It's been a furious topwater bite that helped clinch Edwin Evers a spot in the championship round at the Saginaw Bay Bass Pro Tour.
August 08, 2025
By MLF Communications
Nick Hatfield put up a fight for the Qualifying Round win and the automatic Championship Round berth that comes with it, but Evers ultimately pulled away to top the field by more than 17 pounds. His two-day tally is the third-highest Qualifying Round weight in BPT history, just 6-7 shy of Michael Neal’s record set in 2021 on Lake St. Clair.
Meanwhile, Jacob Wheeler was content to let others duke it out for the Qualifying Round win, but he solidified the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title. Wheeler’s fourth Bass Pro Tour points crown in the past five years earned him another $100,000 and put him in even more elite historical company.
Catching 88 bass over 2 pounds and more than 200 pounds total across two days would be any angler’s idea of fun. But the fact that Evers caught just about all those fish on a buzzbait made this Qualifying Round stand out amid his storied, 25-year touring career.
“It was a lot of fun,” Evers said. “I know I have never caught that many bass on a topwater two days in a row. It was incredible.”
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Evers has wrestled in the past with deciding whether or not to push for a Qualifying Round win. While pros Bryan Thrift and Keith Carson – the anglers who bookended Evers on the leaderboard to start the day – opted not to keep the pedal to the floor, Evers thinks earning the Championship Round berth will be worth leaning on his best area again Friday.
For one thing, he noted that he hasn’t seen any competitors fishing nearby, so he thinks the area will get a chance to rest Saturday. He’s optimistic it might even reload with some fresh fish.
He also entered the season finale needing a high finish to climb from 43rd place in the points standings into the top 29, which would earn him a spot in the field for REDCREST 2026. He figured the best way to get there was to guarantee himself a place in the Top 10.
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“Nobody else is in that area,” Evers said. “Those fish can rest tomorrow. And for me to make REDCREST, I have to be in the Top 10. So, to chance tomorrow and something not going right, I just thought that was the thing to do.”
The Top-10 finish will be Evers’ first in a regular-season BPT event since May of 2023 (although he finished fifth at Heavy Hitters this year). The 13-time winner said putting himself in contention to hoist another trophy feels good.
If he can sneak into the REDCREST field, it’ll feel even better. The 2019 REDCREST champ has only missed out on one championship event in his career (the 2010 Bassmaster Classic), and his top goal every season is to put himself in the championship field.
“It’s just something that through my whole career I’ve been able to hang my hat on,” Evers said. “I’ve made it with the exception of one time – and there’s a big story behind that. It’s part of my testimony. The one year I didn’t make it, I took a Catch a Dream kid fishing the exact week of the championship. And I’ve just always felt like that’s what I’m supposed to do is be at those championships. And I don’t want to not make one.”Wheeler’s reign continues
By finishing the Qualifying Round in 11th place and earning a spot in the Knockout Round field, Wheeler ensured that he’ll finish ahead of Jake Lawrence in the Angler of the Year standings. The triumph marks Wheeler’s fourth Bass Pro Tour AOY crown (to go along with titles in 2021, 2022 and 2024) and adds to his fast-growing case to be considered one of the best tournament anglers of all time. He’s now one of just five pros to win four or more tour-level Angler of the Year awards and the third ever to win four in a five-year span, joining Bass Fishing Hall of Famers Roland Martin and Kevin VanDam.
Wheeler has now made the Knockout Round in six of seven events on the season, and he has a chance to make it six Top 10s as well. He opened the season with a fifth-place finish at Lake Conroe, then finished sixth at the Harris Chain. He wound up second at both Stage 3 on Lake Murray and Stage 4 on Chickamauga and Nickajack before breaking through to win his ninth BPT event on Kentucky Lake.
Shortly after lines out, Wheeler reflected on his journey from an aspiring angler growing up in Indiana to the undisputed top pro in the world.
“This is what’s crazy to me: Starting where I started, with no boat and going up through the junior program, qualifying through the BFL All-American and winning the BFL All-American, I basically had a 1 in a million shot that there was a chance that I would be out here fishing professionally,” Wheeler said. “My parents didn’t have a whole lot; I didn’t have a whole lot. And so, to be in this position in this sport, I don’t take that lightly.”
The 20 pros who advanced to the next round are as follows:
1. Edwin Evers: 88, 216-5
