Kentucky’s Willoughby Earns Win in Co-Angler Division

SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. (July 13, 2026) – Boater Dustin Bishop of Mount Vernon, Kentucky, caught a total of five bass weighing 20 pounds, 3 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on the Barren River. The tournament was the fourth of five events of the season for the BFL Mountain Division. Bishop earned $2,790 for his victory.

“I practiced the day before the tournament and did a lot of graphing,” Bishop said. “I didn’t really make a lot of casts. I found nine schools of fish that I thought had potential, and three of them were a little sneakier than the others. I was looking for stuff that was by community holes on the main lake, but not necessarily in them. I was graphing off to the sides of them.”

Bishop’s search for fish off the beaten path turned out to be key, and he started the day in an area that held three schools of fish. He rotated through the schools and had 18 pounds in his first hour of fishing.

“I pulled up there and they were just chewing.” Bishop said. “I had given my co-angler, who ended up winning the co-angler division, a bait and he caught back-to-back 5-pounders. I looked at him and said, ‘I’m going to need that bait back.’”

Bishop’s bait arsenal included a big spoon, a big swimbait and a Strike King 10XD Elite Crankbait.

“They were really hugging the bottom,” Bishop said. “It was really hard to see them. I caught about 40 fish. We had fun. It was a blast. We beat them up pretty good.

“I actually thought I had lost it, because I dumped one that weighed about 4½ pounds at the boat,” Bishop went on to say. “But this feels amazing.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Dustin Bishop, Mount Vernon, Ky., five bass, 20-3, $2,790
2nd:      John Rediess, Smiths Grove, Ky., five bass, 18-1, $1,015
2nd:      Jerry Monroe, Athens, Tenn., five bass, 18-1, $1,015
4th:        Brandon Young, Kingston, Tenn., five bass, 17-15, $570
5th:        Derek Turner, Jacksboro, Tenn., five bass, 17-11, $510
6th:        Rex Reagan, Livingston, Tenn., five bass, 17-3, $450
7th:        Luke Lamb, Nicholasville, Ky., five bass, 16-14, $430
8th:        Adam Sharp, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 16-7, $420
9th:        Isaac Peavyhouse, Jamestown, Tenn., five bass, 16-4, $550
10th:     Freddy Adkins, East Bernstadt, Ky., five bass, 14-12, $390

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Bishop also earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 4-pound, 14-ounce bass worth $200.

James Willoughby of Hillsboro, Kentucky, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,295 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 1 ounce.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        James Willoughby, Hillsboro, Ky., three bass, 12-1, $1,295
2nd:      Barry King, Liberty, Ky., three bass, 11-15, $665
3rd:       Kendall Parnell, Monticello, Ky., three bass, 11-14, $450
4th:        Matthew Faulkner, Corbin, Ky., three bass, 9-11, $285
5th:        Dustin Forrest, Knob Lick, Ky., three bass, 9-1, $255
6th:        Brent Jones, Ashland, Ky., three bass, 8-12, $225
7th:        Omar de Jesus, Goodlettsville., three bass, 8-10, $220
8th:        Darren Kelly, Wartburg, Tenn., three bass, 8-6, $310
9th:        Cody Chesnut, Trenton, Ohio, three bass, 7-13, $200
10th:     Michael Anderson, Knoxville, Tenn., three bass, 7-12, $195

Kendall Parnell of Monticello, Kentucky, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 5-pound, 4-ounce bass worth $100.

After four events, Timothy Wacker of Clinton, Tennessee, now leads the 7 Brew Mountain Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 960 points, while Kendall Parnell of Monticello, Kentucky, leads the Mountain Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 982 points.

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 Watts Bar Lake in Spring City, Tennessee. 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 2027 BFL All-American will take place June 5-7, at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and is hosted by Experience Kissimmee.

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, PiranhO2, 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.