AnglersChannel

Pickwick Lake Set to Host Phoenix Bass Fishing League Regional Tournament

Pickwick Lake to Host 200 Boaters and Co-anglers from Four BFL Divisions Competing for Spot in 2025 BFL All-American, Top Prize of $60,000

COUNCE, Tenn. (Sept. 24, 2024) – The Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine’s LBL, Mountain, Ozark and Savannah River divisions will wrap up their 2024 season in Counce, Tennessee, next week, Oct. 3-5, with the Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine Regional Event at Pickwick Lake.

Hosted by the Hardin County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the three-day regional tournament will feature the top 45 boaters and co-anglers plus tournament winners from all four divisions, battling it out for a top prize of $60,000, including a Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, along with lucrative contingency awards, including up to an additional $7,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus. Strike King co-anglers will compete for a top prize of $50,000, including a Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard. Winners will be determined by the heaviest three-day catch.

The top six finishers in each regional will qualify for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American. The highest finishing boater from each division will also receive a $1,000 bonus and the highest finishing co-angler from each division will receive a $500 bonus.

Dylan Nutt of Nashville, Tennessee, is a junior at the University of North Alabama and currently fishes in the Abu Garcia College Fishing and Phoenix Bass Fishing League circuits. Nutt won the Phoenix BFL Super Tournament on Pickwick Lake this past Sunday and said anglers are in for a great event.

“The fish are really spread out right now, so fishing’s a bit tougher,” said Nutt. “That’s not what you’re used to seeing on Pickwick in May or June, but I still think we’ll see high weights at the top of the leaderboard this time of year. There are some big ones in the lake and even with it being tough, some people are going to figure it out.”

Nutt said he expects to see a variety of patterns in play throughout the event.

“I think we’ll see guys catching fish on Carolina rigs, football jigs and shaky-head rigs,” said Nutt. “But you’ll see other anglers targeting fish that are chasing shad. We’re early in the fall transition and a lot of the fish are starting to feed on baitfish, so you’re going to see a lot of guys catching them on swimbaits, topwater jigs, lipless crankbaits and stuff like that that are shad imitators.”

Although the bite may be tough, Nutt said he expects to see all three species in play.

“There will definitely be a lot of largemouth and smallmouth weighed in, but there’s also the opportunity for guys to catch some big spotted bass,” said Nutt. “I think it will take a 15- to 20-pound bag all three days to be in the top 10 and probably will take 67 to 75 pounds to win.”

Anglers will launch at 7 a.m. CT each morning from Pickwick Landing State Park, located at 120 Playground Loop, in Counce. Weigh-ins will also be held at the State Park and will begin at 3 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend the event or follow the action online through the “MLF Live” weigh-in broadcasts at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine consisted of 24-divisions devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season and five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, advance to one of six Phoenix Bass Fishing League Regionals. The 2025 BFL All-American will be held May 29-31 at Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and is hosted by Visit Hot Springs and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

The top boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each Phoenix Bass Fishing League division will also earn priority entry into the Toyota Series, the pathway to the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals and ultimately the Bass Pro Tour.
For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Kerr Lake Set to Host Phoenix Bass Fishing League Regional Tournament

North Carolina-Virginia Reservoir Set to Host 200 Boaters and Strike King Co-anglers from Four BFL Divisions Competing for Spot in 2025 BFL All-American, Top Prize of $60,000

HENDERSON, N.C. (Sept. 24, 2024) – The Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine’s Buckeye, Northeast, Shenandoah and South Carolina divisions will close out the 2024 season in Henderson, North Carolina, Oct. 3-5, with the Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine Regional Tournament at Kerr Lake.

Hosted by the Vance County Tourism Development Authority, the three-day regional tournament will feature the top 45 boaters and co-anglers plus tournament winners from all four divisions, battling it out for a top prize of $60,000, including a Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, along with lucrative contingency awards, including up to an additional $7,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus. Strike King co-anglers will compete for a top prize of $50,000, including a Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard. Winners will be determined by the heaviest three-day catch.

The top six finishers in each regional will qualify for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the 42nd annual BFL All-American. The highest finishing boater from each division will also receive a $1,000 bonus and the highest finishing co-angler from each division will receive a $500 bonus.

“This Regional tournament is going to be a good one to follow, because I think MLF is hitting is at just the right time,” said local pro Derik Hudson of Concord, Virginia, who has eight top-10 finishes on Kerr Lake – including a victory in last year’s 2023 BFL Super-Tournament. “This past weekend the water temperatures will still very high – 77 to 79 degrees. But we’re at that time of the year where the fall transition is coming soon. I think in this one the fish are going to be spread out – shallow and deep – and guys are going to be able to catch them fishing their strengths.”

Hudson said that he expects forward-facing sonar to play a large role in this tournament, but he does think that an angler can compete to win strictly by fishing shallow.

“There is a ton of shad in the lake right now, and out deep those fish are going to be keyed in on the shad,” Hudson said. “The majority of fish seem to still be out offshore, but lately it seems like the bigger fish are moving shallow and being caught on transition banks, stumpy points and on rock. That’s what makes this one so interesting – they’re going to hit it right in the middle of the fall transition and it’s still really anybody’s ballgame.”

