Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
If you follow the NPFL, you know that 2024 was an exciting year. Brandon Perkins dominated the inaugural NPFL Championship on Lake Amistad, while Kyle Welcher and Drew Cook took the Progressive Angler of the Year race right down to the final day of competition. But what about records? What NPFL records were set this year?
Well, there were quite a few. Let’s jump in.
The record for youngest NPFL champion was broken this year—twice! When Will Harkins won the season opener on Logan Martin Lake in Alabama, he became the NPFL’s youngest winner at just over 22 years of age. That bested the previous record holder—Patrick Walters—by more than five years. But Harkins’s spot in the record book was short-lived. In the season finale on Lake Murray in South Carolina, Bailey Gay became the youngest NPFL winner at 21 years, 6 months and 28 days. That record might last awhile since few NPFL competitors are young enough to break it.
The record for oldest NPFL champion was set at Saginaw Bay in Michigan by Gary Adkins. Adkins was 57 years, 11 months and 11 days old when he won there in August, breaking his own record set two years earlier on the same body of water. He is now the oldest and second oldest angler ever to win an NPFL event … and he’s still going strong with a top 30 finish in AOY.
The record for heaviest winning weight in NPFL history was also set in 2024. At the inaugural NPFL Championship, Brandon Perkins crushed the field with a three-day total of 71 pounds, 8 ounces, breaking Taylor Watkins previous record of 69-14 set at Florida’s Kissimmee Chain two years earlier.
When Perkins wins—and he does quite often—he usually does so in dominating fashion, as in the 2024 NPFL Championship when he topped second place by 15-09. The record for second biggest margin of victory also belongs to Perkins—13-13 in 2023 on Pickwick Lake.
While it’s still true that no angler has ever brought a five-bass limit to the scales each and every day of a full season, three anglers came closer than ever this year. Brock Bila, Drew Cook, and Isaac Peavyhouse each limited every day but one in 2024. It means they weighed in 84 out of a possible 85 bass—a 99% success rate! That’s a new league record.
Two other anglers set a league record this year for consecutive days with a limit. Todd Goade and Jesse Millsaps ended streaks of 23 consecutive limits. Goade’s streak ended in May at Lake Pickwick. Millsaps’s ended in October at Lake of the Ozarks. The longest active streak belongs to Drew Cook, who has posted limits for the past 16 consecutive competition days, going back to the first day of the 2024 season.
Speaking of limits, Nick Brown set a record this year at Lake of the Ozarks when he won the tournament without catching and weighing in a limit each day. No NPFL winner had ever done that before. Brown had just four fish on the first and final days of competition yet had enough quality bass to outpace the few anglers who did limit. It might be quite a while before that feat is repeated.
Along the way to his LOZ win, Brown staged the biggest comeback in NPFL history. He was in 18th place after Day 1 there—a record—and trailed the leader by 6-01, which tied the record set by Ryan Satterfield a year earlier on Wright Patman Lake.
Goade also earned a share of the record for consecutive top 10 finishes at the season opener on Logan Martin. He was eighth there, giving him seven top 10 finishes in a row to tie the record set by Patrick Walters a year earlier.
Richard Cooper and Timmy Reams add to a league record every time they come to the scales. Neither has ever zeroed despite having fished every day of every NPFL tournament. That’s 69 days in all with at least one bass to show for their efforts. Reams also has the NPFL career records for most bass weighed in (326) and most weight (900-05). With healthy leads in both of those categories, it will likely be several seasons before those marks can be challenged.
Drew Cook did not break the NPFL record for most weight in a single season, but he came close. Cook weighed in 268-08 on his way to second place in the AOY race. That’s just shy of the record Todd Goade set a year earlier. If a day of competition had not been canceled at Lake Murray, there’s a better than even chance that Cook would have claimed this record.
The three biggest bass ever caught in NPFL competition all came in 2024. Leading the way is Jesse Wise with his 10-09 on the final day of the Championship on Lake Amistad. Two days earlier at the same event, Brandon Perkins boated a 10-06 which led him to a huge victory. At Pickwick Lake, Corey Casey caught a 9-10 for third best in league history.
Kevin Martin’s 6-13 smallmouth is the biggest bronzeback in NPFL history, and it came on the first day of this year’s Saginaw Bay tournament, just moments after Brock Bila weighed in a 6-10. It could be quite a while before these giant brown bass are bested.
That’s a lot of record breaking for one season, and there’s more to come in 2025!
