Major League Fishing (MLF), the world’s largest tournament fishing organization, is set to open the 2021 Bass Pro Tour season – the third season of the action-packed Tour – this month, March 21-26, with the Toro Stage 1 at Sam Rayburn Reservoir presented by Power-Pole.
Among the 80 anglers competing in 2021 will be California professionals local angler Ish Monroe of Oakdale and Skeet Reese of Auburn. Both will be competing in their 24th season as full-time professional anglers – third on the MLF Bass Pro Tour. Both will be looking to qualify for their first REDCREST championship appearances.
“No doubt – I would like to win the Angler of the Year title – but my overall goal is to win an event and qualify for REDCREST and at least two of the MLF Cup events,” Monroe said. “It won’t be easy, as I am fishing against the best anglers in the world. I think I am most excited about the schedule. All of the stops this year are great fisheries.”
“After a long off-season, I’m ready to get the Bass Pro Tour underway and hopefully get a couple of wins under my belt this year,” said Reese. “I’m mostly excited about getting back to fishing. That’s what I love to do.”
2021 MLF Bass Pro Tour Schedule
• March 21-26 Stage One at Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Jasper, Texas;
• April 9-14 General Tire HEAVY HITTERS, Raleigh, N.C.;
• April 30-May 5 Stage Two at Lake Travis, Austin, Texas;
• May 21-26 Stage Three at Harris Chain of Lakes, Leesburg, Fla.;
• June 4-9 Stage Four at Lake Chickamauga, Dayton, Tenn.;
• June 25-30 Stage Five at St. Lawrence River, Massena, N.Y.;
• Aug. 5-10 Stage Six at Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, N.Y.;
• Sept. 10-15 Stage Seven at Lake St. Clair, St. Clair Shores, Mich.;
• March 22-26, 2022 REDCREST 2022 at Grand Lake, Tulsa, Okla.
The top award at each Bass Pro Tour event is $100,000, with $300,000 going to the winner of the REDCREST 2022 championship event. Anglers are also competing to qualify each year for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event, which showcases the pros with the highest cumulative weight from their single largest bass in each of the seven regular-season events.
In accordance with COVID-19 protocols, attendance at Major League Fishing events is currently limited to competing anglers, essential staff and media covering the event only. Fans are encouraged to follow the event online through the MLF NOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The MLF NOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney break down the extended action on all six days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MLF NOW!® is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
Television coverage of the Bass Pro Tour Toro Stage 1 at Sam Rayburn Reservoir presented by Power-Pole will be showcased across two two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, Aug. 28 on the Discovery Channel. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on the Discovery Channel, with additional re-airings on the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel. Each two-hour long reality-based episode goes in-depth to break down each day of competition.
The 2021 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 76 of the top professional anglers in the world – joined at each event by four pros that qualify from the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit – competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, competing for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2022 championship.
For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Founded in 2011, Major League Fishing (MLF) brings the high-intensity sport of competitive bass fishing into America’s living rooms on Outdoor Channel, Discovery, CBS, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, Sportsman Channel, and on-demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). According to Nielsen ratings, Major League Fishing remains the number one series on Outdoor Channel for five years and MLF premiered as the number one outdoor show in their time slot on Discovery in 2019.
In 2019 MLF acquired FLW, which expands their portfolio to include the world’s largest grassroots-fishing organization, including the strongest five-biggest-fish format professional bass fishing tour, the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit presented by Bad Boy Mowers, as well as the MLF Toyota Series, MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine, MLF Abu Garcia College Fishing presented by YETI, and MLF U.S. Army High School Fishing presented by Favorite Fishing.
