Drew Gill (right) and Marshall Robinson ran away from the competition during the Knockout and Championship rounds at the Summit Cup in Florida.
November 22, 2024
By MLF Communications Staff INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. – In a field of anglers that included a former REDCREST champion and multiple Bassmaster Classic winners, it was a pair of young guns that absolutely ran away with the event. Representing Team Coign, 22-year-old pro Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Illinois, and 21-year-old pro Marshall Robinson of Landrum, South Carolina, combined to catch 38 bass weighing 69-11 on Lake Garcia – more than double the total weight of second place – to win the Summit Cup.
The event was the fourth and final MLF Team Series event of the 2024 season.
Finishing in second place was Team Star brite, represented by brothers Bobby and Chris Lane, who caught 23 bass weighing 31-7. Team REDCON1 – Skeet Reese and John Murray – finished in third with 13 bass weighing 31-3, while Terry Scroggins and Britt Myers, representing Team Lucas Oil, weighed in 12 bass totaling 21-6 to finish fourth.
“Oh my gosh, what a week,” an elated Gill said in his post-game interview. “It’s been a long week, and we’ve put in a lot of work: three different lakes, no practice. We came out here and got it done today and had an absolute ball. This lake was a super good time.”
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Lake Garcia was the playing field for the anglers in the Championship Round, and like Headwaters and Stick Marsh earlier in the week, vibrating jigs, lipless crankbaits and flipping and punching were expected to dominate. Gill and Robinson bucked that trend completely, pairing spinning rods and dropshot rigs with forward-facing sonar to run away with the victory Friday.
“I knew right away from the start that we had made a good decision,” Robinson said. “We caught a couple early and we had the momentum rolling right away within the first 45 minutes. It kind of happened just like it did yesterday (in the Knockout Round) – we got out to an early lead and then just tried to maintain it and keep the pace.”
In a fishery that is known for its plentiful grass and vegetation, MLF NOW! host and Western Florida resident J.T. Kenney joked that the duo went out in the 30-minute ride around prior to the start of competition and located one of maybe three locations in the entire lake that could be fished in that style. That location was all that the two young anglers, known for being proficient with their electronics, needed.
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“The deal for me, the last two days specifically, was the dropshot,” Gill said. “I was throwing a 7-inch finesse worm on a 1/0 medium-wire dropshot hook with a 1/4-ounce dropshot weight. I was using a 14-pound test leader – a little bit over a foot – and throwing an upsized worm, which was really important. It's been windy with adverse conditions, and being able to make precise casts and cut through that wind with the heavier weight, upsized worm and thicker leader but also (light enough) to help keep that bait falling nice and slow, allowing it to drift where it needed to go, was super important.
“We switched between a couple of colors – mainly green pumpkin and plum,” Gill continued. “It was a 1-2 punch for us. We came out and won our Knockout Round with this bait on Stick Marsh, and then came out here on Garcia. We fished the offshore sand flats and hydrilla clumps and looked for clean water and isolated targets. That was the deal for us today.”
Added Robinson: “We'd been talking about it all week – how badly we wanted to win this one. There were some really big names in this tournament, and to get the win today and get to bring one of these trophies home, it’s pretty sick. These trophies are huge, and I’m so pumped.”
Here are the final numbers for the Championship Round:
1st: Team Coign, 38 bass, 69-11
2nd: Team Star brite, 23 bass, 31-7
3rd: Team REDCON1, 13 bass, 31-3
4th: Team Lucas Oil, 12 bass, 21-6
Gill caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day on a dropshot rig – a largemouth weighing 4-7.
