Floyd/Morgan and Gill/Stefan advance after elimination round on day one of the General Tire Team Series B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota

ERIE, Pa. – It was an exciting first day of competition on Erie’s Presque Isle Bay, both for the anglers competing on the water and for the fans watching live for the first time ever a professional fishing team event during the 2024 General Tire Team Series presented by Bass Pro Shops season opener.

When Erie, Pennsylvania was announced to anglers as the host destination for the first event of the year, many expected smallmouth bass to be a major factor throughout the tournament. If Sunday’s first day of competition at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota is any indication, largemouth bass will reign supreme this week.

Team REDCON1, consisting of pros Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., and Cole Floyd of Leesburg, Ohio, led the way Sunday, catching 34 largemouth bass weighing 49 pounds, 6 ounces to earn the win after the elimination round on Day 1. With the win, Team REDCON1 now advances to the elimination round, along with second-place Team Coign, consisting of pros Matthew Stefan of Junction City, Wis., and Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Ill., who caught 32 bass weighing 43-15 to finish second.

The REDCON1 team caught the majority of their weight on the west side of Presque Isle Bay, flipping the grass with a variety of soft plastics. The duo started shallow with their flipping sticks, but after a slow start to the day, they went deeper—about 8 to 9 feet deep—and found fish holding on clean milfoil with a hard edge. Knowing what to look for, the REDCON1 team covered water and took the lead midway through the second period and never looked back.

“We had a great time today,” said Morgan, who caught the most bass and the most weight of any angler on the day. “That’s how we started and that’s what I love about bass fishing – the team tournaments. And when you have a good angler in the boat with you like Cole, it’s even better. I was so happy when Cole chose me as his teammate. He and his dad Steven used to make some great team tournaments back in the day, so I knew he would be a great team partner.”

“It was a completely different concept for me,” Floyd said. “It was really fun. And we were able to catch them the Andy Morgan way – with a big line and a big rod. My God, that bite is so addictive.”

They fished the way Morgan is known to do — casting and casting various soft lures in all sorts of colors. And they used the secret stash of Floyd’s old tournament partner.

“We used about a dozen different baits today, ranging from a Zoom Z Craw to a Strike King Rage Bug,” Morgan said. “Cole actually got his dad’s big bulk bag of soft plastics and brought them over for the Team Series. We dove into Steve’s free baits today and used every color in the bag. The color didn’t really matter though: if you got it close to the bass, they were biting it.”

Morgan’s flipping setup was a 7-foot, 11-inch flipping pole with a Lew’s Pro SP Skipping & Pitching Baitcast reel, spooled with 65-pound braided line, a 4/0 Hayabusa hook and a 3/4-ounce Strike King tungsten weight.

“We only needed two rods today,” Floyd continued.

With just over an hour left in the final period of the day, Team Coign pros Stefan and Gill moved from fourth to second after finding an area that held a decent population of largemouth bass. They caught 24 of their 32 total bass in the third period to pass Team WIX and Team Ferguson and move into last place.

“The Great Lakes are known for having very localized largemouth bass, and we just happened upon an area and caught a bunch of fish,” said Stefan, who caught 13 keeper fish.

Although he caught just three bass in the first two periods, Gill added 16 scoreable largemouth bass in the third period alone.

“I’d never been here before so it took us a bit of time to find our rhythm. We were looking for something that I don’t think had ever existed,” Gill added. “We found a spot with sand, rocks, a bit of grass, next to a backwater – everything we needed to make the comeback that we did. What a great last half.”

The results of the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota Day 1 elimination round are as follows:

1st: Team REDCON1, 36 bass, 52-0
Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., 23 bass, 34-6
Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 13 bass, 17-10
2nd: Team Coign, 32 bass, 43-15
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 19 bass, 26-1
Matt Stefan, Junction City, Wis., 13 bass, 17-14
3rd: Team Ferguson, 15 bass, 26-6
Gerald Spohrer, Gonzales, Louisiana, nine bass, 15-13
Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., six bass, 10-9
4th: Team WIX Filters, 15 bass, 23-15
Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 11 bass, 16-11
Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., four bass, 7-4

Complete results from the week can be found on MajorLeagueFishing.com.

A total of 98 bass weighing 146 pounds, 4 ounces were caught by the four teams during the Day 1 elimination round in Presque Isle Bay. Team Ferguson member Nick LeBrun caught the big Berkley bass of the day, a 3-pound, 3-ounce largemouth.

The B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota is hosted by VisitErie and takes place over six days in Erie, Pennsylvania. Each day’s competition water is top secret and is not revealed to anglers until they arrive at the host hotel each morning.

Anglers depart the host hotel in Erie each morning at 4:30 a.m. ET. They are driven directly to the boat launch for the day’s competition area by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 7:45 a.m.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and JT Kenney will provide live coverage of the extended action each competition day from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! streams live on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

The Challenge Cup features 12 two-man teams, divided into three groups as they enter the one-day knockout stages. Each of the three knockout stages will feature four new teams, with the top two teams from each knockout stage advancing to the knockout stages on Days 4 and 5. In the knockout stages, three teams will compete each day, with the top two teams from each knockout stage advancing to the championship stage on Day 6. In the championship stage on Day 6, the four finalist teams will compete in a one-day penalty shootout to determine which team will win the 2024 B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota.

The 2024 General Tire Team Series features four events – Challenge Cup, Heritage Cup, Patriot Cup and Summit Cup – featuring teams of two Bass Pro Tour professionals competing on the same boat. Each event features a roster of 24 anglers, who team up and work together to earn a share of a season purse of more than $720,000. The teams were formed through a selection process, in which 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) rankings throughout the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. The teams will compete throughout the fall of 2024.

Television coverage of the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota will premiere on the Outdoor Channel in six two-hour episodes beginning in January 2025. New episodes of the MLF General Tire Team series will premiere each Saturday morning on the Outdoor Channel and will be posted on MOTV.

Proud sponsors of the MLF General Tire Team Series include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Barbasol, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Builders FirstSource, C-MAP, Coign, Epic Baits, Ferguson , Fishing Clash, General Tire, Knighten Industries, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Nitro Boats, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala Baits, REDCON1, Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff, Star brite, Toyota , USAA, WIX Filters and YETI.

For complete and up-to-date information on Major League Fishing and the General Tire Team Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

Editor’s Note: A free press is essential to well-informed voters and citizens. While some news organizations opt for paid websites or costly paywalls, The Highland County Press has maintained a free newspaper and website for 25 years for our community. If you would like to contribute to this service, it would be greatly appreciated. Donations can be made to: The Highland County Press, PO Box 849, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133. Please include “for the website” in the memo line.