Drew Gill Wins Stage Three of the Bass Pro Tour at Lake Murray

A Battle Between Giants

It always comes down to this. Two men, both ruthless, both relentless, standing on the edge of victory with the weight of the lake pressing down on them. Drew Gill. Jacob Wheeler. This isn't new if you've been paying attention to the Bass Pro Tour over the last two years. This is the fight.

Jacob Wheeler Holding A Bass — Jacob Wheeler Takes Second Place and $45,000. Bass Pro Tour Stage 3 at Lake Murray | Courtesy of MLF

Gill, the 22-year-old phenom. Wheeler, the eight-time champion, the relentless force, the man who doesn't lose these fights. They were locked in from the first cast, using identical strategies: forward-facing sonar in the morning and dock skipping with Neko rigs in the afternoon. Blow for blow, ounce for ounce. No one else even came close.

But in the end, it was Gill who stood at the top. Barely. 58 pounds, 2 ounces. A mere 2 pounds, 3 ounces over Wheeler. Less than the weight of an average scorable bass. A single mistake would have flipped the script.

A Game of Risk and Reward

Drew Gill Move To Deeper Water Seals The Deal on Lake Murray | Courtesy of MLF

Gill knew his dock bite was doomed. The overcast, cool conditions were a death sentence for his afternoon game plan. So, he did what was best, and he adapted.

He went deeper than anyone else in the field, 28 to maybe 35 feet, targeting bass that chased blueback herring in ditches. These fish hadn't been harassed by the forward-facing sonar crowd. Less pressure, more bites.

In a lake like Murray, with so many bass, the game isn't finding them, the game is bite percentage.
Drew Gill

He made the most of his window, stacking 45 pounds in Period 1. That should have been enough. It wasn't.

A Collapse in the Making

For over two hours, Gill's deck was silent. The bite dried up. Wheeler started climbing. The lead vanished.

Then, there was a break in the final 10 minutes of Period 2. A misfire. Twice, Gill pitched a Big Bite Baits Nekorama under a dock, and twice, he missed the hookset. On the third try, he connected. A 5-1. The most important fish of his tournament.

"That was the turning point," he said. "That fish saved me."

With renewed confidence, he figured out the puzzle—floating docks on round, shallow points. Isolated, quiet, and overlooked. Four of his last five scorable bass came from that exact setup.

Holding the Line

Drew Gill Using Forward-Facing Sonar to Search for Bass | Courtesy of MLF

Then came the waiting. The dread. Wheeler was close. Too close. The final 89 minutes ticked away, and Gill couldn't land another fish.

"I was convinced Wheeler was going to pass me," he admitted. "Absolutely convinced."

But the lake had other plans. Wheeler's charge stalled, and Gill, the kid barely removed from college tournaments, held off the greatest angler in the world. His second Bass Pro Tour win. His fourth in 13 months across MLF circuits. And a message was sent: he's not just a kid with good electronics. He's a killer.

Drew Gill Catching A Bass — Courtesy of MLF

"I wanted to prove I could win any way, not just with forward-facing sonar," Gill said. "Mission accomplished."

2025 Angler of the Year Race

Gill is six points behind Wheeler in the Angler of the Year race. With a season left to fight, this battle isn't over. Not even close.

Place	Angler	Points
1	Jacob Wheeler	230
2	Drew Gill	224
3	Matt Becker	199
4	Alton Jones Jr.	198
5	Mark Davis	192
6	Jake Lawrence	192
7	Jeff Sprague	187
8	Ron Nelson	184
9	Justin Cooper	183
10	Colby Miller	183

For full list of AOY results visit Major League Fishing

The top 10 pros at the PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King finished:

Drew Gill Holding A $150k Check & Bass Pro Tour Stage 3 Trophy — Drew Gill Wins $150,000 Stage Three of the Bass Pro Tour at Lake Murray | Courtesy of MLF

1st: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 19 bass, 58-2, $150,000
2nd: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 20 bass, 55-15, $45,000
3rd: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 11 bass, 37-10, $35,000
4th: Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 13 bass, 36-2, $30,000
5th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 10 bass, 30-4, $25,000
6th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., nine bass, 27-4, $23,000
7th: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, seven bass, 24-6, $22,000
8th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., seven bass, 23-3, $21,000
9th: Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, seven bass, 19-8, $20,500
10th: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., seven bass, 18-10, $20,000

For a full list of results visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 110 scorable bass weighing 331 pounds caught by the final 10 pros on Sunday. Jeff Sprague of Wills Point, Texas, won Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 6-pound largemouth that he caught on a crankbait in Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.

Television coverage of the PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 4 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Sunday, Oct. 5. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.