When Hudson won the BFL Super Tournament on Kerr Lake last year, he weighed in limits totaling 16- and 15- pounds and his 31-pound total won by nearly a 5-pound margin. He expects weights to be down a little bit in this Regional tournament due to the fall transition.

“I feel like if you catch if you catch 13 to 14 pounds a day, you're going to be sitting really good,” Hudson went on to say. “But, like we just saw this last weekend in the Super Tournament, if you get on that right roll offshore or on the bank, the lake has 18 or 19 right around the corner. So, I would say to shoot to stay right in the middle. If you shoot for 15 a day, that'll be a great day for anybody. But know that 18 to 19 (pounds) is still out there somewhere.”

Anglers will launch at 7 a.m. ET each morning from the Nutbrush Bridge Access at the Kerr Lake State Recreation Area, located at 115 Jack Wade Farm Road, in Henderson, North Carolina. Weigh-ins will also be held at the landing and will begin at 3 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend the event or follow the action online through the “MLF Live” weigh-in broadcasts at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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.

The top boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each Phoenix Bass Fishing League division also earn priority entry into the Toyota Series, the pathway to the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals and ultimately the Bass Pro Tour. For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Onalaska’s Ruh Has Big Second Day to Win Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Mississippi River in La Crosse

Illinois’ Griffin Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

LA CROSSE, Wis. (Sept. 23, 2024) – Boater Kevin Ruh of Onalaska, Wisconsin, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 40 pounds, 7 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was hosted by Explore La Crosse. It was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Great Lakes Division. Ruh earned $7,577, including the lucrative $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.

In a way, Ruh owes his tournament win to a misfortunate situation at a Mississippi River lock on day two. More accurately, it was the way he made the most of the situation that made the difference.

But first, Ruh started the tournament by locking down from Pool 8 to Pool 9 on day one.

“My first spot was pretty good,” he said. “I caught a big bag, which allowed me to save a lot of fish down there. So, I locked up. I had some good stuff going on 8. I ran that and culled a little bit on pool 8.”

That “good stuff” on Pool 8 was a frog bite that helped Ruh cull past 18 pounds to get in the hunt. Sunday morning is when things got interesting. When he got to the lock, Ruh – and others – got stopped by a barge.

“We were told we could get down at about 8:30, so I had time for a couple stops,” he said. “So, I stopped on a place. It was just right place, right time, on something I saved the first day. I thought it could be pretty good. I caught a 5-pounder on my first cast.”

From there, Ruh hammered the fish, putting up a 22-pound, 4-ounce limit in about 20 minutes.

“It was a good morning flurry,” he said, putting it lightly. “It was windy this morning out of the north, and it was something I’ve got history with. I knew how those fish were setting up. I thought there could be a good bag there. You can’t imagine catching 22 pounds on the spot, but typically when you blow out a tournament or have a real big bag in a tournament, it’s off a magic spot – one spot – and it’s the right place at the right time.”

Ruh admitted that the barge actually helped him. Since other top competitors weren’t able to get through until about 11 a.m., they lost enough fishing time to open the door for him to make a move up the standings. He also thanked his co-angler, Will Ahnen, for being patient while Ruh fished his program in the morning. Ahnen finished fourth.

Not surprisingly, Ruh was tight-lipped about the exact pattern he fished in the morning. He only said that it was the same pattern each day. Ruh is not done competing on the river this fall and believes it could be a winner again – maybe even at the regional event coming up on the Mississippi River in Quad Cities, Illinois.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:          Kevin Ruh, Onalaska, Wis., 10 bass, 40-7, $7,577 (includes $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:        Clayton Weber, West Salem, Wis., 10 bass, 35-0, $2,539
3rd:         Tony Puelz, Garnavillo, Iowa, 10 bass, 34-10, $2,331
4th:         Adam Crigger, Le Claire, Iowa, 10 bass, 34-2, $1,185
5th:         Tom Monsoor, La Crosse, Wis., 10 bass, 32-13, $1,315
6th:         Nick Trim, Galesville, Wis., 10 bass, 32-11, $931
7th:         Mike Brueggen, La Crosse, Wis., 10 bass, 32-9, $846
8th:         Glenn Walker, Savage, Minn., 10 bass, 32-6, $762
9th:         Jacob Erickson, Onalaska, Wis., 10 bass, 31-9, $677
10th:       Cade Laufenberg, Onalaska, Wis., 10 bass, 31-3, $592

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Tony Puelz of Garnavillo, Iowa, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $637.

