CLEWISTON, FL – The 2024 Roland Martine Marine Center Series Championship presented by HUK. It’s kind of a big deal. Oh who are we kidding — it’s HUGE! And this year it was the biggest of the mega year-end celebrations. Top prize was $40,000. Ho Ho Holy SH@%! That’s a lot of green that is certainly going to make this the most wonderful time of the year!

When the final bag was weighed on Sunday afternoon in Clewiston, the team of Chris Schirling and Alex Nagdeman had 40,000 reasons to celebrate this holiday season.

They did it the hard way by rebounding after the first day with just 11.48 pounds that had them in 37th place. With the biggest bag of the tournament of 23.32 pounds on day two, their two-day total of 34.80 pounds put them at the top of the leaderboard and earned them the winning Crystal, Champion’s Rings and the check for $40,000.

“It was rough on day one,” Schirling said. “But we didn’t change nothing and went to the same area again on day two. We actually fished there last year in last year’s Classic. We thought we had a chance there last year but kind of blew it. So it was awesome to get the win there this year.”

By more than doubling their first-day weight on day two, they put it all together for the win. That was made possible by the second biggest bass of the tournament of 8.49 pounds caught by Nagdeman on Sunday.

“It was on a Chatterbait in Gold Shiner” admitted Nagdeman. “I actually switched trailers on Sunday and that seemed to make all the difference.”

“That must have been the difference because two monsters chomped on it today,” said Schirling. “It’s the new Bruiser Baits Sidekick that’s only been out a few months.”

“The timing was right,” said Nagdeman. “Yesterday (Saturday) they weren’t really coming in but we saw the right signs on the fish. Today, first fish we caught was beautiful with a white belly, so we thought, ‘It’s coming.’”

That’s what it took to collect the biggest payday in Roland Martin Marine Center Series history. And they had to jump over some of the biggest sticks on the trail to get there.

In second place, just a pound and a quarter back, the power-team of Jared McMillan and Dillon McMillan almost stole the show. But they came up just a tad shy with a Total weight of 33.48 pounds that earned them a very respectable payday of $10,000.

Rounding out the top three was the team of Chuck Webb and Chris Wright that brought a total of 33.30 pounds to the stage in two days and put $5,000 in their stockings.

As the highest paying team tournament trail in Florida, the payouts continued deep into the 145 boat field for the Championship.

Adding to their 1st Place check for $40,000, Chris Schirling picked up another $250 from Mercury as the highest fishing Mercury owner, while partner Alex Nagdeman collected $500 from U.S. Sugar for the Big Bass on day two. The team also collected $550 from Bruiser Baits in product and cash for the Mega Bag of the event. U.S. Sugar awarded another $500 to Drew Wanczak for the Big Bass on day one. The 2nd Big Bass on day 1 came to Don Demott with Bill Fox getting the 2nd Big Bass on day 2 and earning them each $100 Gambler Bucks. Tavyn Heisler collected $100 from the Roland Martin Marina as the highest finishing Youth Angler. The highest finishing Female Angler earned Jenna Vlaar $100 from Mary Ann Martin. And winning big for going small, the team of Mike Venditto and Jack Arcuri turned the smallest limit of 4.15 pounds into $500 from AV Inspection.