Arkansas’ Sloan Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

TEXARKANA, Texas (Oct. 21, 2024) – Boater Zack Fogle of Longview, Texas, caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 48 pounds, 8 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Wright Patman Lake . The tournament, which was hosted by the City of Texarkana, Texas, concluded Saturday. For his win, Fogle earned a prize package valued at $67,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, $10,000 and the lucrative $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus.

The Wright Patman event served as Regional championship for BFL Region 6. The field included the top 45 boaters and co-anglers based on point standings, plus each of the tournament winners, from the 2024 Arkie, Cowboy, Mississippi and Okie divisions. The top six boaters and co-anglers have qualified for the 2025 BFL All-American, which will be held on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 29-31.

Fogle’s winning strategy was to get away from the fishing pressure concentrated around obvious targets on Wright Patman’s shoreline.

“It’s a very shallow fishery; pretty much the whole lake,” he said. “Out in the middle of the lake it’s even 8 to 10 foot in some places. Typically, everything (fishing patterns) is around the bushes, laydowns and all that kind of shallow bank cover type of stuff. But as I was practicing for the tournament, everyone was up there around that stuff fishing, and I knew it wouldn’t hold up through the whole event. So I kind of backed off and started looking for brush piles and the bigger stumps off the bank that were holding fish.”

Fogle marked about 200 brush piles for the tournament. His better brush piles were in 10 to 12 feet of water and produced 12 of his 15 keepers. He also targeted some stumps in about 5 feet of water, and even those were out off the bank away from other anglers.

His strategy each day was to start on a spot within sight of takeoff and milk that area until about 10 a.m. Then, he switched to a run-and-gun strategy the rest of the day to cull up his weight.

On day one, it worked perfectly. He had a 3-pounder and another keeper in the livewell before the entire field was done launching and a limit by 8 a.m. He started out in third place with 17 pounds, 4 ounces. Day two was similar. Fogle sacked up a limit by 8:20 and then culled his way to another 17-pound daily weight, which put him in first place by 10 ounces.

“The last day got extremely tough,” he said. “It got tough on everyone. I didn’t get a limit until about 12:30. On my starting spot, I only caught two that morning. I was a little worried, feeling the pressure of everything. I just kept my head down and ran through my stuff and ended up getting my limit. Around 2:05, I pulled back on my starting spot because it was close to takeoff, and I culled my final time and actually broke off a big fish in a brush pile. I was really concerned that was going to cost me the tournament because I only had 14 pounds. I came in, and it turns out the guy really close to me, Cody (Ross), he actually had the same weight as me – 14-4. So that 10-ounce lead I had basically held through the last day.”

Fogle caught most of his fish on a Texas-rigged 10 1/2-inch Zoom Ol’ Monster worm. He also caught one keeper on a jerkbait and a couple on lighter Texas rigs. Now in his sixth BFL season, Fogle is headed to the All-American for the first time.

“I’m super excited about it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. It (Lake Hamilton) is not terribly far from me. It’s only four hours from here, so it’s pretty exciting. I’ve heard it’s a very fun tournament to fish.”

The top six boaters who qualified for the 2025 All-American finished:

1st:        Zack Fogle, Longview, Texas, 15 bass, 48-8, $67,000 (includes $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:       Cody Ross, Livingston, Texas, 15 bass, 47-14, $11,000
3rd:       Doug Rochelle, Texarkana, Texas, 15 bass, 46-6, $6,000
4th:        Jeremy West, Hamilton, Miss., 15 bass, 44-7, $4,000
5th:        Glen Bingham, Texarkana, Texas, 15 bass, 44-1, $2,000
6th:        Dillon Roberts, Oologah, Okla., 15 bass, 43-8, $2,800

The rest of the top 12 finished:

7th:        Blake Capps, Muskogee, Okla., 15 bass, 40-13, $1,725
8th:        Tater Reynolds, Florien, La., 15 bass, 38-8, $1,700
9th:        Scott Hardin, Little Rock, Ark., 14 bass, 37-9, $1,200
10th:     Brad Morgan, Ashdown, Ark., 15 bass, 36-12, $1,100
11th:     Josh Greer, Carthage, Mo., 15 bass, 35-11, $1,000
12th:     Brad Smith, Longview, Texas, 13 bass, 35-8, $2,000

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The top-finishing boater from each division (not including the winner) earned a $1,000 bonus for placing highest in the event. Those anglers included:

Arkie:                  Doug Rochelle, Texarkana, Texas, 3rd Place, $1,000
Cowboy:            Cody Ross, Livingston, Texas, 2nd Place, $1,000
Mississippi:     Jeremy West, Hamilton, Miss., 4th Place, $1,000
Okie:                    Dillon Roberts, Oologah, Okla., 6th Place $1,000

Brad Smith of Longview, Texas, won the Berkley Big Bass boater award and $1,000 for landing a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces.

Mark Sloan of Harrison, Arkansas, won the Strike King co-angler division Saturday after bringing a three-day total of 10 bass weighing 30 pounds, 3 ounces, to the scale. His $50,400 prize package included a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The top six Strike King co-anglers who qualified for the 2025 All-American finished:

1st:        Mark Sloan, Harrison, Ark., 10 bass, 30-3, $50,400
2nd:       Robert Massey, Calhoun, La., 13 bass, 26-12, $5,500
3rd:       Logan Slaughter, Dallas, Texas, 13 bass, 25-1, $2,500
4th:        Nathan Hall, Hensley, Ark., 10 bass, 24-15, $2,000
5th:        Cedric Jackson, Sicily Island, La., 12 bass, 24-7, $1,000
6th:        William Easley, Pollok, Texas, nine bass, 22-7, $900

The rest of the top 12 finished:

7th:        Russell Malone, Grove, Okla., 11 bass, 21-15, $1,300
8th:        Jonathan Dotson, Dover, Ark., eight bass, 21-11, $700
9th:        Wes Ledbetter, Coweta, Okla., eight bass, 17-4, $600
10th:     Levi Nix, Weatherford, Okla., six bass, 14-12, $550
11th:     Zack Nick, Lufkin, Texas, seven bass, 14-10, $500
12th:     Buck Blackwell, Pine Bluff, Ark., seven bass, 13-0, $500

The top-finishing co-angler from each division (not including the winner) earned a $500 bonus for placing highest in the event. Those anglers included:

Arkie:                  Nathan Hall, Hensley, Ark., 4th Place, $500
Cowboy:            Robert Massey, Calhoun, La. 2nd Place, $500
Mississippi:     Joe Cornelius, Corinth, Miss., 17th Place, $500
Okie:                    Russell Malone, Grove, Okla., 7th Place $500

Zachary Morrow of Lonsdale, Arkansas, won the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award and $500 for catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 15 ounces.

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. 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.

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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.