Scottsburg’s Cornett Wins Co-Angler Division

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (April 27, 2026) – Boater Chris Martinkovic of Hamilton, Ohio, brought a five-bass limit to the stage Saturday weighing in at 18 pounds, 4 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Monroe . The tournament was the first of five events of the season for the BFL Hoosier Division. Martinkovic earned $4,700 for the victory – the seventh of his career.

Martinkovic said he relied on a run-and-gun approach to secure his victory, targeting fish along the main-lake stretch from the causeway to the dam. Keying in on an early-morning shad spawn, he covered water with moving baits to locate active fish and build his limit.

“I mainly just threw a spinnerbait and targeted the shad spawn,” Martinkovic said. “The key was just covering a lot of water.”

A white and shad-colored spinnerbait did the majority of the work, but Martinkovic also mixed in a Heddon Zara Spook to capitalize on feeding fish. He looked for less-pressured areas to separate himself from the field.

“It wasn’t easy, but I was doing my best to try to stay away from the other boats,” he said. “The way the lake was fishing on Saturday made it a little hard to do, but anytime I could I tried to go the other way.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:         Chris Martinkovic, Hamilton, Ohio, five bass, 18-14, $4,700
2nd:        Chris Wilkinson, Farmersburg, Ind., five bass, 18-5, $2,240
3rd:         Blake Knies, Jasper, Ind., five bass, 16-12, $1,010
4th:         Nick Uebelhor, Jasper, Ind., five bass, 15-2, $1,300 (includes $500 Phoenix Bonus)
5th:         Joshua Tyner, Spencer, Ind., four bass, 11-13, $700
6th:         Frank McClain, Scottsburg, Ind., four bass, 11-7, $600
7th:         Brady Bickers, Carrollton, Ky., four bass, 10-2, $575
8th:         Rob Campbell, Trafalgar, Ind., three bass, 9-11, $550
9th:         Jeffery Johnson, Austin, Ind., three bass, 7-15, $525
10th:       Brian Funkhouser, Bloomington, Ind., three bass, 7-12, $400

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Wilkinson earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award honors with a 5-pound, 15-ouncer worth $200.

Derrik Cornett of Scottsburg, Indiana, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $2,050 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 9 pounds, 12 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:         Derrik Cornett, Scottsburg, Ind., three bass, 9-12, $2,050
2nd:        Dyllan Grace, Scottsburg, Ind., three bass, 8-9, $1,020
3rd:         Kalani Borges, Turners Station, Ky., one bass, 6-1, $605
3rd:         Roger Neff, Martinsville, Ind., two bass, 5-10, $400
5th:         Gary Higgins, Bloomfield, Ind., two bass, 5-0, $350
6th:         Josh Weber, West Harrison, Ind., two bass, 4-10, $300
6th:         Steve Hanson, Shelbyville, Ind., two bass, 4-6, $290
8th:         Larry Payne, Owensville, Ind., two bass, 4-1, $275
9th:         Jericho Laney, Greenwood, Ind., one bass, 4-0, $260
10th:       Monty Radcliff, Austin, Ind., two bass, 3-14, $250

Kalani Borges of Turners Station, Kentucky, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award with a 6-pound, 1-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. 15-17 BFL Regional tournament on Kentucky and Barkley Lakes in Calvert City, Kentucky. 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, 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.