This week, Lake Hartwell will do its best impression of Memorial Stadium as it hosts a brand-new sporting event for Clemson and surrounding areas: the MLF Bass Pro Tour.
Starting on Thursday, the MLF Bass Pro Tour is headed to Hartwell for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Stage 2. The tournament begins with 51 of the world’s best professional anglers, and by Sunday, the winner will take home $125,000 of the $600,000 purse, with the other $475,000 dispersed among the top 25 finishers.
Let’s take a closer look at how a field of 51 anglers is narrowed down to one.
The event hosts three rounds of competition over four days. In the first qualifying round, all 51 anglers compete, attempting to catch as many bass per day on Thursday and Friday. Each day of competition consists of three 2.5-hour periods with two 15-minute lines-out breaks. Fish are caught, weighed and immediately released. Then, all of the fish that exceed the minimum weight — 2 pounds — are counted and scored.
“Guys are not just fishing for five fish, they are fishing for as many fish as they can get in the boat in the time period that they have,” said Charity Muehlenweg, the MFL’s senior manager of marketing and PR.
“So that creates a great, really dynamic format for fans and viewers.”
The winner of the qualifying round, based on total combined weight from the first two days, automatically qualifies for the championship round. The anglers ranked No. 2-25, based on combined weight, advance to the knockout round. The remaining anglers are eliminated.
The knockout round commences on Saturday, and all weight is zeroed. Another day of competition begins, and by the end, the top nine finishers advance to the championship round.
On the final day — Feb. 22 — 10 anglers compete with the same “catch as many as you can” structure. By the end of the day, the winner is crowned.
Any ties during any rounds are broken by the angler with the heavier fish.
If the MLF Bass Pro Tour is new to you, the structure of the season is easy to follow. There are seven stages throughout the year hosted at various locations. Think of each stage as a regular-season game. As a first-time host, Lake Hartwell is hosting Stage 2 this year.
“We’ve had over 111 events over the past three decades on Lake Hartwell, but none of them are top-tier, which is the Bass Pro Tour, it’s the pinnacle of our circuits. So this will be the first one of that event, so we are really excited to bring this format and this caliber of competition to Lake Hartwell,” Muehlenweg said.
With only one stage completed so far in 2026, Drew Gill is in first place in the Angler of the Year rankings, with Jacob Walker and Jacob Wheeler taking second and third, respectively.
If Stages 1-7 are regular-season games, then the Redcrest Championship is the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Heavy Hitters all-star event mirrors the all-star structure used by leagues like the NBA and NFL.
The MLF at Lake Hartwell will be available from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the MLFNOW! livestream at majorleaguefishing.com.
MLF is also hosting an interactive, local event to support the competition. On Saturday and Sunday, from 3-6 p.m., fans are invited to Seneca Creek County Park for a watch party. The event will feature a livestream on the MLFNOW! big screen, along with free food for the first 100 fans, hourly giveaways, merchandise and the bargain bait bin.
There will also be a mini fishing competition for kids, live music, interviews with Stage 2’s top-10 anglers and a trophy presentation and autographs at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
So whether you are an avid supporter or a first-time fan, Lake Hartwell is the place, and “reel ’em in” is the name of the game.
