MINOCQUA, Wis. (Sept. 18, 2025) – In commanding fashion, Team O’Reilly Auto Parts – Jacob Wheeler and Mark Daniels Jr. – locked up their spot in the Championship Round of the Heritage Cup with a wire-to-wire victory on Big Arbor Vitae Lake. The duo stacked up 55 scorable bass for 88 pounds, 11 ounces, cruising past the competition by more than 34 pounds in Knockout Round Match 2 at the second event of the 2025 Major League Fishing (MLF) Fishing Clash Team Series.
Team Star Tron, made up of Drew Gill and Marshall Robinson , kept pace early with a productive topwater bite, mixing in both largemouth and smallmouth before transitioning to wood and docks in the afternoon. Their 54-9 total wasn’t enough to challenge Team O’Reilly Auto Parts for the win, but it was more than enough to secure the second qualifying spot.
For Team Ferguson (Nick LeBrun and Marty Robinson ), the day was a struggle from start to finish. After an opening bite near a culvert pipe, they never established a steady rhythm and finished with just 16-6 on the day. A late rally around boat docks produced a few fish, but it was too little, too late, and Team Ferguson was eliminated from the competiton.
Wheeler led all anglers with 46 pounds, 3 ounces, and both anglers credited a back-to-basics approach for the dominant showing.
“Today was another solid day for us,” Wheeler said. “We just went old school. Flipping a jig around docks and shallow cover was the number one thing and where we got the majority of our bites today. Mark would throw the wacky worm when the fish got a little more pressured, but the jig carried us. Hopefully we can keep that momentum rolling into the Championship Round.”
Daniels agreed, noting that their quick adjustment set the tone.
“The jig was a big player on Day 1 on Minocqua Lake, so we knew we’d probably get bites. Big Arbor Vitae didn’t have near the number of docks on it, so we were a little worried about that at first,” Daniels said. “But we were the first boats to get on them, and we started catching them right off the bat. We just rolled with that, even circled back to the same docks later with different baits and got a few more bites. I’ll tell you what – 20-pound fluorocarbon line, a flipping stick and a jig – it doesn’t get any better than that.”
“We got some work to do tomorrow,” Wheeler added. “I'm looking forward to getting back out there on the water and seeing where they put us for the Championship Round.”
“If it's half as good as this place was, we’ll be alright,” Daniels agreed. “I feel like this whole area up here is great, though. Tons of fish. When we get up north, there are so many lakes, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota, that don’t get the pressure we see down south. These suckers fight.”
The pair admitted they worked hard to unlock the offshore bite but found more consistency up shallow.
“We tried hard to find a group in that offshore grass this morning, and we picked off a few,” Daniels said. “The quality is better out there, to be honest. But in this game, every fish counts, and we just couldn’t find a group of them.”
Wheeler echoed the sentiment, noting their late adjustments.
“They definitely weren’t wadded up out there like we needed them to be to make something happen, and we never really found that one mystical group of bass,” he said. “Toward the end of the third period we ran some more grass lines quickly, just trying to check the temperature of some hard cover and laydowns, too.”
With their win, Wheeler and Daniels know what’s ahead – strong competition and a lake that may fish very differently. Despite the margin of victory, Wheeler and Daniels know they can’t let off the gas with the championship on the line.
“I know Ott and Andy – if there’s an opportunity to be fishing docks tomorrow, they’re going to be fishing docks,” Wheeler said. “We’ll be doing that too, and I’m sure Drew and Marshall are going to try to stay out there wide. So, we’re just keeping our minds open and our options available as we go into the Championship Round.”
The top two teams from Knockout Round Match 2 at the Heritage Cup that now advance to Friday’s Championship Round are:
1st: Team O’Reilly Auto Parts, 55 bass, 88-11
Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 30 bass, 46-3
Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., 25 bass, 42-8
2nd: Team Star Tron, 29 bass, 54-9
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 16 bass, 32-7
Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 13 bass, 22-2
Eliminated from competition are:
3rd: Team Ferguson, 11 bass, 16-6
Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., eight bass, 13-1
Marty Robinson, Lyman, S.C., three bass, 3-5
Overall, there were 95 bass weighing 159 pounds, 10 ounces caught by the three teams in Knockout Round Match 2 Thursday on Big Arbor Vitae Lake. Team Star Tron pro Drew Gill caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a smallmouth weighing 4 pounds, 5 ounces.
The final four teams that will compete in Friday’s final-day Championship Round at the Heritage Cup are:
Team BUBBA:
Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn.
Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C.
Team Fishing Clash:
Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash.
Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla.
Team O’Reilly Auto Parts:
Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn.
Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala.,
Team Star Tron:
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill.
Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala.
The Heritage Cup takes place over six days in Minocqua, Wisconsin. The competition water for each day is top-secret and is only revealed to the anglers when they arrive at the boat ramp each morning. Anglers are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 8:45 a.m.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/mlf-heritage-91825.html
Major League Fishing (MLF) Archive