As Always, Big Bites Will Be Key At Conroe

BPT Opener

January 30, 2025

By MLF Communications Staff

CONROE, Texas – All eyes will be on Lake Conroe this week when Major League Fishing kicks off the 2025 Bass Pro Tour season.

Hosted by Visit Conroe, the four-day tournament (Thursday through Sunday) will feature a field of 66 top professional anglers, including reigning Angler of the Year (AOY) Jacob Wheeler, REDCREST 2024 Champion Dustin Connell and fan-favorites Ott DeFoe and Edwin Evers, who won the last time the BPT visited Lake Conroe in 2019. Six Texas pros will also be looking to defend their home turf as they compete for a boosted $150,000 top prize at each tournament, a share of the $6.49 million season purse, and valuable AOY points in hopes of qualifying for the Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026.

This event will mark the second time that the BPT has visited Lake Conroe. The tour last visited in 2019, the second event of its inaugural season. In that event, Oklahoma’s Evers won by flipping his way down the bank with a black and blue Berkley PowerBait Pit Boss, picking out small indentations and grassy, undercut banks and flipping his bait as close to the bank as he could. He also caught some key fish on a vibrating jig.

California pro Brent Ehrler has only fished Conroe a handful of times, but may have the best résumé on the lake of anyone in the field. He finished third there in the 2017 Bassmaster Classic and fourth at the 2019 BPT stop. Ehrler believes that the lake’s multitude of options make it a very good tournament fishery.

“About two-thirds of the lake is completely developed, and there’s so much available cover that it can be hard to pinpoint the fish,” he said. “It’s completely covered with docks, seawalls and dredged-out canals that it can almost be hard to figure them out because there’s so many potential targets. The northern section is the same, but undeveloped and all rock, brush and trees. That’s not counting the marinas and offshore brushpiles; the lake has almost everything.”

Ehrler hasn’t been to Conroe since the BPT event in 2019, but he knows what the lake is capable of.

“It’s known as a big-fish lake, and that time of year, we’re likely to see the biggest bass we’ll see all year,” he said. “It’s never been a numbers lake in my experience, but the chance to catch a huge one is always there.”

Ehrler expects many different techniques to be a factor. Nothing should be off the table at this event.

“You name it – you can catch them on just about anything on that lake and that time of year,” he said. “You can crank or throw a ChatterBait or jerkbait there, but you can also fish a shaky-head or dropshot. There will also be guys throwing a jig and Carolina rig and catching fish.”

Ehrler expects forward-facing sonar to play a factor, but the new rules limiting its use to just one period each day should mitigate its impact.

“I’m sure guys will catch them with LiveScope, and it’s never really been a factor here because all of the other tournaments were before we all had it,” Ehrler said. “I know it won’t be won solely with forward-facing sonar because we’re now limited. You’ll have to find ways to catch some in those other two periods.”

Anglers will arrive each morning at 5:30 a.m. CT to the Outlets at Conroe, located at 1111 League Line Road. The Bass Pro Tour trailering policy has been enacted for this event, so anglers will depart the Outlets each morning at 6:30 a.m. to one of five optional launch ramps located around the fishery. Anglers will return to the Outlets at Conroe each evening, following the end of competition at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW! livestream and SCORETRACKER coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com .