Cole Floyd Wins 2026 at Yuengling Light Lager Stage 5 Presented by YETI on Beaver Lake

A suspenseful Period 3 turned out in Cole Floyd's favor, scoring his first Bass Pro Tour win. Photo by Phoenix Moore. 

By Mitchell Forde 

BASS PRO TOUR Press Release

ROGERS, Ark. — With 25 minutes left in Sunday’s Championship Round at Yuengling Light Lager Stage 5 Presented by YETI, Cole Floyd got the news he’d been dreading.

Floyd had sat atop SCORETRACKER® for virtually all of Saturday’s Knockout Round and most of the final day on Beaver Lake. Leading Wesley Strader by more than 6 pounds with 30 minutes until lines out, he could taste his first Bass Pro Tour win. But Strader – who had closed strong each of the past two days just to make it to the Championship Round – caught a late 5-pounder for the third day in a row, then followed it up with a 1-12 to take over the lead.

Here we go again, thought Floyd, who had made 14 prior Top 10s in tour-level events (including nine on the BPT) without a victory.

“What was going through my mind at that point was I was probably going to finish second,” he said. “It was just a gut-wrencher. With roughly 15 minutes left, I was like, man, it’s going to have to be a miracle for me to catch one.”

But even after admittedly “throwing a little fit there for a minute,” Floyd kept casting. With 12 minutes left, he hooked a 1-11 that came unpinned as he swung it over the gunnel, mercifully landing in the bottom of his Ranger. 

While far from the heaviest of Floyd’s 24 scorable bass on the day, it’ll go down as the biggest of his career so far. That fish pushed Floyd’s total to 56 pounds even, edging Strader by 14 ounces and earning Floyd $125,000 and his long-awaited first pro win.

Here’s how the Top 10 pros finished the Championship Round:

1. Cole Floyd – 56-0 (24)

2. Wesley Strader – 55-2 (23)

3. Banks Shaw – 38-13 (20)

4. Zack Birge – 34-12 (15)

5. Spencer Shuffield – 28-6 (13)

6. Anthony Gagliardi – 22-14 (10)

7. Drew Gill – 21-7 (11)

8. Jacob Wheeler – 20-14 (10)

9. Ron Nelson – 20-4 (10)

10. Marshall Hughes – 13-0 (6)

Full results

The perfect scenario

His late catch on Championship Sunday didn’t represent Floyd’s only afternoon heroics on the week. With one period left in the Qualifying Round, he sat in 43rd place, almost 15 pounds back of the Lucas Oil Cut Line. That’s when he ran to the shallowest reaches of the War Eagle River, a tributary on the upper end of Beaver Lake where he would spend the rest of the event, and blasted 31-1 on 13 scorable bass to secure a spot in the Knockout Round. 

Floyd had found a decent bite in the War Eagle during practice, but a storm prior to Day 1 had muddied the area too much. As the water cleared and continued to rise during the event, flooding terrestrial grass and other cover, prespawn bass pushed shallow in droves.

The biggest lesson Floyd had learned from all his near misses on the Bass Pro Tour is the importance of finding an emerging pattern, as even the best bite on Day 1 rarely holds up over four days of competition. This represented the perfect scenario. Plus, it aligned with Floyd’s wheelhouse, allowing him to power fish for shallow largemouth.

“That was all chocolate milk the first day of the tournament, and as it cleaned up, it just kind of developed,” he explained. “It was setting up right in my lap, just the way the water conditions were and what the fish were doing. Those fish were a little bit later (to spawn) up there, and that was key. The water’s a little cooler, and those fish were just getting on bed up there, and a lot of them were big prespawn females.” 

Floyd carried his momentum into Saturday, stacking up 33-12 in the opening frame. That allowed him to use the latter two-thirds of the day to scout new water and conserve fish for the Championship Round, which proved pivotal. 

Floyd’s best stretch from the previous two days wasn’t nearly as productive when he started Sunday morning there. He only caught one scorable bass, a 1-9, in the first half hour. But he continued to cycle through areas and generated enough bites to figure out how the bass were setting up and the best baits to catch them. While he mixed in a few other presentations, Floyd’s top performers were a Strike King Thunder Cricket and a Strike King swim jig paired with a Strike King Rage Scounbug, the latter of which did most of the heavy lifting in the Championship Round.

Floyd closed the first period by boating a 4-3, then a 3-1, then another 4-3. Emblematic of the quality he caught all week, those fish gave Floyd a lead he wouldn’t relinquish until the final minutes.

“I was definitely worried after I went down my best stretch and only caught a couple fish down through there, and they weren’t even big,” he said. “I knew I was in for a day, and it was going to be a little tougher. In the back of my mind, I had other spots. I had a lot of confidence in them, and they ended up pulling through.”

Floyd finally finishes on top

While he steadily added to his total throughout the day, Floyd could never get enough cushion over his pursuers to ease his nerves. Three anglers – Strader, Zack Birge and Spencer Shuffield – lurked within 10 pounds of his total entering the final period.

“That was by far the most stressful tournament I’ve ever fished, and the longest day of fishing, for sure,” he said.

It looked for a brief moment like Floyd might have shut the door. In the first few minutes of Period 3, he landed a 3-6 and a 2-3 back-to-back to push his advantage over 15 pounds.

Then, Strader started his daily charge. Fishing his 21st career MLF event on Beaver (the most of any angler in the field), Strader had pulled off furious rallies each of the previous two afternoons. Friday, he caught eight scorable bass for 21-5 in the final period (including five for 14-6 in the last 20 minutes) to make it to the Knockout Round. There, he racked up 27-15 on 10 scorable bass in Period 3.

Right on cue, Strader added more than 15 pounds in about 20 minutes with a six-fish flurry, slashing Floyd’s lead to 2-5. Floyd answered with a pair of scorables, and the two traded blows from there. 

When Strader landed his 5-8 – not only the Berkley Big Bass of the day but the biggest of the event – then took the lead shortly thereafter, Floyd felt sick.

“I definitely kind of lost it there for a minute,” he said. “I was wanting to strangle Wesley. I was cussing him out in my head. I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding me, man.’ To have the lead like that and for him to catch that size of fish right at the end – that’s a unicorn on this lake.”

Floyd kept his composure enough to run to “a little cut” in the back of a shallow flat that held sparse grass. He’d gotten bit there earlier in the day but felt like he’d left some bass. That intuition proved correct when the decisive 1-11 bit his swim jig.

“I swung it in the boat, and as soon as I went to go grab the line, it came off,” Floyd said with a laugh. “So, it was meant to be, I guess.”

After so many close calls hadn’t gone his way, Floyd admitted he’d begun to wonder whether he’d ever win a top-level tournament. Never had that doubt weighed heavier than when Strader took the lead from him. Rallying to take it back not only made for a triumphant end to a thrilling day on Beaver Lake; it gave Floyd belief that he’s good enough to go toe-to-toe with the best in the world and come out on top.

“I always wanted to just get one win under my belt, just to get a taste of it so I have the confidence to know I can do it,” Floyd said. “I really felt like I was never going to win one. It just gives me that confidence that it can happen. It’s a great feeling.”