SPRING CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 26, 2026) – Boater James Willoughby of Gulfport, Mississippi, caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 50 pounds, 13 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Watts Bar Lake. The tournament, hosted by Rhea County Department of Tourism – Fish Spring City, concluded Saturday. For his win, Willoughby earned a prize package valued at $50,350, including a Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard worth $50,000.

The Watts Bar Lake event served as the Regional championship for the BFL Bama, LBL, Mountain and Savannah River divisions. The field included the top 45 boaters and co-anglers in each division based on point standings, plus each division’s tournament winners. The top seven boaters and co-anglers at each regional and the Wild Card qualify for the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American. The highest-finishing boater and co-angler from each regional and the Wild Card at the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American qualify for the 2027 Toyota Series Championship. The 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American boater champion qualifies for REDCREST 2028.

Willoughby said he wasn’t very familiar with Watts Bar and approached the Regional championship with a practice dedicated to learning what he could about the tournament waters.

“During practice I just graphed around and tried to get familiar with the lake,” Willoughby said. “I picked a section of the lake and tried to familiarize myself with it. It’s hard to go to a new body of water and learn it all.

“Coming into it, I had heard it was a tough lake, and the weights may not be very good,” Willoughby went on to say. “Judging from past tournament results I saw some in the top 10 that didn’t have a limit. So, based on that, I just tried to find an area that had a good population of fish.”

Willoughby said his approach was a three-part attack: shallow spots in the morning with a Heddon Zara Spook, which produced an early limit on Day 2, isolated grass in 8 to 12 feet of water with a bladed jig and then running wood and isolated targets using Garmin LiveScope late in the day.

“The last day I caught most of my key fish ’Scoping with a jerkbait,” Willoughby said. “That’s a blast from the past compared to what you normally hear. The way the fish were set up, they didn’t want to react to normal minnow-style baits. And I felt like everybody was throwing them. It seemed like the fish were really pressured and not reacting well to those, so I threw a jerkbait, and the first one I threw to reacted really well to it. On the last day I probably caught 25 fish in the last hour throwing it.”

Willoughby said he figured he had accomplished his goal of making the All-American late Saturday, and with 25 minutes left to fish he found a large group of fish and got one that weighed 3-7 to bite. He knew everybody was catching fish consistently, but the thought of ending up with a win crept into his mind.

“I’ve chased a BFL win through the years and finished second last year in the Regional on Logan Martin,” Willoughby said. “I lost that one by a few ounces. I have really been looking forward to winning one, so this means a lot.”

The top seven boaters who qualified for the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:         James Willoughby, Gulfport, Mississippi, 15 bass, 50-13, $50,350
2nd:        Rex Reagan, Livingston, Tenn., 15 bass, 49-14, $8,700
3rd:         Levi Kohl, Edinburg, Ill., 15 bass, 49-4, $2,950
4th:         Timothy Wacker, Clinton, Tenn., 15 bass, 47-10, $1,770
5th:         Gavin Daniels, Kingston, Tenn., 15 bass, 46-11, $1,180
6th:         Aaron Singleton, Lagrange, Ky., 14 bass, 41-14, $1,060
7th:         Grant Meisenhelter, Decatur, Ill., 15 bass, 41-5, $940

The remaining top 10 finished:

8th:         Lucas Reagan, Byrdstown, Tenn., 15 bass, 40-9, $820
9th:         Austin Robinson, Temple, Ga., 14 bass, 38-6, $700
10th:       Dustin Vaal, Farmington, Ky., 14 bass, 36-13, $590

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Tournament winner James Willoughby won the Berkley Big Bass Boater award and $350 for landing a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces, the biggest of the tournament.

Barry Gunter of Trafalgar, Indiana, won the co-angler division Saturday after bringing a three-day total of eight bass weighing 21 pounds, 5 ounces, to the scale. Gunter earned the top co-angler award of a Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500.

The top seven co-anglers who qualified for the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:         Barry Gunter, Trafalgar, Ind., eight bass, 21-5, $33,500
2nd:        Pop Catalin, Cookeville, Tenn., nine bass, 21-3, $4,350
3rd:         Adam Johnson, Duluth, Ga., seven bass, 16-9, $1,475
4th:         Travis Nelson, Wartburg, Tenn., six bass, 15-7, $885
5th:         Wayne Crouch, Jamestown, Tenn., seven bass, 15-2, $690
6th:         Matthew Stewart, Cleveland, Ga., six bass, 14-5, $530
7th:         Matt Chumbler, Carbondale, Ill., six bass, 13-15, $520

The remaining top 10 finished:

8th:         Jeanelle Smith, Byrdstown, Tenn., six bass, 13-1, $410
9th:         Phillip Easterling, Clanton, Ala., five bass, 11-8, $350
10th:       Ben Carter, Lancaster, Ky., four bass, 9-11, $295

Dale Ball of Asheville, North Carolina, caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 4 ounces, to win the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award worth $175.

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 Nicotine Pouches, 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.