WINCHESTER, Tenn. (April 22, 2024) – Boater Austin True of Dickson, Tennessee, caught a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 8 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Tims Ford Lake. The tournament was the second event of the season for the BFL Music City Division. True earned $2,883 for his victory.

Before the tournament, True found some spawning fish in the Elk River and thought this BFL tournament would be a spawn event. But in practice on Friday, he realized he’d have to change his strategy due to warming weather.

“I skipped a ChatterBait up under a dock and caught like a 5-pounder,” he said. “So using my (Garmin) LiveScope, I determined there were fish suspending up under docks. All my fish that were spawning, were now suspending under docks.”

True changed it up in the tournament. He caught a decent smallmouth first thing in the morning on a 4-inch 6th Sense Crush Dogma topwater bait in French bone pearl.

“From there, I took a jumbo (7-inch) Strike King Ocho on a baitcaster with 20-pound fluorocarbon, and I just skipped it as far back under the dock as I could. And hold on!” True said. “I enjoyed it because I didn’t have to stare at the LiveScope all day. I could see the structure I was fishing, and I fished confident.”

True, who works as an electrician at Wolfe & Travis Electric in Nashville, finished the tournament with four largemouths and the one smallmouth he caught in the morning. All his best docks were situated on channel-swing banks where he found wads of shad.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Austin True, Dickson, Tenn., five bass, 19-8, $2,883
2nd:       Jacob Woods, Loudon, Tenn., five bass, 17-12, $1,442
3rd:       Alex Gault, Elora, Tenn., five bass, 17-4, $960
4th:        Jason Cooper, Shelbyville, Tenn., five bass, 15-1, $673
5th:        Brent Sain, Manchester, Tenn., five bass, 14-14, $553
5th:        Jed Lamb, Chapel Hill, Tenn., five bass, 14-14, $1,053 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
7th:        Kyle Palmer, Winchester, Tenn., five bass, 14-9, $481
8th:        Josh Womack, Gallatin, Tenn., five bass, 14-2, $433
9th:        William Merrick, Wartrace, Tenn., five bass, 13-11, $660
9th:        Scotty Sudberry, Tullahoma, Tenn., five bass, 13-11, $360

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Wesley D. Taylor of Estill Springs, Tennessee, caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 11 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass boater award of $320.

Rex Henry of Hixson, Tennessee, won the Strike King co-angler division and $1,602 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 15 pounds, 1 ounce.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Rex Henry, Hixson, Tenn., five bass, 15-1, $1,602
2nd:       John Fitzpatrick, Baxter, Tenn., five bass, 13-10, $721
3rd:       Mark Redman, Bowling Green, Ky., four bass, 12-11, $483
4th:        Kevin Jones, Fort Campbell, Ky., four bass, 10-14, $336
5th:        Wayne Crouch, Jamestown, Tenn., five bass, 10-13, $388
6th:        Kevin Barton, Portland, Tenn., five bass, 10-3, $264
7th:        Darryl Lee, Portland, Tenn., three bass, 9-9, $240
8th:        Thomas Coker, Manchester, Tenn., three bass, 8-13, $216
9th:        Jordan Harris, Fayetteville, Tenn., four bass, 8-2, $192
10th:     Brandon Adcock, McMinnville, Tenn., three bass, 6-15, $168

Henry also earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $160, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 3 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After two events, Jacob Woods of Loudon, Tennessee, leads the Fishing Clash Music City Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 972 points, while Kevin Jones of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, leads the Fishing Clash Music City Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 495 points.

The next event for BFL Music City Division anglers will be held May 11, at Center Hill Lake in Sparta, Tennessee. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 17-19 BFL Regional tournament on Clarks Hill Lake in Appling, Georgia. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 45 boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American.

Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota and YETI.

For complete details and updated tournament information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Bass Fishing League updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF5’s social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 17 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.