Cole Floyd paces field in Group B qualifying round, earns $10K Big Bass award at Major League Fishing’s B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters on Smith Mountain Lake Presented by Bass Pro Shops

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. – If Cole Floyd had to pick his favorite way to catch a bass, it’d be on a topwater frog. To have big ones blowing up on his frog one after another – and to earn $10,000 with one of those bites – doesn’t get more fun.

Such was the case for Floyd during the second morning of qualifying for Group B at B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops. Shortly after lines in, the Ohio pro used his frog to whip the Smith Mountain Lake largemouth into a frenzy. He boated 10 scorable bass totaling 37 pounds, 10 ounces in the opening period alone, including a 6-2 largemouth that earned him the $10,000 daily Berkley Big Bass bonus.

“It was freakin’ wicked,” Floyd said.

That strong start erased his nearly 35-pound deficit to leader Justin Lucas entering the day. With Lucas safely above the elimination line and spending the day in scouting mode, Floyd maintained the top spot from there. He wound up totaling 53-13 on 15 bass and bringing his two-day weight to 85-1.

Floyd wasn’t the only angler who found the Smith Mountain bass willing to bite, especially early. In fact, he didn’t even post the best day on the water. That honor went to Matthew Stefan, who rocketed all the way from 15th place at the start of the day to sixth and earned a spot in the Knockout Round on the strength of 20 scorable bass for 56-5. Stefan and Floyd were among a group of four anglers who topped 48 pounds on the day.

Floyd’s charge to the top of SCORETRACKER® actually started Sunday afternoon. He struggled to gain traction during Group B’s first day of qualifying, catching just one scorable bass during the opening period and sitting below the elimination line after two frames. However, in the third period, he boated six of his 11 scorable bass on the day to climb all the way to second place.

When he returned to the water Tuesday, he kept the momentum rolling, surpassing his Day 1 weight in the first period alone. Interestingly, Floyd did it by fishing the same banks with the same bait as his first morning of competition. This time, the bass were more willing to play along.

“It’s crazy, I fished a lot of the same exact stuff today,” Floyd said. “I threw a frog 90 percent of the day that first day, and today I did the same thing. They just bit better. I was on the right stuff; they just didn’t cooperate that day.”

Floyd said he found the frog bite during official practice, when he estimates he generated 50 blowups in one day.

On Sunday, though, the waves from the recreational boat traffic crashed against the steep banks he was plying and killed his frog bite. His third-period rally came after he put down the bait in favor of sub-surface presentations.

With calmer conditions Tuesday, the bass were more willing to engulf Floyd’s frog – and big ones, too. He landed six bass over 4 pounds. The other 14 anglers combined to catch 15. Not only did he catch the biggest bass on the day, but the second biggest, as well – a 5-10. He caught 5 ounces more on the day than Zack Birge, who finished the round in second place, despite the fact that Birge boated four more scorable bass.

Floyd thinks he’s simply fishing in an area with a strong average size, which would bode well if he can advance to the Championship Round, when the minimum weight for a scorable bass will jump to 3 pounds.

“I think it’s mainly just the area I’m at, and I think the water color has a lot to do with it,” he said. “I’m catching a lot of females, just postspawn females that are feeding on shad and bluegill, and the size has been great. It’s been an average of 3 pounds. In practice one day, I probably had 50 bites on a frog, and I’m going to say a dozen of them were over 4 pounds. So, it hasn’t changed at all.”

Floyd’s biggest bite came just 35 minutes after lines in. He didn’t see the fish when it hit, so he didn’t realize just how big it was until he swung it into the boat. While he had to sweat out another 7 1/2 hours of competition, no one ever really threatened to dethrone him and steal the big bass cash.

“I threw up under an overhang, and I heard him blow up,” Floyd said. “I never saw a fish or anything. I really didn’t know what I had. I set the hook, and I got him out, and I was like, ‘holy crap.’”

Floyd closed the first period by catching a 5-10 and a 3-5 in the final two minutes. At that point, as hard as it was to leave the frog bite, he knew he needed to conserve those fish for the Knockout Round. He spent the rest of the day checking a few banks where he’d gotten bit in practice, running new water and tinkering with his lure selection.

“I left a handful of them out there,” Floyd said. “And I did find some new stuff.”

Floyd is optimistic he’ll be able to continue his momentum into the Knockout and Championship Rounds. He doesn’t think the bass he’s targeting are on the move, and he’s identified a few different ways to trigger bites based on the conditions. Perhaps most important, he’s “fishing the way I love to fish.”

“I don’t see the fish going anywhere,” he said. “I’m just going to have to adjust. That first day, I had to adjust a little bit and throw something under the surface. … I see them biting again, hopefully.”

The top eight pros from Qualifying Group B that now advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round on Smith Mountain Lake are:

1st: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 26 bass, 85-1
2nd: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 29 bass, 80-10
3rd: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 25 bass, 76-13
4th: Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., 22 bass, 64-3
5th: Jonathon VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., 23 bass, 61-13
6th: Matt Stefan, Junction City, Wis., 22 bass, 61-6
7th: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 20 bass, 57-1
 8th: Shin Fukae, Osaka, Japan, 20 bass, 55-0.

Finishing the event in 9th through 15th place are:

9th: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 17 bass, 48-9
10th: Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 15 bass, 47-11
11th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 15 bass, 45-12
12th: Britt Myers, Lake Wylie, S.C., 14 bass, 39-4
13th: Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., 15 bass, 38-14
14th: Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., eight bass, 21-9
15th: Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., seven bass, 19-6.

Full results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 147 bass weighing 430 pounds, 15 ounces caught by the 15 pros on Tuesday, which included one six-pounder, five 5-pounders and 15 4-pounders caught from Smith Mountain Lake.

Hosted by Visit Franklin County, Virginia and Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, the B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters at Smith Mountain Lake Presented by Bass Pro Shops features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. A bass must meet the 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable in the Qualifying and Knockout Rounds, but for the final day Championship Round a bass must weigh at least 3 pounds to be deemed scorable.

The 15 Anglers in Group A competed in their two-day qualifying round on Saturday and Monday – the 15 anglers in Group B on Sunday and Tuesday. Now that each two-day qualifying round is complete, the top eight anglers from both groups advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round weights are zeroed, and the remaining 16 anglers compete to finish in the Top 10 to advance to the Championship Round. In Thursday’s final-day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

In addition to overall tournament awards, Berkley Big Bass bonuses are awarded in each round of competition with payouts of $10,000 for the single biggest bass on each day of Group A & B Qualifying, $30,000 for the biggest bass in the Knockout Round and $100,000 for the biggest bass in the Championship Round.

The Bass Pro Tour trailering policy has been enacted for this event, so anglers will depart Trinity Ecumenical Parish each morning at 6:15 a.m. to one of five launch ramps located around the fishery. Anglers will return to Trinity Ecumenical Parish each evening following the end of competition at 3:45 p.m. Fans are encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW! live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

To qualify for B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters, the weight of an angler’s single-largest bass from each event of the seven 2024 Bass Pro Tour events was recorded. The 30 anglers with the heaviest total from those seven bass qualified to compete in this event.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on each day of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

Television coverage of B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters 2025 Presented by Bass Pro Shops will be showcased across six two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, July 26 and running each Saturday through Aug. 30 on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on the Outdoor Channel.

Proud sponsors of the 2025 B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Barbasol, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, MillerTech, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO Boats, Onyx, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Star brite, Toyota, YETI and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing: Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.