By MLF Communications Staff

It was a dramatic finish on the ScoreTracker Monday afternoon as several pros battled it out for the automatic berth to the Championship Round on Thursday. With less than five minutes left in the competition day, Jesse Wiggins caught a largemouth to take over the top spot, giving him 13 scorable bass weighing 34 pounds even to earn the win during the Group A Qualifying Round at the MLF Bass Pro Tour event on Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri.

His two-day catch of 24 scorable bass totaling 63-04 earned him the Qualifying Round win by an 11-ounce margin over Alton Jones Jr., who caught a two-day total of 23 scorable bass weighing 62-09 to finish the round in second place. Alton Jones Sr. caught a two-day total of 17 bass weighing 57-11 to finish the round in third, while Jordan Lee ended the round in fourth place with a two-day total of 19 bass for 57-08. Rounding out the Top 5 was Day-1 leader Shaw Grigsby, who caught a two-day total of 20 bass for 56-03.

There was a flurry of movement along the cutline as well as the day wrapped up, with Matt Lee catching two largemouth with minutes to spare to squeeze into the Top 20 and end the day in 17th place. Timmy Horton also caught two bass within the final minutes to slide up into 18th place, but Terry Scroggins made the biggest moves in the third period, including a 5-03 kicker at the end of the day, to jump from 36th place up to 13th and move on the Knockout Round on Wednesday.

The Top 20 anglers from Group A will now have an off day from competition Tuesday while the 40 anglers competing in Qualifying Group B will complete their two-day Qualifying Round. The Knockout Round, featuring 38 anglers competing to finish in the Top 8, will take place Wednesday. The Championship Round on Thursday will feature Wiggins, the Group B winner and the top eight anglers from the Knockout Round competing in a final-day shootout for the top prize of $100,000.

''We are in the Championship Round after back-to-back top 10s,'' Wiggins said. ''Especially after the day I had, I lost a 3 1/2-pounder and multiple 2-pounders right here at the boat. It has just been crazy. Getting behind these cables around the docks, you just never know what is going to happen. I am used to it though, and it worked today. We pulled off a miracle here at the end.''

This marks the second time Wiggins has won the Qualifying Round for his group, although the first time was in 2019 on Smith Lake, before the automatic berth was offered to anglers.

''I saved this best stretch for the end of the day,'' Wiggins said. ''I caught tons of 14-inch bucks during practice and I knew if any of those big ones slid up in here, it could get interesting. It is where I caught them on Day 1 as well. I let them set up all day today, nobody touched it, and I came back at the end of the day and caught three good ones.''

Wiggins said the last stretch of the day gave him great confidence that he can go back through all his other areas during the Championship Round because he believes there are more of those big ones coming.

''I caught all my fish on a 7-foot, 1-inch St. Croix Legend Elite Casting Rod, medium-heavy with extra-fast action with Seaguar 30-pound Smackdown Braided Line in Stealth Gray and a 12-pound Seaguar Red Label fluorocarbon line,'' Wiggins said. ''It is bigger, but the water is dirty and these fish are spawning so you can get away with bigger line.''

Wiggins said he threw a homemade 3/16-ounce shaky-head, but the key was the Jackall 6.8 Flick Shake Worm.

''I bit the Flick Shake off to about 5 inches, but it has that little tail on it. Something about that tail just drives them crazy,'' Wiggins said. ''The water is dirty and I wanted a thicker profile with a short worm, kind of like a stick worm-style bait, but that tail makes all the difference.

''If you think being on the cutline is stressful, that right there is stressful. I was not showing it because I had one thing in mind, to get that jighead in front of another bass, but lordy mercy. All my lines are broke, no leaders, all my worms are cut in half, I got millions of Flick Shake worms laying around, but we are in the Championship now and we got two days to get everything rigged and ready.''

Chris Lane caught a 6-01 largemouth in Period 2, throwing a River2Sea Whopper Plopper in a pocket, to earn the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day and a $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.

Anglers launch each day at 7:30 a.m. from the Grand Glaize Marina Recreation Area, located at 711 Public Beach Road in Osage Beach. Takeouts held at the Marina beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW! livestream and ScoreTracker coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The event features anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

The MLF NOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney breaks down the extended action each day from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CT. MLF NOW! is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.



