GROVE, Okla. (June 18, 2026) – Grand Lake has long served as a popular destination for tournaments at all levels, but rarely have top tours visited the Oklahoma fishery during the summertime.If the rest of Major League Fishing’s (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Zenni Stage 6 unfolds like Day 1, that seems likely to change.
Whether due to the conditions – high water, ample current and overcast, sometimes rainy skies – or simply the health of Grand Lake’s bass population, the Bass Pro Tour field smashed them on Thursday’s opening day of the Qualifying Round. Jake Lawrence amassed the heaviest single-day total of the 2026 season – 112 pounds, 7 ounces on 35 scorable bass – to top SCORETRACKER®. He was one of 14 anglers to eclipse 50 pounds, and the field accounted for a whopping 93 bass over 4 pounds.
While a wide range of areas and techniques produced, four anglers known for their Tennessee River ledge prowess used their offshore skills to lead the way. Jacob Wheeler sits second with 91-0 on 31 scorable bass. Mark Rose is 3-7 back of Wheeler in third, and Banks Shaw rounds out the top four with 74-15.
A longtime angler and former guide on Kentucky Lake, Lawrence’s favorite scenario in fishing is when bass group up offshore during summer. So, even though Grand Lake doesn’t have prototypical Tennessee River ledges, he knew this had the potential to be a wheelhouse event.
“This is what it’s all about,” he said. “I long for the days that they turn their nose and head offshore. When the schedule came out this year, of every event that we had, this was by far the one that I was looking the most forward to.”
Still, it took a while for Lawrence to find his footing. He caught just five scorable bass for 14-0 in Period 1. An hour into Period 2, he’d slipped beneath the Lucas Oil Cut Line. But Lawrence stayed positive, knowing he could make up ground in a hurry once he found the right school.
“I have a ton of experience fishing offshore this time of year, and I know sometimes it takes a little while for those fish to get grouped up, and generally the last hour is your best hour,” he said. “So, with each hour passing, I knew there was more and more of a chance for them to group up and get together.”
Make up ground he did. During the final 90 minutes of Period 2, Lawrence boated 17 scorable bass for nearly 60 pounds, all off the same point. He said he never went more than two or three casts without catching a fish. That heater vaulted him all the way to second place. A few minutes into Period 3, he took the lead and never looked back.
Lawrence is optimistic that he’ll be able to catch some more weight off that spot the rest of the way, but he admitted he “beat it up” Thursday. The good news is he found another school that he hardly pressured.
“I had one school that I went and checked the last 20 minutes,” he said. “I actually didn’t use my ‘Scope period until the last period, and with 20, 30 minutes left, I wanted to go over there and just kind of take a peek, look, and they were there. So, we’ve got some other places to hunt and peck around.”
Lawrence thinks he and the other TVA veterans at the top of the leaderboard had so much success on Grand because of their ample experience fishing offshore during the summer and – more important – finding those schools.
“To be honest with you, it wasn’t super easy to find them this week,” he said. “It’s actually really difficult to get them to show up on Side Imaging. So, you had to slow yourself way, way down as far as looking. Normally, I’m running at a million miles per hour, looking around, and this week, you had to really take your time and not get in a hurry. You could overlook them really easily.”
Throughout the afternoon, viewers on MLFNOW! heard Lawrence say he wanted to stack up as much weight as possible to discourage anyone else from chasing him down in the race to win the Qualifying Round, which comes with an automatic trip to the Championship Round. He still wants to cement his spot in the Top 10, but Lawrence isn’t necessarily planning to fish all-out on Friday. He said he’ll fish hard for a period or so, then use SCORETRACKER® to assess whether he should continue catching fish or transition into practice mode.
Lawrence noted that winning the Qualifying Round usually hinders an angler’s chances of winning the event. But in this case, he doesn’t think his offshore schools will move and giving them a day to rest might help the bite. More importantly, after a challenging season to this point, he needs a strong finish to ensure he will requalify for the Bass Pro Tour in 2027.
