Dardanelle’s Bernicky Claims Co-Angler Division Title

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (March 2, 2026) – Boaters Matt Baker of Glenwood, Arkansas, and Nicholas Brown of Sherwood, Arkansas, each caught five bass weighing 18 pounds, 3 ounces, to tie for the win at the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Hamilton . The tournament was the first of five events of the season for the BFL Arkie Division. For their wins, Baker won $3,010 after contingency awards while Brown brought home $2,510.

Although their days both ended with a tournament win, Baker’s and Brown’s experiences on the water took very different paths. Baker focused on the lower end of Hamilton, while Brown fished mid-lake. Both anglers found success in shallow water.

“I started off fishing shallow – cranking, a lipless (crankbait) and I had a (Z-Man JackHammer) ChatterBait on the deck – to take advantage of the low light and the morning bite,” Baker said. “I was able to get a small limit. I just dropped my trolling motor and went – just chucking and winding. There were a few specific targets, and I’d pick up a jig and work around them.

“Then I went ’Scoping,” Baker went on to say. “I had looked at the weather and knew the wind was going to be pretty dead mid-morning. The wind was going to pick up as the day went on. So I elected to use my ’Scope period during that slack time from 8:50 until 11:50 and caught them really good on a War Eagle ½-ounce jig targeting isolated wood. All in all, it was a fun day,” Baker added. “I caught 25 keepers or more.”

Brown’s day started out a bit slower than Baker’s, but he didn’t let the lack of catching bass early knock him out of contention.

“I had done some prefishing in the previous weeks, and as the weeks progressed the water got clearer and I was catching them in dirty water,” Brown said. “I showed up on tournament day, and the water was pretty clear. My spots just weren’t working and I kind of spun out a little until about 11:30. I only had one fish.

“So, I just went on the hunt for some stained water,” Brown explained. “I found myself in a place where I had never fished before. It was kind of tight in there where I was with a lot of shade. And (bass) were in there.”

Brown said he targeted shallow, stained water that held any kind of structure – and attacked the structure with lipless crankbaits, bladed jigs and swimming jigs.

“From 11:30 to noon I caught three solid fish,” Brown said. “I left there to go and try some other stuff. But at 3 o’clock I went back to my spot and made one more run through it and caught two more solid fish to cull two small ones. I culled my last fish at 3:15.”

When it was all said and done, the two anglers shared the winning spotlight, but both were happy to come away victorious.

“I was happy for Nick and Nick was happy for me – it was just a fun day,” Baker went on to say.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Matt Baker, Glenwood, Ark., five bass, 18-3, $3,010
1st:        Nicholas Brown, Sherwood, Ark., five bass, 18-3, $2,510
3rd:       Keith Green, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 18-1, $1,050
4th:        Chris Huselton, Conway, Ark., five bass, 17-5, $680
5th:        Justin Howard, Austin, Ark., five bass, 17-3, $600
6th:        Sam Mitchell, Malvern, Ark., five bass, 16-13, $520
7th:        Jeremy Roberts, Conway, Ark., five bass, 16-7, $500
8th:        Aaron Mize, Clarksville, Ark., five bass, 15-15, $480
9th:        CJ Brustrom, Locust Grove, Ark., five bass, 15-10, $960 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
10th:     Bill Hughan, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 15-9, $430

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Keith Green of Hot Springs, Arkansas, earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing an 8-pound, 12-ounce bass worth $200.

Alan Bernicky of Dardanelle, Arkansas, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,970 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 10 pounds, 5 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Alan Bernicky, Dardanelle, Ark., three bass, 10-5, $1,970
2nd:      Darrin Franklin, Hot Springs, Ark., three bass, 10-0, $940
3rd:       Edward Hendricks, Conway, Ark., three bass, 9-3, $425
4th:        Derek Dixon, Pearcy, Ark., three bass, 8-13, $340
5th:        Christian Knight, Alexander, Ark., three bass, 8-3, $300
6th:        Theron Asbery, Melbourne, Ark., three bass, 7-13, $260
7th:        Jon Pease, Maumelle, Ark., three bass, 7-12, $250
8th:        Keagan Harrison, Sulphur Rock, Ark., three bass, 7-9, $235
8th:        Jody Jones, Harvey, Ark, three bass, 7-9, $235
10th:     Randy Allen, Russellville, Ark., three bass, 7-8, $215

Darrin Franklin of Hot Springs, Arkansas, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 5-pound, 7-ounce bass worth $100.

The top 45 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. 22-24 BFL Regional tournament on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. 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 prize of a new Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500.

The 2026 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 co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top seven, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2026 BFL All-American will take place May 28-30, at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, and is hosted by Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, Mystik Lubricants, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated tournament information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular BFL 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, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, 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.