By MLF Communication Staff

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. – It’s been a tale of two fisheries this week for Team Coign at the fourth and final MLF Team Series event of the 2024 season. On Monday, the duo of Drew Gill and Marshall Robinson staged a dramatic comeback during Elimination Match 2 on Headwaters Lake after spending most of the day in third place, with Robinson’s clutch 3-9 catch in the final 2 minutes narrowly pushing the team above the Elimination Line to advance to the Knockout Round.

Fast forward to a vastly different experience on Florida’s famed Stick Marsh Thursday, where Team Coign shot out of the gate in Knockout Round Match 2 and dominated the competition. Gill and Robinson hauled in 13 bass for an impressive 26-11 in the first period alone before ending the day in the top spot with 26 bass weighing 55-11.

It was Gill who stole the show on Thursday, racking up 11 bass for 21-7 in the first period, more than the rest of the entire field combined. The 2024 Bass Pro Tour rookie went on to boat 22 bass weighing 43-13 on the day, surpassing the combined weight of the Team Star brite duo of brothers Chris and Bobby Lane, who finished the day in second with 25 bass weighing 42-14.

Team Coign and Team Star brite now join Team REDCON1 and Team Lucas Oil in advancing to Friday’s Championship Round. Eliminated from competition was Team Kubota – Bradley Roy and Jason Vance – who caught 11 scorable bass weighing 21-15.

While a 180-degree change in the wind direction Thursday threatened to blow out many of the fishery’s prime locations, Team Coign used that shift to their advantage. The duo spent the day utilizing forward-facing sonar to throw dropshot rigs in muddy water along the banks of the main dike, targeting terrestrial grass and bushes in the middle of Stick Marsh.

“We backed up a very good first period with a solid second period, so we couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Gill. “We pulled up on a little stump flat in the third period, and I felt like it was the kind of place we could run into a couple big ones.”

“We just tried to find areas where the wind was blowing off the bank, so it was pretty protected, and stay away from the spots that were getting trashed,” said Robinson. “We were able to keep the pace steady for most of the day, so we didn’t feel like we needed to make any big changes or do anything crazy.”

While reeling in piles of fish, the rookies shared tournament stories and reminisced on lessons learned in their young careers on the MLFNOW! livestream.

“I picked Marshall as my teammate because he's clearly an extremely skilled angler,” said Gill. “He’s got an insane list of achievements on his résumé in a very short amount of time, and picking somebody clutch like that that's super level-headed when things get tough, that's an all-around win.”

“Drew’s 22, I'm 21, and we met two years ago at the Toyota Series Championship,” said Robinson. “We hit it off quick and became good buddies, and I feel like we work well together and have a lot of good chemistry in the boat.”

Gill did all his damage on a 7-inch finesse worm on a 1/0 medium-wire dropshot hook with weights ranging from 1/4- to 1/8-ounce.

“I changed it up depending on the scenario and the depth of the water or the cover and what I wanted the bait to do,” said Gill. “I ended with a 1/4-ounce weight, just trying to get the fish to be more reactive. I fished through some stuff I had already fished toward the end, so I wanted to give them a little bit different look than I had earlier in the morning.

“It’s really important whenever you're fishing at an area-based fishery like the one we're on today that you show them something different each time you go through,” Gill continued. “It should be a little bit different with your presentation and your boat position on each pass.

“We did that really well today, and it's what allowed Marshall and I to have the awesome day that we had out there in Stick Marsh. This bait was an absolutely essential part of it and caught every single one of our scorable bass today.”

Team Star brite started out in a unique area by the dam, where they found large areas of schooling fish. Despite visually targeting the fish with multiple baits, the brothers struggled early in the day, spending the entire first period in third place before rallying at the start of Period 2. They made a hard charge in the third period, pulling within 10 pounds of the lead, but couldn’t keep pace with Team Coign.

“We just spent the day going through it and through it and through it,” Chris Lane said. “The one thing about Florida is when you find fish, you really don't want to leave them. You just have to wait for them to bite. You have to sit there and go through the process of figuring out exactly what they want to bite.”

“That was a hard-fought day, I’m telling you,” said Bobby Lane. “That was some ‘brother power’ right there. We overcame adversity for sure. We fished through an area, caught a couple of dinks, but the other teams were catching them. We pulled up to this point around the dam and they started schooling. We went through everything in our box to try to figure them out, and we didn't.

“I think the only reason we're advancing to the Championship Round is, No. 1, there's a big north wind today. That lake was rough and mean, and we really didn't have anywhere else to go. So, we just kept circling and circling, and it was enough to just keep us in second. That's kind of what our goal was – stay in second just to advance. Maybe to a new lake, I don’t know.”

“I hope so,” Chris added with a groan.

“We stayed with it, we fought hard, and we fished hard,” said Bobby. “When they came up schooling, we capitalized on the ones that we needed to catch. So, Team Lane is moving on. I'm excited.”

Here are the final results of the match:

1st: Team Coign, 26 bass, 55-11
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 22 bass, 43-13
Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., four bass, 11-14
2nd: Team Star brite, 25 bass, 42-14

Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 12 bass, 20-11
Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 13 bass, 22-3

Eliminated

3rd: Team Kubota, 11 bass, 21-15
Bradley Roy, Lancaster, Ky., two bass, 2-15
Jason Vance, Battle Ground, Ind., nine bass, 19-0

Robinson earned the Berkley Big Bass of the day with a 4-14 largemouth that he caught in the second period.

The Championship Round will take place Friday featuring Team REDCON1 (John Murray/Skeet Reese), Team Lucas Oil (Britt Myers/Terry Scroggins), Team Coign (Drew Gill/Marshall Robinson) and Team Star brite (Bobby Lane/Chris Lane).

The competition water for each day is top-secret and is only revealed to the anglers when they arrive at the boat ramp each morning. Anglers are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 8:45 a.m.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney break down the extended action live each day of competition from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.