Gage Griffin of Lake Forest, Illinois, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,539 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale that weighed 30 pounds, 1 ounce.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:          Gage Griffin, Lake Forest, Ill., 10 bass, 30-1, $2,539
2nd:         Blake Miller, Cedar Falls, Iowa, 10 bass, 28-8, $1,419
3rd:         Jamie Gomez, Holmen, Wis., 10 bass, 27-14, $846
4th:         Will Ahnen, Fennimore, Wis., 10 bass, 27-7, $592
5th:         Jason Swanson, Waterloo, Iowa, 10 bass, 25-7, $508
6th:         Richard Conrad, Arcadia, Wis., 10 bass, 25-0, $565
7th:         Lee Lewis, Ontario, Wis., 10 bass, 23-14, $423
8th:         Timothy Wittren, Ontario, Wis., eight bass, 22-12, $381
9th:         Dan McAdams, Reedsburg, Wis., eight bass, 20-12, $339
10th:       Nick Kramersmeier, Johnston, Iowa, 10 bass, 20-10, $296

Jessie Pollard of Whitehall, Wisconsin, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $319, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 3 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Jeff Ritter of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, was crowned the Fishing Clash Great Lakes Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,311 points and took home the $1,000 payout, while Jason Olson of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, won the Fishing Clash Great Lakes Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,307 points and earned the $500 award.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 10-12 BFL Regional tournament on Pools 13-17 of the Mississippi River in Quad Cities, Illinois. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Harrison Township’s Mandel Wins Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Detroit River, Locks Down AOY

Ypsilanti’s Bucciarelli Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

TRENTON, Mich. (Sept. 23, 2024) – Boater Nolan Mandel of Harrison Township, Michigan, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 46 pounds, 5 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on the Detroit River . The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Michigan Division. Mandel earned $12,077, including the lucrative $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.

It’s been a banner season for Mandel, to put it lightly. He finished in the top 10 in all five Michigan Division events, including wins in the opener and the Super Tournament. Between his regular tournament winnings and Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus dollars, Mandel earned more than $25,000 just in Michigan Division tournaments this season. He also won the Fishing Clash Michigan Division Angler of the Year title in a stacked division of big-water smallmouth anglers.

Of course, what you don’t see in the stats are the unique challenges tournament anglers face. For Mandel, a bad case of food poisoning derailed most of his plans to dissect the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair during Super Tournament practice. Thankfully, he didn’t need much practice time on Friday to figure out where to start the tournament.

“I was fishing and saw a lot of perch fishermen in this section of the lake called the dumping grounds,” he said. “I thought, I’m just going to go try out there because there’s all these perch fishermen, and that’s a pretty good sign. I went out there and took one cast with a jerkbait on a hump and caught a 5-pounder.”

In the tournament, Mandel ran to his starting area and began trying to put together a bag using live sonar. It became clear very quickly that he needed to make an adjustment.

“I wasn’t seeing anything, so I started using heavier weighted Ned rigs and heavier weighted drop-shots. I used 1/2 and 5/8 ounce to get down in the grass. I started catching them doing that.”

Mandel’s go-to baits were a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General and a Z-Man Scented TRD . If he did mark fish on live sonar, he threw a small swimbait at them. But mostly he used the heavy drop-shot and Ned rigs to pitch to holes in the grass or thicker clumps of grass. The clumps were spots where he knew he wouldn’t be able to see fish on live sonar, but where they might be set up.

“I fished two spots,” Mandel said. “One was anywhere from like 16 to 18 feet deep, and then the other area was around 12 foot but had humps that came up to 8 feet of water. I probably covered two miles of water, but I had like four or five different humps that were either thick grass or bald that I would kind of rotate through.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:       Nolan Mandel, Harrison Township, Mich., 10 bass, 46-5, $12,077 (includes $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:        Dan Mittlestat, Woodhaven, Mich., 10 bass, 44-11, $2,839
3rd:         Brayden Federer, Adrian, Mich., 10 bass, 44-3, $1,694
4th:         Cody Kelley, Plainwell, Mich., 10 bass, 43-1, $1,822
5th:         Noah Stauffer, Gowen, Mich., 10 bass, 41-5, $1,015
6th:         Jeff Vizachero, Grosse Ile, Mich., 10 bass, 41-1, $931
7th:         Wilson Burton, Findlay, Ohio, 10 bass, 39-0, $846
8th:         Pat Upthagrove, Monroe, Mich., 10 bass, 38-14, $762
9th:         Matthew Davis, Morenci, Mich., 10 bass, 38-9, $677
10th:       Shane Nelson, Wadsworth, Ohio, 10 bass, 36-13, $592

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Cody Kelley of Plainwell, Michigan, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $637.

Terry Bucciarelli of Ypsilanti, Michigan, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,082 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale that weighed 39 pounds, 6 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:         Terry Bucciarelli, Ypsilanti, Mich., 10 bass, 39-6, $3,082
2nd:        Tommy Pritchard, Bargersville, Ind., eight bass, 36-14, $1,266
3rd:         Craig Fanning, Elwood, Ill., 10 bass, 36-2, $846
4th:         Dayton Land, Coatesville, Ind., 10 bass, 33-6, $591
5th:         Michael Sitko, Pinckney, Mich., 10 bass, 33-0, $506
6th:         John Wall, Western Springs, Ill., nine bass, 32-13, $464
7th:         Ashten Lynch, Waynesville, Ohio, 10 bass, 32-9, $422
8th:         Brian Townley, Wyoming, Mich., nine bass, 31-4, $380
9th:         Daniel Dumais, Trenton, Mich., 10 bass, 30-5, $338
10th:       Kendra Mueller, Fowlerville, Mich., eight bass, 27-13, $295

