Leesburg’s Rudd Tops Co-Angler Division

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (March 3, 2025) – Boater Cooper McDonald of Dahlonega, Georgia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 14 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine at Lake Lanier. The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Bulldog Division. McDonald earned $3,963 for his victory.

Winning a BFL event is a big accomplishment for any angler. But for Cooper McDonald, claiming victory at the Bulldog Division opener was absolutely huge. That’s because Cooper is just 17 years old, and this was his first-ever BFL event.

“It feels great,” said the Lumpkin County High junior. “It’s a lot of time on the water. It feels good for it to pay off.”

Indeed, McDonald is putting in the work – a lot of it fishing with his dad, Chris, as well as competing locally or in Abu Garcia MLF High School Fishing tournaments, which he first got into while in the 7th grade.

“My dad, he started taking me when I was real young, and I just kind of grew into the sport,” Cooper said. “I always had to be around it and always had to fish as much as possible, and I kind of just worked my way up.”

All that time on the water has given Cooper a good foundation of knowledge on Lake Lanier. In fact, this isn’t his first win at Lanier this season.

“Me and my buddy, we won a really big tournament like three weeks ago on Lanier with 25 pounds, and 24 was second,” Cooper said. “It was crazy. I was expecting the same thing (weights) today.

“I kind of just figured out a shallow bite. In my opinion, the bigger fish live shallow. I was targeting them with just a regular old Gary Yamamoto green pumpkin Senko on a Neko rig. Kind of just throwing it on their head, and they’d swim down there and eat it.”

Fishing “shallow” is relative. Cooper found his fish from 20 feet deep to the bank at a time when he said many anglers are catching them in more than 100 feet of water.

He primarily used forward-facing sonar to spot boulders and other types of rock, then cast over those targets.

“Sometimes you’ll see them (the fish) glow, and sometimes you won’t even know there’s one there and there’ll be 10 that pop out,” he said, referring to what he saw on his sonar screen. “I run as many places as possible – probably 35. I would just rotate through those places and hit them all multiple times throughout the day. You definitely have to let them rest a little before you hit them again or they aren’t going to bite.”

Winning at Lanier against a great group of local hammers is an exciting start to a young career. Cooper hopes to keep up the momentum as he finishes high school and prepares to step up to the Abu Garcia MLF College Fishing level. For now, he’s got his first BFL trophy to display with pride.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Cooper McDonald, Dahlonega, Ga., five bass, 21-14 $3,963
2nd:      Tommy Kelley, Dawsonville, Ga., five bass, 20-6, $1,981
3rd:       Michael Wilder, Lizella, Ga., five bass, 20-2, $1,857
4th:        Dylan Akins, Flowery Branch, Ga., five bass, 19-10, $925
5th:        Freeman Edwards, Buford, Ga., five bass, 19-7, $1,293 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
6th:        Kevin Underwood, Gillsville, Ga., five bass,19-4, $727
7th:        Flint Davis, Leesburg, Ga., five bass, 19-0, $627
7th:        Logan Parker, Ballground, Ga., five bass, 19-0, $627
9th:        Hayden Seabolt, Dawsonville, Ga., five bass, 18-15, $528
10th:     Brooks Anderson, Marietta, Ga., five bass, 18-12, $462

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Michael Wilder of Lizella, Georgia, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $535.

Michael Rudd of Leesburg, Georgia, won the co-angler division and $2,248 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 14 pounds, 12 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Michael Rudd, Leesburg, Ga., three bass, 14-12, $2,248
2nd:       Ben Brisbois, Jefferson, Ga., three bass, 10-7, $991
3rd:       Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga., three bass, 9-5, $662
4th:        Daniel Paulin, Smyrna, Ga., three bass, 9-3, $462
5th:        Grayson Hall, Cullowhee, N.C., three bass, 9-2, $396
6th:        Richard Causey, Perry, Ga., three bass, 8-13, $363
7th:        Daniel Arnberg, Auburn, Ala., three bass, 8-9, $330
8th:        David Gibson, Atlanta, Ga., three bass, 8-8, $297
9th:        Tyler Mangum, Canton, Ga., three bass, 8-7, $264
10th:     John Kennedy, Statham, Ga., three bass, 8-5, $231

Rudd also earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $267, catching a bass that weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

In addition to earning the win, Cooper McDonald of Dahlonega, Georgia, also has the early lead in the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 250 points, while Michael Rudd of Leesburg, Georgia, leads the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 250 points.

The next event for BFL Bulldog Division anglers will be held March 29, at Lake Oconee out of Buckhead, Georgia. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.

The top 60 boaters and co-anglers in the division based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 17-18 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Seminole in Bainbridge, Georgia. Boaters will fish for a top award of a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard worth $50,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $20,000.

The 2025 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 134 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 60 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of 12 BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top three, 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 2025 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, Deep Dive App, E3 Sports Apparel, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Humminbird, Lew’s, Li Time Batteries, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak, Mystik Lubricants, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, 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 20 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.