“It’s certainly a huge relief when you get that auto berth and you’re kind of locked in there for the Championship Round,” he said. “Typically, that’s not necessarily a good thing in terms of trying to win the event, but the one exception to that is offshore. When they’re grouped up and staying offshore, generally they’re not moving a lot. So, this is one that you could do that, and it be a benefit – give those fish a day to regroup, maybe not get really beat on.”
Since MLF reinstated the automatic Championship Round berth for the Qualifying Round winner at the start of the 2025 Bass Pro Tour season, only three times has a pro won both the Qualifying Round and the event. Reigning REDCREST champion Jacob Wheeler has accounted for two of those.
So, clearly, Wheeler’s not opposed to skipping the Knockout Round – especially considering he’s in the midst of a heated Fishing Clash Angler of the Year battle, having entered Stage 6 one point back of Zack Birge (who is in sixth place after Day 1). Yet after a blistering Period 1 Thursday, in which he racked up 58-11 and topped SCORETRACKER®, Wheeler decided to lay off his best stretch and scout new water.
“I was able to catch them quick, and basically I just went practicing after that,” Wheeler said. “I wasn’t trying to win the round. I made some rotations on my primary stuff to get a general understanding of what’s good and what’s not, and then I left them alone. So, I think that was the goal.”
Wheeler explained that, at that point, he didn’t feel like he’d found enough productive places to keep up the pace on Day 2. So, he didn’t want to burn his best spot only to potentially miss out on the Qualifying Round win and enter Saturday’s Knockout Round with no options. Should he find himself still in contention toward the end of Friday, he’s not ruling out making a run at Lawrence.
“I didn’t have enough, and then you go to blitzing everything you have, and you don’t win the round, now you put yourself in a really bad position,” he said. “So, I think I have enough right now to make the Top 10, and if I can have more, then I can make potentially a push at the (Qualifying Round) win.”
Wheeler sampled a bit of everything Grand has to offer Thursday, but like many in the Top 10, he did most of his damage with various crankbaits. He’s not ready to commit to that pattern or his best spot quite yet though. Between fluctuating water conditions and fishing pressure, he thinks this event could be particularly dynamic over the next three days.
“I think it’ll change,” he said. “Water’s dropping, I just don’t know how much it’s going to continue to drop. It’s hard to say what’s going to happen.
The top 25 pros after Day 1 on Grand Lake are:
1st: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 35 bass, 112-7
2nd: Jacob Wheeler, Birchwood, Tenn., 30 bass, 91-0
3rd: Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., 26 bass, 87-9
4th: Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 24 bass, 74-15
5th: James Elam, Cleveland, Okla., 22 bass, 74-1
6th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 22 bass, 65-15
7th: Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C., 19 bass, 63-15
8th: Alton Jones Jr., Lorena, Texas, 23 bass, 63-5
9th: Dustin Connell, Deatsville, Ala., 24 bass, 62-8
10th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 24 bass, 61-11
11th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 20 bass, 59-13
12th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 21 bass, 59-9
13th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 17 bass, 55-11
14th: Adrian Avena, Marmora, N.J., 18 bass, 50-0
15th: Nick Hatfield, Afton, Tenn., 15 bass, 47-15
16th: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 17 bass, 46-15
17th: Bradley Roy, Lancaster, Ky., 14 bass, 46-3
18th: Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 17 bass, 45-1
19th: Nick LeBrun, Benton, La., 16 bass, 43-11
20th: Dustin Smith, Trussville, Ala., 16 bass, 43-10
21st: Brent Chapman, Lenexa, Kan., 15 bass, 43-9
22nd: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 15 bass, 43-2
23rd: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 16 bass, 42-3
24th: Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 14 bass, 41-9
25th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 14 bass, 41-2
Overall, there were 752 bass caught weighing 2,179 pounds, 2 ounces, caught by the 51 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Thursday.
Thursday’s $1,000 Big Bass Award was earned by Mark Rose of Wynne, Arkansas, who caught a 6-pound, 3-ounce largemouth in the second period throwing a crankbait. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/mlf-grand-61826.html
Major League Fishing (MLF)