Jon Angstmann of St. Marys, Ohio, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $311, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Mandel was crowned the Fishing Clash Michigan Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,364 points to take home the $1,000 payout, while Scott Davis of Morenci, Michigan, won the Fishing Clash Michigan Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,339 points and earned the $500 prize.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 10-12 BFL Regional tournament on Pools 13-17 of the Mississippi River in Quad Cities, Illinois. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

College Standout Dylan Nutt Wins Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Pickwick Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine

Memphis’ Kelly Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

IUKA, Miss. (Sept. 23, 2024) – Boater Dylan Nutt of Nashville, Tennessee, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 47 pounds, 14 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on Pickwick Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine . The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Mississippi Division. Nutt earned $4,651 for his victory.

Nutt is a great example of a collegiate angler making the most of his opportunities. The junior at the University of North Alabama (UNA) started the year by winning an Abu Garcia College Fishing tournament on the Harris Chain of Lakes. Now, he’s shown what he can do against the best weekend anglers by winning the BFL Super Tournament on Pickwick. To further illustrate the quality of the UNA bass fishing program, Nutt finished just 10 ounces ahead of Banks Shaw, a fellow UNA angler and Nutt’s own roommate.

To get it done on Pickwick, Nutt had a two-part pattern.

“In practice, I located a few schools of fish, and I had one pretty good topwater spot in the morning that was big,” he said. “I caught big ones off it both mornings. Other than that, I caught all my fish on a Scottsboro Tackle Co. Sniper Shad on a Damiki rig and also a Scottsboro Tackle Co. 3/4-ounce football jig.

“Saturday, I caught ’em pretty quick. I had most of my weight by about 8 o’clock, but Sunday was kind of slower. I caught fish throughout the day, but it was definitely better in the afternoon.”

Nutt targeted a couple keys schools of ledge fish as well as a few spots that, as a local, he knew he could rely on if needed. While he caught some of the fish using forward-facing sonar, Nutt found the jig to be more productive for getting bigger bites.

“It really just depended,” he said. “It seemed like I could throw a Damiki rig in there with that Sniper Shad and catch one or two, then I’d have to throw a jig in there. It would just be slow. That’s what I had a lot of my better bites on.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Dylan Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., 10 bass, 47-14, $4,651
2nd:       Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 10 bass, 47-4, $2,700 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Hunter Nanney, Iuka, Miss., 10 bass, 33-10, $1,466
4th:        Luke Glasgow, Guin, Ala., nine bass, 33-8, $1,027
5th:        Donny Beck, Killen, Ala., 10 bass, 32-13, $880
6th:        Lake Johnson, Trinity, Ala., 10 bass, 32-5, $807
7th:        Michael Swider, Oxford, Miss., nine bass, 28-3, $733
8th:        Mitch Crane, Columbus, Miss., 10 bass, 27-7, $660
9th:        Tim McDaniel, Grenada, Miss., 10 bass, 25-7, $587
10th:     Chris Quaintance, Muscle Shoals, Ala., nine bass, 22-2, $513

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Nutt and Skip Howell of Okolona, Mississippi, split the Berkley Big Bass Boater award, each taking home $251 for catching a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces.

Isiah Kelly of Memphis, Tennessee, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,162 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of six bass to the scale that weighed 13 pounds, 11 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Isiah Kelly, Memphis, Tenn., six bass, 13-11, $2,162
2nd:       Brandon Mast, Mathiston, Miss., five bass, 10-13, $1,081
3rd:       Jeffery Reece, Guys, Tenn., four bass, 10-10, $723
4th:        Christopher Daughdrill, Foxworth, Miss., four bass, 10-9, $505
5th:        Troy Ladner, Bay Saint Louis, Miss., four bass, 8-12, $532
6th:        Bobby McKee, Cedar Bluff, Miss., three bass, 8-11, $396
7th:        Brent Willey, Anderson, S.C., three bass, 7-15, $360
8th:        Reggie Thornton, Columbus, Miss., three bass, 6-12, $324
9th:        Anthony Rasberry, New Albany, Miss., three bass, 6-12, $288
10th:     John Bates, Hartselle, Ala., two bass, 6-10, $492

John Bates of Hartselle, Alabama, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $240, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Dakota Fleming of Oak Grove, Louisiana, was crowned the Fishing Clash Mississippi Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,337 points to earn the $1,000 AOY payout, while Thomas Smith of Brandon, Mississippi, won the Fishing Clash Mississippi Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,338 points and earned the $500 award.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 17-19 BFL Regional tournament on Wright Patman Lake in Texarkana, Texas. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Bainbridge’s Conley Posts Second Career Win at Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Lake Oconee

Williamson’s Chilcott Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

BUCKHEAD, Ga. (Sept. 23, 2024) – Boater Michael Conley of Bainbridge, Georgia, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 25 pounds, 10 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on Lake Oconee. The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Bulldog Division. Conley earned $4,869 for his victory.

According to Conley, fall experienced a false start around Lake Oconee, and that has the fish in a bit of a funk.

