GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (Jan. 15, 2025) – A cold front arrived with the start of the 2026 Bass Pro Tour season, with sub-freezing temperatures and wind chills in the single digits greeting the field as it launched on Lake Guntersville Thursday morning. But the legendary fishery’s bass didn’t seem to mind.
The bite started hot and stayed that way all the way until lines out on the opening day of the Qualifying Round. Three anglers – Jeff Sprague, Brent Ehrler and Jacob Walker – topped 100 pounds, and it took nearly 44 pounds to claim a spot inside the Top 25. Twenty-nine bass over 5 pounds hit SCORETRACKER®, highlighted by Walker’s 7-pound, 10-ounce brute, which earned Berkley Big Bass honors.
Sprague provided a fitting end to the day when he caught a 5-8 in the final minute of the third period (his 11th bass over 4 pounds) to take the top spot from Ehrler. He finished the day with 108-15 on 31 scorable bass compared to 108-1 for Ehrler.
“This place is literally full of 4- and 5-pounders,” Sprague said. “That’s the going rate at this place. It was an extremely fun day to be on a fishery like this catching the quality and the amount of them that we did. Just a great all-around day of fishing.”
Unfortunately, the thrill of his last-minute 5-pounder didn’t last long for Sprague. Shortly after lines out, he got word that his father passed away suddenly on Thursday.
“The one thing that he gave me was the love of fishing, and I thank him so much for that,” an emotional Sprague said.
As of Thursday afternoon, Sprague planned to continue to compete with an eye on winning his first national event for his dad. If Day 1 is any indication, he’s found the fish to do it.
Sprague knew he’d found an area holding some bass during practice, but he had no idea it would be this productive.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” he admitted. “The area that I caught these fish in, I made a quick pass through in practice and had a handful of bites that were quality bites. But it was a really fast pass. And when I got there and started expanding, the more I expanded, the more bites I got. So, that’s when I really realized how many fish were in the area.”
Notably, Sprague caught all 31 of his scorable bass winding reaction baits around shallow vegetation. He started Period 1 planning to utilize forward-facing sonar to target suspended bass but quickly punted on that strategy.
“I started with a minnow in my hand this morning for about 20, 30 minutes,” he said, “and when my braided line froze solid as a rock and it was stiff as I was trying to throw it, I put it up and I said, ‘let’s go bass fishing.’”
Sprague was one of several anglers to stack up serious weight without the aid of forward-facing sonar. That was perhaps the biggest surprise of Day 1. Given the time of year and the weather, many expected jighead minnows to dominate, even if anglers were only allowed to utilize modern technology for one period per day. But according to SCORETRACKER Insiderä, just 32.5% of the weight caught by the field came while using forward-facing sonar, meaning it wasn’t any more productive than fishing without it.
“That is pure roots bass fishing, in my opinion,” Sprague said of his winding bite. “To be able to still have fisheries like Guntersville to put out those numbers and that quality of fish, that just speaks to how healthy this fishery is.”
Sprague’s 15 career Top 10s are the second most among any Bass Pro Tour angler without a win – behind only Ehrler, interestingly enough. To break through and claim his first BPT trophy, Sprague believes he needs to locate more productive water. But he’s optimistic he’s found an area that has more untapped fish.
“I’ll go look tomorrow for more water,” he said. “That last 5-pounder was somewhere I never made a cast in practice, and so now I know I just need to keep looking. I think the area I’m in is just special at this particular moment.”
Sprague’s top priority on Day 2 will be locating more fish. He’s not sure yet how many he’ll try to catch in an effort to maintain the top spot on SCORETRACKER® and claim the automatic berth to Sunday’s Championship Round awarded to the Qualifying Round winner.
“I’m going to watch the SCORETRACKER® in the morning and make a decision based off of that,” he said. “I don’t want to burn up 80 more pounds of bass for somebody to come in behind me and one-up me. So, it’s a strategy; I’ll have to think that through.”
The top 25 pros after Day 1 on Lake Guntersville are:
1st: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 31 bass, 108-15
2nd: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 38 bass, 108-1
3rd: Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 26 bass, 103-14
4th: Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 27 bass, 88-9
5th: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 29 bass, 83-13
6th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 29 bass, 81-8
7th: Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 29 bass, 81-7
8th: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 25 bass, 75-7
9th: Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., 23 bass, 70-14
10th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 22 bass, 67-0
11th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 19 bass, 61-11
12th: Dean Rojas, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 17 bass, 56-14
13th: Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 20 bass, 56-12
14th: Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., 18 bass, 55-7
15th: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 17 bass, 54-13
16th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 17 bass, 51-12
17th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 19 bass, 51-6
18th: Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., 15 bass, 49-6
19th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 18 bass, 49-3
20th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 18 bass, 48-0
21st: Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., 15 bass, 47-6
22nd: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 18 bass, 47-4
23rd: Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, 17 bass, 46-8
24th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 15 bass, 45-13
25th: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 12 bass, 43-15
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 818 bass caught weighing 2,471 pounds, 1 ounce, caught by the 51 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Thursday.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/mlf-guntersville-11526.html
Major League Fishing (MLF)