MANCHESTER, Tenn. (Major League Fishing) — A change of venue brought a new set of challenges Wednesday as the Toyota Heritage Cup Presented by OFF!® Deep Woods® Repellents moved from Tims Ford Lake to nearby Normandy Lake for the first Knockout Round of the 2026 MLF Starlink Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops.
Team Lucas Oil’s Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, and Wesley Strader of Spring City, Tennessee, took the lead just 10 minutes into competition and never relinquished it, finishing the day with a total of 13 bass weighing 23 pounds, 9 ounces to secure their place in Friday’s Championship Round.
While Team Lucas Oil controlled the leaderboard throughout the day, the battle for the second qualifying position came down to the final minutes. Team Star brite’s Bobby Lane and Chris Lane edged Team Lowrance’s Takahiro Omori and Dean Rojas by just 1 pound, 3 ounces, thanks to a clutch 2-5 bass caught by Chris with approximately 10 minutes remaining.
The two teams had been tied with just 30 minutes left in competition, then Rojas landed a 1-2 to move ahead, and Lane’s late catch proved to be the difference-maker, sending Team Star brite to the Championship Round with a total of nine bass for 17-15, good for second place. Team Lowrance finished third with nine scorable bass weighing 16-12, falling just short of advancing and ending their Heritage Cup run.
Versatility Plays for Neal and Strader
For Team Lucas Oil, the winning performance was built on versatility and a willingness to adjust as conditions changed. Neal and Strader began the morning targeting fish with forward-facing sonar, using a jighead minnow to pick off bass positioned away from the bank. As the day progressed, however, the duo shifted toward a shallow-water approach, mixing plopper-style topwater baits and buzzbaits to target fish holding shallow.
The combination allowed the Tennessee natives to maintain their early advantage, with Neal providing key catches using forward-facing sonar and Strader delivering several quality bass during the final period. Neal was throwing a jighead minnow, and Strader found his most productive presentation with a 3/8-ounce Big Daddy’s Buzzer rigged with a Zoom Horny Toad on 50-pound braided line.
“We started the day off good, and it really wound up being a one-two punch,” Neal said. “We started out using forward-facing sonar and caught a handful on a jighead minnow. The jerkbait had been bringing them in during our Elimination Round, but we went back to the jighead minnow today and were able to catch some fish. In the last period, Wesley really carried us. We covered a lot of water and got the right bites to make it through to the Championship Round.”
Strader said the shallow-water bite became increasingly productive as the day progressed, although the location of the fish didn’t always follow expectations.
“We figured a little something out in the first period and more so as the day went on,” Strader said. “It wasn’t much of a ‘pattern’, but we figured out they were biting a buzzbait, and we’d get into places where a boat had stirred up the water, and you’d think that dirty water would make the fishing better, but the ones that were biting were in ankle-deep, clear water. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but that’s where they were.”
The turning point came when Strader abandoned a plopper-style bait in favor of the buzzbait after sensing that the fish were responding better to a different presentation. Although the adjustment didn’t produce a flurry of catches, the quality of the bass proved sufficient to keep Team Lucas Oil comfortably ahead of the field.
“We pulled into a pocket, and I caught one on a plopper that wasn’t scorable, then I caught a scorable bass on it, but it still didn’t quite feel right,” Strader said. “I decided to pick up that buzzbait with the Horny Toad, and we got to rolling pretty good. We didn’t catch a ton of fish, but the ones we caught were good ones.”
With Team Star brite and Team Lowrance locked in a close battle behind them, Neal said the primary objective became maintaining their lead without abandoning the areas and techniques that had already produced.
“The object for most of the day was just to keep the wolves at bay and maintain that top spot,” Neal said. “We made the decision to stick with shallow-water fishing and not get too far away from where we started that morning. We went back through some of that same water, and I didn’t feel great about it, but nothing seemed to be working particularly well. We just needed to keep catching fish and staying ahead. Thankfully, it worked out for us.”
Next leg of Heritage Cup Set
The top two teams from Knockout Round Match 1 at the Toyota Heritage Cup Presented by OFF!® Deep Woods® Repellents advancing to Friday’s Championship Round are the Team Lucas Oil duo of Neal and Strader, with the Lanes of Team Star brite joining them.
Thursday’s second Knockout Round will feature Team B&W Trailer Hitches, with Todd Faircloth and Nick LeBrun; Team Ferguson with Brent Ehrler and Justin Lucas; and Team MillerTech with Adrian Avena and four-time Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year Jacob Wheeler.