“Right now, being fall of the year, the temperature normally starts dropping on the water, but the weather is kind of backed up a little bit,” he said. “We’ve had some cooler weather the last couple weeks to drop the water temperature some, and all the sudden in the last week it has gotten extremely hot.”

Last weekend, when he was pre-practicing for the tournament, Conley saw water temps around 74 degrees on Oconee. When he finished the tournament on Sunday afternoon, the water temperature was 88.

That sudden turnaround halted the fall transition, at least for now.

“The fish just kind of slammed on the brakes from moving up shallow, and then they started kind of backing out, from what I could tell.”

Conley basically went with them. Oconee is full of docks and seawalls. Once he realized the fish weren’t making their push shallow into creeks, Conley backed off and targeted the deeper docks on the main lake, in areas where the water had a little bit of stain. He also stuck to one area to maximize his fishing time.

Fishing was slow in the mornings for Conley, but as they say, he made hay while the sun was shining.

“When the sun got up, they’d hold tight on certain docks. I did not have a keeper fish in the boat at 10 o’clock yesterday (Saturday),” he said. “I caught my first fish at 10, and I had a limit by 11:30. Once I got dialed into how they were sitting on the docks, I had a limit in an hour and a half.”

Conley made the most of the midday, but eventually culled out three of those keepers between 1 and 3 p.m. in what turned out to be the peak window of activity. On day two, he fished the same areas, but changed up his timing so that he was hitting the docks with the best quality bass within that key afternoon window. That move produced a 5-pound fish that helped seal the win.

Making accurate casts was another key for Conley. The Bainbridge boater caught fish on a mix of soft-plastic lures, including a Zoom Brush Hog, Zoom Trick Worm and Yamamoto Senko, but the lure was less important than the presentation.

“It really didn’t seem to matter (which bait),” he said. “I caught a 5-pounder on a Senko. My co-angler one dock later caught one over 5 on a Trick Worm. It was just a matter of hitting them on the face. You had to hit them in the head. And when they bit it, you couldn’t really feel it. They were just there. They were not aggressive at all.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Michael Conley, Bainbridge, Ga., 10 bass, 25-10, $4,869
2nd:       David Lowery, Milledgeville, Ga., 10 bass, 24-14, $2,934 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Mike Cleveland, Jackson, Ga., 10 bass, 24-12, $1,623
4th:        Grant Kelly, Milledgeville, Ga., 10 bass, 24-2, $1,436
5th:        Emil Wagner, Marietta, Ga., 10 bass, 22-8, $974
6th:        Michael Wilder, Lizella, Ga., 10 bass, 22-1, $893
7th:        Mark Burns, Good Hope, Ga., 10 bass, 21-11, $811
8th:        Brooks Anderson, Marietta, Ga., 10 bass, 21-2, $730
9th:        Matt O'Connell, Brooks, Ga., 10 bass, 20-15, $774
10th:     Joe Eubanks, Marietta, Ga., seven bass, 20-7, $1,153

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Joe Eubanks of Marietta, Georgia, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $585.

Joseph Chilcott of Williamson, Georgia, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,434 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of eight bass to the scale that weighed 19 pounds, 2 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Joseph Chilcott, Williamson, Ga., eight bass, 19-2, $2,434
2nd:       Richard Causey, Perry, Ga., eight bass, 15-10, $1,217
3rd:       Chandler White, Covington, Ga., six bass, 14-10, $1,105
4th:        Jackson Riddle, Watkinsville, Ga., six bass, 14-2, $568
5th:        Steven King, Cumming, Ga., seven bass, 12-8, $487
6th:        Tim Greene, Loganville, Ga., six bass, 12-3, $446
7th:        Brad Mullinax, Lula, Ga., four bass, 11-14, $406
8th:        Ben Brisbois, Jefferson, Ga., six bass, 10-9, $365
9th:        Patrick Watson, Newnan, Ga., six bass, 9-0, $325
10th:     John Battle, Gillville, Ga., four bass, 8-4, $284

Chandler White of Covington, Georgia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $292, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 4 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Michael Wilder of Lizella, Georgia, was crowned the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,297 points to earn the $1,000 payout, while Steven King of Cumming, Georgia, won the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,280 points and earned the $500 prize.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 10-12 BFL Regional tournament on Santee Cooper Lakes in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Brummett, Fishing to Honor His Late Friend, Wraps Up Stellar Season at Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Kerr Lake

Greensboro’s Tobatto Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

HENDERSON, N.C. (Sept. 23, 2024) – Boater Chris Brummett of Lynch Station, Virginia, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 34 pounds even to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on Kerr Lake . The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was hosted by the Vance County Tourism Development Authority. It was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Piedmont Division. Brummett earned $5,379 for his victory.

No one has had a bigger year in BFL competition than Brummett. Just check the standings. It’s remarkable.

Brummett earned seven top-10 finishes in Shenandoah Division and Piedmont Division competition in 2024. He won the Shenandoah opener on Smith Mountain in April. He won again at the Piedmont Division tournament on the James River in August. Then he wrapped up the Piedmont Division by going back to back with his win at Kerr Lake.

