By MLF Communications
BAY CITY, Mich. – The Saginaw Bay Bass Pro Tour evolved into a full-fledged power fishing slugfest during Saturday’s Knockout Round. The 10-angler Championship Round field is now set for what should be a wide-open race to hoist the final Bass Pro Tour trophy of the 2025 season, with anglers almost certainly needing to hit triple digits to give themselves a chance.
One of eight anglers to eclipse 80 pounds Saturday, pro Nick Hatfield of Greeneville, Tennessee, led the way with 97 pounds, 14 ounces on 43 scorable bass. Three other pros – Bryan Thrift, Jacob Wheeler and Spencer Shuffield – finished within 10 pounds of his total. Those hammers and the rest of the top nine finishers will be joined by Qualifying Round winner Edwin Evers on- Sunday for the final day of the Bass Pro Tour season.
After a surprising stumble at Stage 6 on the Potomac River, where he finished last, Hatfield entered Stage 7 on the wrong side of the bubbles to requalify for the Bass Pro Tour in 2026 and make next year’s REDCREST field. Knowing he’d need a strong finish to accomplish those objectives, he never eased off the gas during the two-day Qualifying Round, trying to earn the automatic berth to the Championship Round awarded to the winner but never quite catching Evers.
As a result, he entered Saturday unsure how many fish would still be willing to bite in his best area. That concern was quickly assuaged, as he stacked up more than 28 pounds in the opening hour and 42-1 in the first period.
“I was concerned about having enough fish left,” he said. “Obviously (Zack) Birge found that one group of fish. That one group of fish is a giant school. And had I had it to myself the whole tournament, I feel like I could have probably won the thing. It’s pretty dumb what’s over there. And today, I caught 30-something pounds out of there, and he caught 30-something pounds as well, and then we kind of went our separate ways.”
From there, Hatfield sampled a few other places that had produced during the Qualifying Round, then explored some new water. Just about all of it proved bountiful. Primarily wielding a swim jig and mixing in a bladed jig and a topwater, he got to witness a lot of ferocious bites and winch bass out of heavy cover.
“My hands hurt and my ribs hurt from setting the hook,” he said. “But it’s awesome.”
Hatfield thinks of himself as a strong smallmouth angler, but a scouting trip to Saginaw Bay before it went off limits convinced him that the smallmouth couldn’t compete with the sheer number of shallow largemouth in the fishery. That proved prescient – the 19 anglers competing Saturday weighed 504 scorable largemouth compared to just 13 smallmouth.
Rather than green ones versus brown ones, the question Sunday will be whether fishing around the emergent vegetation that lines Saginaw Bay or targeting submerged offshore grass patches is the way to win. Hatfield has done his damage around the shallow reeds. He said the key has been relocating the schools of bass as they move throughout the cover.
“It seems like those groups of fish are moving within those reeds,” Hatfield explained. “It's like they move 300, 400 yards in a day’s time. They’ll be out on the edge schooling, and then they’ll be up in it eating a swim jig.”
After putting nearly 300 pounds on SCORETRACKER® through three days, Hatfield remains unsure whether he has enough fish left to compete for the win. But he’s optimistic that he found some new areas late Saturday that might not be getting as much pressure.
“I found a place early on the third period where there was a bunch,” he said. “I kind of just started skipping through some of it after I caught a couple here, a couple there. But they’d come up schooling, and it’s hard to say how many of them are in there.”
Hatfield guessed it’ll take at least 120 pounds during the Championship Round to win the $150,000 top prize. The keys to getting there will be not spending too much time searching for those schools and landing a high percentage of the bass that bite.
“I think you’ve just got to land on the right groups of fish early, and you’ve got to land all of them that bite and just have everything go your way,” he said.
The good news for Hatfield is that, regardless of whether he weighs a bass on Sunday, he’s secured his spots on the BPT roster and in REDCREST for 2026. However, he’s not taking the pressure off himself just yet. After tasting victory at Heavy Hitters earlier this season, he’s hungrier than ever for a regular-season Bass Pro Tour win.
“I’m going to try to just keep the same mindset, keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m not going to change anything up too much. I’ll probably have more pressure on me tomorrow now than I’ve had all week just because I know I have a chance to win, and when you get those chances, you want to seal the deal. I’ve been able to a couple times, but to get a Bass Pro Tour trophy would be super special.”
The top nine pros from the Knockout Round will join Edwin Evers in the Championship Round on Sunday:
1. Nick Hatfield: 43, 97-14
2. Bryan Thrift: 37, 94-11
3. Jacob Wheeler: 33, 88-7
4. Spencer Shuffield: 34, 88-4
5. Todd Faircloth: 33, 84-14
6. Keith Carson: 32, 83-7
7. Brent Ehrler: 33, 82-7
8. Cole Floyd: 36, 81-15
9. James Elam: 33, 78-5
The following anglers did not make the cut and will not fish on day 4.
11. Marshall Hughes: 31, 73-13 – $15,900
12. Zack Birge: 31, 72-8 – $15,800
13. Jeff Sprague: 28, 69-14 – $15,700
14. Andy Morgan: 20, 49-12 – $15,600
15. Jake Lawrence: 17, 44-0 – $15,500
16. Dylan Hays: 19, 43-6 – $15,400
17. Dustin Connell: 17, 41-11 – $15,300
18. Bobby Lane: 17, 41-5 – $15,200
19. Mark Daniels Jr.: 16, 40-0 – $15,100
20. Shinichi Fukae: 7, 16-9 – $15,000
