emotional win.