All those top finishes helped Brummett win the Angler of the Year title in both the Piedmont and Shenandoah divisions, qualifying him for two regional tournaments and two opportunities to make his first BFL All-American.

“Unbelievable,” Brummett said. “It’s crazy. It was not expected, but I did start the year off pretty good in both divisions, which is why I continued to keep up with both divisions. When you’re doing well, it’s hard to give that up.”

Indeed, good finishes build momentum, and momentum leads to bigger and better things. But what’s most remarkable about Brummett’s season isn’t just how well he’s been catching fish. It’s what he’s been fishing for.

“I had one of my best friends in the world pass away in February,” said Brummett, referring to his friend Rick Tilley. “We traveled together. We did a lot of fishing together, and we kept no secrets. His spots are my spots. I’ve been fishing a lot of his spots. I’ve been fishing a lot of my spots as well, obviously, but that’s kind of been my driving force is just fishing for both of us. He actually fished the Toyota Series Championship last year with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

“It’s definitely more special. I feel like it’s a lot of pressure, but I honestly feel like things have happened this year that shouldn’t have happened. Everything has kind of fallen in place. I’m fishing beyond what I should be fishing.”

The way Brummett tells it, Tilley was a home run hitter. He swung for the fences in zero-or-hero style. Brummett, by contrast, was a plodder. He fished for points and for consistency. He’d won some derbies in the past, but he was more focused on being consistently good than momentarily great.

This season, it seems as though Tilley’s in-it-to-win-it attitude has rubbed off on Brummett and helped fuel his success.

“I was always more consistent, and this year I’ve been more consistent, but it’s been consistent at a whole new level,” Brummett said.

Tilley’s influence was felt again on Kerr Lake. In practice, Brummett was on about 12 pounds per day running as many deep spots a day as he could, which is his preferred way to fish the lake.

“And then Saturday, the first day of the tournament, there was a boat dock that Rick always started on,” Brummett said. “So the national anthem was playing, and I told myself I’m going to go hit that boat dock. It’s the first stop he made every tournament.”

Brummett didn’t catch any on Tilley’s dock. Yet, the decision worked out in a different way.

“When I left the boat dock, there’s a shoal sitting out there that you have to ride right by to get in this pocket, but I typically don’t fish it. I’d fished it before but never really caught any fish on it. But something was telling me to fish that shoal. Within 10 casts, I had a limit of fish. It wasn’t a big limit, but that 10 to 12 pounds gave me the confidence first thing in the morning that I had a limit and could just go fishing and kind of swing for the fences at that point.”

From there, Brummett ran his deep pattern. He eventually added a 5-pound, 5-ounce fish that earned him the tournament’s Berkley Big Bass award of $457. Within 20 minutes, he had another 4-pounder in the boat, which gave him a lead of almost 3 pounds on day one.

Day two started much slower. Brummett caught a few on his starting spot then sat on three fish until about 10:30, when he caught two more keepers on a deep point. He ran around fishing history after that to upgrade to about 11 pounds. It wasn’t until about 1:30 that he finally put a 4-pound kicker in the boat. That fish put the tournament away, but Brummett added another 4-pounder with 30 minutes left to bump his winning margin to 4 1/2 pounds.

Brummett caught most of his fish with a hand-poured green-pumpkin worm and a topwater lure. More important than how he caught them is where this win positions him. A dual AOY. A three-time winner in 2024. A bass angler eyeing two regionals and fishing for one more opportunity on behalf of a late dear friend.

“I really wanna qualify for an All-American,” Brummett added. “That would be the cherry on top.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Chris Brummett, Lynch Station, Va., 10 bass, 34-0, $5,379
2nd:       Joe Anders, Easley, S.C., 10 bass, 29-8, $2,561 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Robert Hoyt Jr., Union Hall, Va., 10 bass, 27-11, $1,374
4th:        Evan White, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., 10 bass, 26-7, $962
5th:        Jonathan Bailey, Peterstown, W.Va., 10 bass, 25-13, $824
6th:        Derik Hudson, Concord, Va., 10 bass, 25-13, $756
7th:        Tyler Trent, Nathalie, Va., 10 bass, 25-1, $687
8th:        Greg Rikard, Leesville, S.C., 10 bass, 25-0, $618
9th:        Michael Birr, Franklinton, N.C., 10 bass, 23-4, $550
10th:     Colin Bennett, Axton, Va., 10 bass, 23-0, $481

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Sean Tobatto of Greensboro, North Carolina, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,027 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of eight bass to the scale that weighed 17 pounds.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Sean Tobatto, Greensboro, N.C., eight bass, 17-0, $2,027
2nd:       Daniel Litwin, Bentonville, Va., six bass, 15-14, $1,126
3rd:       Dustin Wilhelm, Buena Vista, Va., five bass, 12-5, $676
4th:        Shaquille Freeman, Farmville, Va., six bass, 12-4, $473
5th:        Jason Hinger, Timberlake, N.C., five bass, 12-2, $655
6th:        Michael Garrett, Buena Vista, Va., five bass, 11-11, $484
7th:        Phillip Ragland Jr., Rustburg, Va., six bass, 11-6, $338
8th:        Jeff Rikard, Leesville, S.C., five bass, 9-7, $304
9th:        Robert Green, Whitsett, N.C., four bass, 8-7, $270
10th:     Chuck Willis, Dayton, Ohio, two bass, 5-3, $236