Group A Qualifying Round - Day 2

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish for the day)

1. Jesse Wiggins -- 29-04 (11) -- 34-00 (13) -- 63-04 (24) -- 3-09

2. Alton Jones Jr. -- 32-03 (12) -- 30-06 (11) -- 62-09 (23) -- 3-09

3. Alton Jones -- 37-04 (11) -- 20-07 (6) -- 57-11 (17) -- 5-02

4. Jordan Lee -- 32-13 (10) -- 24-11 (9) -- 57-08 (19) -- 4-10

5. Shaw Grigsby -- 37-15 (14) -- 18-04 (6) -- 56-03 (20) -- 4-06

6. Jonathon VanDam -- 30-03 (9) -- 19-06 (6) -- 49-09 (15) -- 5-02

7. Cole Floyd -- 15-05 (6) -- 32-00 (11) -- 47-05 (17) -- 5-04

8. Greg Vinson -- 28-01 (8) -- 15-00 (4) -- 43-01 (12) -- 5-06

9. Brent Ehrler -- 34-10 (11) -- 6-07 (2) -- 41-01 (13) -- 3-08

10. Chris Lane -- 15-08 (6) -- 24-13 (7) -- 40-05 (13) -- 6-01

11. Shin Fukae -- 8-03 (3) -- 32-01 (10) -- 40-04 (13) -- 4-09

12. Skeet Reese -- 20-06 (7) -- 17-13 (6) -- 38-03 (13) -- 3-10

13. Terry Scroggins -- 5-01 (2) -- 33-00 (10) -- 38-01 (12) -- 5-03

14. Dylan Hays -- 19-11 (7) -- 18-00 (7) -- 37-11 (14) -- 3-11

15. Jeff Kriet -- 14-12 (5) -- 22-15 (7) -- 37-11 (12) -- 4-06

16. Anthony Gagliardi -- 13-04 (5) -- 23-10 (9) -- 36-14 (14) -- 3-14

17. Matt Lee -- 22-04 (8) -- 14-09 (6) -- 36-13 (14) -- 2-15

18. Timmy Horton -- 11-11 (3) -- 25-01 (8) -- 36-12 (11) -- 4-15

19. Todd Faircloth -- 8-10 (3) -- 26-03 (10) -- 34-13 (13) -- 3-14

20. Fred Roumbanis -- 20-02 (6) -- 14-09 (5) -- 34-11 (11) -- 4-01

The following anglers did not make the cut and will not advance to the Knockout Round

21. Dakota Ebare -- 16-14 (4) -- 17-11 (6) -- 34-09 (10) -- 3-11

22. David Walker -- 14-01 (5) -- 20-01 (7) -- 34-02 (12) -- 4-11

23. Boyd Duckett -- 16-03 (6) -- 12-02 (5) -- 28-05 (11) -- 2-11

24. Cliff Pace -- 2-02 (1) -- 24-08 (8) -- 26-10 (9) -- 5-03

25. Fletcher Shryock -- 13-09 (5) -- 12-14 (5) -- 26-07 (10) -- 3-09

26. Marty Robinson -- 10-11 (4) -- 13-11 (5) -- 24-06 (9) -- 3-12

27. Takahiro Omori -- 22-00 (7) -- 2-00 (1) -- 24-00 (8) -- 2-00

28. Tommy Biffle -- 8-07 (3) -- 15-04 (6) -- 23-11 (9) -- 4-13

29. Roy Hawk -- 9-07 (3) -- 13-15 (4) -- 23-06 (7) -- 4-04

30. Britt Myers -- 6-08 (2) -- 16-13 (6) -- 23-05 (8) -- 5-01

31. Clabion Johns -- 17-09 (4) -- 5-05 (2) -- 22-14 (6) -- 3-01

32. Bryan Thrift -- 10-15 (4) -- 9-00 (4) -- 19-15 (8) -- 2-12

33. James Elam -- 12-00 (5) -- 7-06 (3) -- 19-06 (8) -- 2-13

34. Mark Davis -- 13-10 (6) -- 5-08 (2) -- 19-02 (8) -- 3-07

35. Ryan Salzman -- 17-01 (4) -- 0-00 (0) -- 17-01 (4) -- 0-00

36. Bobby Lane -- 2-10 (1) -- 11-05 (4) -- 13-15 (5) -- 4-00

37. Ott DeFoe -- 6-10 (3) -- 6-14 (2) -- 13-08 (5) -- 4-13

38. Gerald Spohrer -- 0-00 (0) -- 12-09 (4) -- 12-09 (4) -- 4-08

39. Dustin Connell -- 4-04 (2) -- 7-05 (2) -- 11-09 (4) -- 4-10

40. Michael Neal -- 9-03 (4) -- 0-00 (0) -- 9-03 (4) -- 0-00