Ohioan Sykes Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

HENDERSON, N.C. (Oct. 7, 2024) – Boater Jake Monti of Mooresville, North Carolina, caught a three-day total of 14 bass weighing 38 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Kerr Lake . The tournament, which was hosted by the Vance County Tourism Development Authority, concluded Saturday. For his win, Monti earned a prize package valued at $63,429, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200hp Mercury or Suzuki outboard, $10,000, and the lucrative $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus.

The Kerr Lake event served as Regional championship for BFL Region 2. The field included the top 45 boaters and co-anglers based on point standings, plus each of the tournament winners, from the 2024 Buckeye, Northeast, Shenandoah and South Carolina divisions. The top six boaters and co-anglers in the Regional have qualified for the 2025 BFL All-American, which will be held on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 29-31.

It was an up-and-down … then-back-up-again tournament for Monti. He opened with a 21-pound limit that was easily the biggest stringer of the event. But on day two, Monti slipped, weighing just four bass for 6 pounds, 5 ounces. Though Monti was able to hang onto his lead on day two, Ohio’s Chris Martinkovic cut the distance, getting within 2 pounds of the leader.

On day three, Monti scrapped everything he’d been fishing to that point and was able to pull together 11 pounds, 7 ounces to close out a wire-to-wire win by a margin of 1 pound, 7 ounces over fellow North Carolinian Logan Anderson. Reflecting on the experience, the 21-year-old Abu Garcia MLF College Fishing competitor and local business owner admitted it was his own stubbornness that caused such a stressful swing on day two.

“In practice, I’d found a couple areas that had fish that were wolf-packing shallow,” Monti said. “Day one of the tournament, I went back there in those same areas, and they were there big time. I had 21 pounds in about an hour all within about a hundred-yard section.”

Monti caught those fish flipping a 1/2-ounce Queen Tackle jig. Assuming the fish would stay in the area, Monti left early, thinking he was preserving his best spot for day two.

“Day two, I go back, and I re-fished that area and didn’t have a single bite,” he said. “I caught one bass off a willow tree at like 10 o’clock. At 12, I was still sitting on one bass, and that’s when I went back into Nutbush (Creek) and just started flipping a little area that at the end of day one I found a couple bites in. I ended up putting three more in the boat.”

After weighing just the four keepers on day two, Monti decided he needed to make an adjustment. He swapped rods, tackle, areas and tactics.

“I ended up going out deep (Saturday), fishing schooling fish. I threw a bait in 30 feet with LiveScope, using a Queen Tackle Rollin head. And I caught a really big spot early that got me up to a little over 11 pounds. I stuck with that throughout the day and got what I needed.

“I wish I would’ve adjusted sooner and I wouldn’t have made it so stressful. I was just stubborn,” added Monti, who qualified from the South Carolina Division. “I thought there were fish in that area because I laid off them on day one. I caught what I caught and got out of there early and thought there’d be some left, but that was not the case.”

With a tough lesson behind him, Monti is now looking ahead to the 2025 All-American, grassroots bass fishing’s biggest event.

“It’s awesome,” he said of his shot at the All-American. “I don’t really have any words for it yet. It honestly hasn’t set in. I’m so tired from fishing so hard the last couple days, and my nerves are shot from yesterday. I’m ready to be there.”

The top six boaters who qualified to fish the 2025 Phoenix BFL All-American are:

1st:        Jake Monti, Mooresville, N.C., 14 bass, 38-12, $63,429 (includes $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:       Logan Anderson, Sherrills Ford, N.C., 15 bass, 37-9, $10,929
3rd:       Billy Shelton III, La Crosse, Va., 12 bass, 35-11, $5,967
4th:        Tyler Campbell, Martin, Ga., 15 bass, 35-6, $2,979
5th:        Chris Baldwin, Lexington, N.C., 13 bass, 34-3, $2,111
6th:        Brandon Pritchett, Goode, Va., 15 bass, 34-2, $1,787

Rounding out the top 12 boaters were:

7th:        Chris Martinkovic, Hamilton, Ohio, 14 bass, 34-1, $2,589
8th:        Jason Shipton, Muncy, Pa., 14 bass, 32-13, $2,390
9th:        Chuck Cunningham, Duncan, S.C., 14 bass, 32-6, $1,191
10th:     Seth Fricke, Oxford, Ohio, 14 bass, 29-12, $1,092
11th:     Mark Tornai, Fredericksburg, Va., 12 bass, 28-1, $993
12th:     Rodney Bell, Salisbury, N.C., 10 bass, 26-11, $993

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The top four boaters from each division that earned a $1,000 bonus for placing highest in the event were:

Buckeye: Chris Martinkovic, Hamilton, Ohio, 7th Place, $1,000
Northeast: Jason Shipton, Muncy, Pa., 8th Place, $1,000
Shenandoah: Billy Shelton III, La Crosse, Va., 3rd Place, $1,000
South Carolina: Logan Anderson., 2nd Place $1,000

Monti caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $1,000.

Ryan Sykes of Fairfield, Ohio, won the Strike King co-angler division Saturday, after bringing a three-day total of 10 bass to the scale that weighed 22 pounds, 7 ounces. His $50,400 prize package included a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200hp Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The top six Strike King co-anglers who now qualify for the 2025 Phoenix BFL All-American are:

1st:        Ryan Sykes, Fairfield, Ohio, 10 bass, 22-7, $50,400
2nd:       Riley Smallwood, Shallotte, N.C., 11 bass, 22-4, $5,471
3rd:       Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va., nine bass, 21-13, $3,482
4th:        Shaquille Freeman, Farmville, Va., nine bass, 21-1, $1,491
5th:        Cornell Badra, Clarksburg, Md., 11 bass, 20-11, $994
6th:        Scott Standafer , Felicity, Ohio, 10 bass, 20-5, $1,395

Rounding out the top 12 Strike King co-anglers are:

7th:        Thomas Pennell III, Boiling Springs, S.C., nine bass, 19-8, $795
8th:        Mekye Barnes, Knightdale, N.C., eight bass, 17-6, $696
9th:        Jeff Bender, Glenshaw, Pa., eight bass, 16-15, $596
10th:     Kevin Walton, Norfolk, Va., seven bass, 16-8, $547
11th:     Tony Toombs, Drakes Branch, Va., six bass, 16-6, $497
12th:     Todd Huntley, Inman, S.C., six bass, 14-4, $497

The top four Strike King co-anglers from each division that earned a $500 bonus for placing highest in the event were:

Buckeye: Scott Standafer, Felecity, Ohio, 6th Place, $500
Northeast: Michael Bell, Ogdensburg, N.Y., 17th Place, $500
Shenandoah: Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va., 3rd Place, $500
South Carolina: Riley Smallwood, Shallotte, N.C., 2nd Place $500

Richard Williams of Sutherland, Virginia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $500, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 9 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament.

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. The 2025 BFL All-American will take place May 29-31, 2025, at Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and is hosted by hosted by Visit Hot Springs and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew Coffee, 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, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, WIX Filters 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.