Michael Garrett of Buena Vista, Virginia, and Daniel Litwin of Bentonville, Virginia, tied for the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award by each catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 11 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament. They each took home $112 for their share of the prize.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Brummett was crowned the Fishing Clash Piedmont Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,331 points and earned the $1,000 award, while Mekye Barnes of Knightdale, North Carolina, won the Fishing Clash Piedmont Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,315 points to take home the $500 prize.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 17-19 BFL Regional tournament on Clarks Hill Lake in Appling, Georgia. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Virginia’s Langford Posts Fourth Career Win at Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at the Potomac River

Hampton Robinson of Bealeton, Virginia, tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

MARBURY, Md. (Sept. 16, 2024) – Boater Todd Langford of Great Falls, Virginia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 15 ounces, Sunday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on the Potomac River . Hosted by the Charles County Board of Commissioners, the tournament was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. Langford earned $7,232, including the lucrative $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.

BFL Super Tournaments are typically two-day events, scheduled in early fall to conclude each BFL division season. In order to make up a previous tournament that was postponed due to unsafe boating divisions, the Northeast Division anglers squared off twice over the weekend at the Potomac River. First, they fished their fourth qualifying event on Saturday – a normal one-day tournament. They then squared off again on Sunday to conclude their season in a shortened one-day Super Tournament.

Langford finished second in Saturday’s Potomac River event with 16 pounds, 4 ounces. He fished more or less the same area and pattern in Sunday’s event. And even though he said the fishing was a little tougher (he caught about half as many fish on Sunday), he managed to get bigger bites, improving his weight and locking down the win.

“I was just fishing heavy matted grass,” he said. “You’ve really got to kind of pinpoint the best areas, and I just got fortunate. I found a couple little hundred-yard stretches that they were on.”

One of the keys, said Langford, was “waiting them out.” In other words: being patient. The fish repositioned within the mats based on the tides and were on the move throughout the tournament. To try to stay on them, Langford worked the mats thoroughly, fishing in the middle and the edges with a punch rig and a frog.

“You had to make them react,” he added. “You could get some bites on a frog, but you had to kind of call them up a little bit.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:         Todd Langford, Great Falls, Va., five bass, 18-15, $7,232 (includes $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:        Aaron Dixon, Bel Alton, Md., five bass, 18-9, $2,366
3rd:        Tom Bateman, Welcome, Md., five bass, 16-14, $1,577
4th:         Michael Ortel, Stewartstown, Pa., five bass, 15-11, $1,229
5th:         Joseph Thompson, Coatesville, Pa., five bass, 15-4, $946
6th:         Fred Aldridge, Brandy Station, Va., five bass, 13-14, $868
7th:         John Duarte, Middle River, Md., five bass, 13-14, $1,089
8th:         Jarrett Kuipers, Oakland, N.H., five bass, 13-14 , $710
9th:         Spencer Cookson, Sheffield, Mass., five bass, 13-7, $631
10th:       Robert Grike, Dumfries, Va., five bass, 12-15, $552

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Jason Orecchio of Andover, New Jersey, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 8 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $555.

Hampton Robinson of Bealeton, Virginia, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,366 Sunday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 9 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:         Hampton Robinson, Bealeton, Va., five bass, 11-9, $2,366
2nd:        Ryan Spivey, Fairfax, Va., five bass, 11-2, $1,183
3rd:         Ricky Windsor III, Huntingtown, Md., five bass, 10-3, $790
4th:         Brent Kauffman, Marysville, Pa., five bass, 10-1, $552
5th:         Bonnie Lucas, Largo, Md., five bass, 9-14, $473
6th:         Logan Bloomfield, East Berlin, Pa., five bass, 9-12, $434
7th:         Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., five bass, 9-9, $394
8th:         Nathan Routzahn, Myersville, Md., five bass, 9-9, $355
9th:         Troy Mills, Lewistown, Pa., five bass, 9-8, $315
10th:       Robert Wedding, Welcome, Md., five bass, 9-3, $276

Jeff Turner of Morris, Illinois, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $277, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Joseph Thompson of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was crowned the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,298 points to bring home the $1,000 award, while Lenny Baird of Stafford, Virginia, won the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,341 points to earn $500.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 3-5 BFL Regional tournament on Kerr Lake in Henderson, North Carolina. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Claremore’s Montgomery Wins Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Grand Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine

