Jacob Wheeler Earns 11th Bass Pro Tour Win at Suzuki Marine Stage 4 Presented by Plano

Reigning Angler of the Year catches 12 bass weighing 42-13 in final-day Championship Round on Lake Brownwood to earn top prize of $125,000

EARLY, Texas, March 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Throughout the first two days of Suzuki Marine Stage 4 Presented by Plano, Jacob Wheeler worried that every scorable bass he caught hampered his chances of winning his 11th Bass Pro Tour event. The Tennessee pro spent almost all the Qualifying Round on Lake O.H. Ivie atop SCORETRACKER®, yet he waffled about whether it would behoove him to win the round and earn an automatic trip to Sunday’s Championship Round. He wound up doing so, but that meant he didn’t get a feel for Lake Brownwood, which hosted both the Knockout Round on Saturday and Championship Round on Sunday.

Wheeler’s concerns were well-founded. At each of the 10 prior BPT events that took place across multiple fisheries, no Qualifying Round winner had ever went on to win the event.

Score another Bass Pro Tour first for Wheeler.

Wheeler completed his wire-to-wire win by stacking up 42 pounds, 13 ounces on 12 Lake Brownwood bass, Sunday. With the lake fishing far tougher than it had a day prior, that was enough to top runner-up Justin Lucas by more than 10 pounds.

Wheeler earned $125,000 for the victory. He also took over the lead in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race, which he’s seeking to win for the fifth time in the past six years. Wheeler leads Zack Birge by 3 points, and the two of them have created a bit of separation from the rest of the field. Drew Gill moved into third, 14 points back of Birge.

Link to Hi-Res Photo of Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood Winner Jacob Wheeler
Link to Day 4 Photo Gallery: Wheeler finds his footing on Lake Brownwood during Championship Round
Link to Day 4 Photo Gallery: Justin Lucas continues to dominate Lake Brownwood on Championship Sunday
Link to Day 4 Photo Gallery: Bass Pro Tour anglers fight a stingy bite through Stage 4 Championship Round
Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 4 Championship Round Competition

Wheeler has long preached that winning results from making the right decisions. His first call that set the foundation for win No. 11 came almost a week ago, on the first day of official practice.

Events like Stage 4 that take place on multiple fisheries always present a conundrum for pros in terms of how they allocate their practice time. Anglers got a third day of practice for this event. Still, most used all that time on O.H. Ivie, their reasoning being that practicing on Brownwood wouldn’t matter if you don’t make the Knockout Round, and figuring out the bass roaming the flooded forest that is O.H. Ivie wasn’t easy.

Wheeler, on the other hand, started his practice on Brownwood. He spent the first half of the first day there. Then, after he got a feel for O.H. Ivie, he spent three more hours on Brownwood Wednesday afternoon.

“I figured it was a gamble,” Wheeler said. “I was able to get an idea of what was changing and what was happening (on Brownwood), which was super important.” 

Wheeler found the fish he caught during the second period on Sunday during his practice on Brownwood. And even though he spent less time practicing O.H. Ivie than many of his competitors, Wheeler still figured out the fishery best. He led after the opening period on Day 1. He held the top spot at the end of the opening day with 44 pounds on 13 scorable bass. And he maintained his lead for all of Day 2. His two-day total of 78-12 on O.H. Ivie topped the next-best angler by more than 12 pounds.

Throughout that second day of qualifying, MLFNOW! viewers heard Wheeler wrestling with whether he should win the round. Ultimately, he decided to take the guaranteed place in the Top 10 over what he thought would be a better chance at winning the event.

“I really had my doubts in this scenario – new lake, not being out here on the water yesterday,” Wheeler said. “I was worried about it, and it just worked out.”

In hindsight, Wheeler thinks this was a rare example where entering the final day with less to go on may have helped him. Sunday’s conditions represented a complete 180 from Saturday. Whereas the Knockout Round field fished in chilly, cloudy conditions, Sunday brought a high in the 80s, sunny skies and a stiff south wind that made precise presentations around the lake’s many boat docks difficult.

“I think giving myself that fresh start – not being around a whole bunch of other boats, not seeing what went down yesterday and just going out here and fishing my game – ended up being the best thing,” Wheeler said.

Based on his start to Championship Sunday, you wouldn’t have known that Wheeler hadn’t been on Brownwood in four days. He quickly found a stretch of docks where shad were spawning in the morning and used a bladed jig paired with a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader to boat six scorable bass for 23-11, including a pair of 4-14s.

Wheeler was far from the only angler targeting docks with a reaction bait, but he made the pattern work better than anyone else in the Top 10. The key was making repeated casts to the best spots and getting his bait as far under the docks as possible.

“I caught three or four of my fish that I made multiple casts of the exact same cast,” he said. “Like, they didn’t bite it my first cast; they bit it on my third cast. So, that was super important.”

Just about every time Wheeler caught one, it seemed like Lucas – who won the Knockout Round on Brownwood in dominant fashion – did, too. Lucas led Wheeler by 5-14 at the end of Period 1, setting up what looked to be a prize fight between two of the most accomplished Bass Pro Tour anglers down the stretch.

