Omori and Rojas win the first Heritage Cup match on Tims Ford with 29-2

The Starlink Team Series started its second event Sunday, Oct. 18, on Tims Ford Lake near Manchester, Tenn. Major League Fishing reports that Team Lowrance, Takahiro Omori and Dean Rojas, won Elimination Match 1 of the Toyota Heritage Cup with 17 scorable bass for 29 pounds, 2 ounces. That put them into the Knockout Round. Omori alone had 14 bass for 24-1, which was more than any other team’s total. Rojas added three bass for 5-1.

The second advancing spot came down to the last half hour. Team B&W Trailer Hitches, Nick LeBrun and Todd Faircloth, beat Team Kubota’s Jesse Wiggins and Cole Floyd by 5 ounces. MLF says Faircloth caught a 2-8 smallmouth with about 35 minutes left, and that fish moved them above the cut line. Kubota finished third with 10 bass for 20-9. Team BUBBA, Mark Rose and Zack Birge, was fourth with nine bass for 16-5. Wiggins caught the day’s biggest bass, a 3-6 largemouth from under a shallow dock.

The teams went in knowing little about Tims Ford, and MLF describes the fall bite as tough. Largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass all counted. Omori threw a white ChatterBait with a 4-inch swimbait trailer in the backs of stained creeks, working shaded banks and pockets that held baitfish. LeBrun did most of his team’s catching offshore, using forward-facing sonar and a Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm on smallmouth.

Four more teams fish Elimination Match 2 on Monday, Oct. 19, for the last two Knockout Round spots. MLF lists the livestream from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central.

Photo: Phoenix Moore / Major League Fishing (from the match report).

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Major League Fishing — Omori, Rojas win first Heritage Cup Elimination Match on Tims Ford (Charity Muehlenweg, Oct. 18, 2026).