Wheeler noted that he and Lucas came up through the tournament ranks at the same time, and they’ve long had a rivalry of sorts. It’s gotten more friendly over the years, but Wheeler said they’re still competitive – especially since Lucas edged Wheeler by 1 ounce to win the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super Tournament on Lake Erie in 2020.

“We both sort of came up about the same time,” Wheeler said. “So, two young guys battling it out all the time, talking smack. We used to have like an arch-nemesis thing between him and I back in the day. It’s nothing even close to that now. If I couldn’t have won, I would have loved to see Lucas win.” 

Then, the bite suddenly shut off. The same lake that had produced 11 bass over 6 pounds and saw Lucas stack up 60 pounds in two periods just a day prior went dormant. At one point in the second period, the entire 10-angler field went about an hour without boating a scorable bass. Lucas caught just one more, a 2-14, the rest of the day.

Wheeler didn’t find the sledding much easier. He did start Period 2 strong, turning on his forward-facing sonar and catching a pair of scorable bass in the first 15 minutes. He added a 4-13 about 30 minutes later that gave him the lead. Then he went the rest of the period without another fish.

When the third period started and Wheeler had to turn off his forward-facing sonar, he returned to the boat docks and promptly caught a 3-4 followed by a 2-9. More than 90 minutes later, after fishing a literal mile-long stretch of boat docks without a bite, he caught a 3-4 to effectively seal the victory.

Wheeler said he “has no freaking clue” why the bite got so tough. He toyed with the idea of making a long run to a new area in the third period. But seeing via SCORETRACKER® how slow the action was for everyone, he decided to stay the course. That decision paid off. The whole field mustered just 11 scorable bass in the third period, and Wheeler caught three of them.

“I had another place that I felt pretty confident I could catch them,” he said. “If I ran to that place, I was going to be locked in, and I wasn’t going to have the accessibility to run around. I just felt like locking in and staying the course felt like the better decision.”

Winning has become the expectation for Wheeler. He has now won at least one event in four straight Bass Pro Tour seasons and six of seven years since the inception of the league. Including his two Fishing Clash Team Series triumphs last fall, he’s ended five of his past nine MLF events with a trophy in hand.

So, what makes this win special? For one, it showcased Wheeler’s elite versatility. He caught most of his weight three different ways across his three days on the water. On Day 1 at O.H. Ivie, he leaned on a flipping stick and a CrushCity Bronco Bug to pick apart standing timber. Day 2, he targeted schooling fish with a frog and a swim jig. Skipping docks with the aforementioned bladed jig did most of his damage on Sunday.

“I always pride myself on being a versatile angler, for sure,” Wheeler said. “I just try to look at the water and try to read it and go with what I felt like is the best-case scenario. So, it feels good to be able to lock that up and do something a little bit different every day.” 

More important, the victory validated all the hard work Wheeler has put in to climb to the pinnacle of the sport and stay there. Believe it or not, even the No. 1-ranked angler in the world can let doubt creep in. His first win of 2026 gave Wheeler “a jolt of confidence” that what he’s doing is still working.

“Every single event you have a win, it’s special,” Wheeler said. “Every good thing comes to an end at some point in time. The top athletes in their respective sports, they’re not always dropping 30 every night or hitting home runs all the time. There’s a point in time in my career – and I know that – that it won’t happen like this. You don’t know when that is, and you sure as heck want to work hard and not get in a downward spiral. Top 10s are great, but when you get a win, you just get a jolt of confidence.”

The top 10 pros at Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood Presented by Plano finished:  

1st:        Jacob Wheeler, Birchwood, Tenn., 12 bass, 42-13, $125,000
2nd:      Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 32-7, $45,000
3rd:       Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., seven bass, 21-5, $35,000
4th:       Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., seven bass, 18-0, $30,000
5th:       Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., five bass, 16-4, $25,000
6th:       Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., five bass, 11-14, $23,000
7th:       Alton Jones Jr., Lorena, Texas, three bass, 7-8, $22,000
8th:       Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., three bass, 6-12, $21,000
9th:       Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., two bass, 4-11, $20,500
10th:     Adrian Avena, Marmora, N.J., one bass, 2-7, $20,000

A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 55 bass weighing 164 pounds, 1 ounce, caught by the 10 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Sunday.

Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award was earned by Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Alabama, who caught a 5-pound, 1-ounce largemouth in the first period. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.

Hosted by Visit Early, the four-day tournament featured 51 of the world’s top professional anglers competing for a $125,000 top prize and their share of a $600,000 purse, along with valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for REDCREST 2027 – the Bass Pro Tour championship – and the Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event.

The next event for Bass Pro Tour anglers will be REDCREST 2026 at Table Rock Lake, April 17-19 in Springfield, Missouri.

The 2026 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 51 of the best professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2027 championship.

Television coverage of the Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood Presented by Plano will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 12, on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.


Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Force, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala , Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota, Yuengling and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS , Discovery, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.

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• Wheeler Wins Again!

CONTACT: Charity Muehlenweg
Major League Fishing
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charitym@majorleaguefishing.com