Gene Mitchell of Stuart, Oklahoma, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,181 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of eight bass to the scale that totaled 18 pounds, 5 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:         Gene Mitchell, Stuart, Okla., eight bass, 18-5, $3,181
2nd:        Kelsey Ray, Joplin, Mo., six bass, 17-0, $1,591
3rd:         Nathan Christie, Claremore, Okla., seven bass, 15-15, $1,211
4th:         Brianna Batton , Norman, Okla., five bass, 14-11, $742
5th:         David Hamilton, Rogers, Ark., seven bass, 14-9, $636
6th:         Kaleb O'Brien, Wagoner, Okla., seven bass, 14-3, $583
7th:         Ken Coats, Tulsa, Okla., eight bass, 13-15, $530
8th:         Ken Hagar, Colcord, Okla., five bass, 13-9, $477
9th:         Keith Hays, Broken Arrow, Okla., four bass, 12-14, $424
10th:       Michael Dillon, Wichita, Kan., six bass, 12-6, $371

Bryan Schuster of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $450, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 2 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

At the conclusion of the event, Camden Kozikoski of Edmond, Oklahoma, was crowned the Fishing Clash Okie Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,282 points to take home the $1,000 prize, while Kaleb O’Brien of Wagoner, Oklahoma, won the Fishing Clash Okie Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,286 points and earned the $500 award.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 17-19 BFL Regional tournament on Wright Patman Lake in Texarkana, Texas. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

St. Paris’ Nesbitt Gets Second Career Win at Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Indian Lake

Valley City’s Saunders Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

LAKEVIEW, Ohio. (Sept. 16, 2024) – Boater Michael Nesbitt of St. Paris, Ohio, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 23 pounds, 1 ounce, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament at Indian Lake . The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Buckeye Division. Nesbitt earned $5,137 for his victory.

It was a tale of two days for Nesbitt.

“On day one, I think I had 45 spots on the main lake, and when I’m talking spots I’m talking just pulling up and making three or four casts to a ladder or a corner of a seawall,” he said. “I ran all that, and I caught fish. I just couldn’t get the big ones. And I lost a couple that were key fish in the 3-pound range in the (lily) pad areas.”

The main-lake bite was good enough for 9 pounds, 9 ounces and sixth place on day one. Nesbitt caught them using a mix of lures, including a ChatterBait, crankbait and Ned rig. However, those big pad bites that he missed, along with the need to make up a little ground on the second day, motivated Nesbitt to vacate the main lake on day two and instead spend his entire final tournament day fishing lily pads with a homemade creature bait and a frog.

“I’m a pad flipper. I knew I needed a big bag today (Sunday), so I just said forget the main lake and went and flipped pads. I lost a 2 1/2-pounder first thing in the morning I thought was really going to hurt me, and I was a little down. Turned out, I didn’t even need that fish.”

On day two, the pad bite started off quick, with Nesbitt putting a couple nice keepers in the box one right after the other. He managed another couple keepers after that but still didn’t have the big bag he was looking for.

“I had four fish at this point, and I made a move just because of wind direction,” he said. “I knew an area that the wind would be pushing in there. It had some duckweed pushed up there and a bunch of shad.”

It was the perfect mix, and Nesbitt capitalized quickly with a pair of quality keepers. Those fish jumped him from sixth place to first with a final-day limit of 13-8, earning him his second BFL win on Indian Lake in three seasons.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:         Michael Nesbitt, St. Paris, Ohio, 10 bass, 23-1, $5,137
2nd:        Nick Leonard, Amelia, Ohio, 10 bass, 20-14, $2,569
3rd:         Chuck Willis, Dayton, Ohio, 10 bass, 20-3, $2,357
4th:         Clyde McNaron, Trenton, Ohio, 10 bass, 20-0, $1,199
5th:         Hunter Colwell, Sidney, Ohio, 10 bass, 19-12, $1,527 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
6th:         Rusty Kisor, Millfield, Ohio, 10 bass, 19-3, $1,367
7th:         Chris Martinkovic, Hamilton, Ohio, 10 bass, 18-5, $856
8th:         Cody Seeger, Lewistown, Ohio, 10 bass, 17-14, $771
9th:         Josh Smith, Liberty, Ind., 10 bass, 17-10, $685
10th:       Kevin Spears, New Boston, Ohio, 10 bass, 17-10, $599

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Chuck Willis of Dayton, Ohio, caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces, to earn the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $645.

Mark Saunders of Valley City, Ohio, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,569 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale that totaled 16 pounds, 2 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:         Mark Saunders, Valley City, Ohio, 10 bass, 16-2, $2,569
2nd:        Dakota Johnston, Uniontown, Ohio, 10 bass, 15-10, $1,284
3rd:         Austin Herbst, Hamilton, Ohio, 10 bass, 15-6, $858
4th:         Dylan Phillips, Albany, Ohio, 10 bass, 15-4, $599
5th:         Matt Fisher, Glouster, Ohio, 10 bass, 14-9, $764
6th:         Kenneth Ritchie, Trenton, Ohio, eight bass, 14-1, $471
7th:         David Prater, Franklin, Ohio, eight bass, 13-8, $750
8th:         Bryan Hofstetter, Lewistown, Ohio, 10 bass, 12-14, $385
9th:         Jeff Moorman, Liberty Township, Ohio, 10 bass, 12-13, $342
10th:       Jason Riley, Cleveland, Ohio, 10 bass, 11-7, $300

David Prater of Franklin, Ohio, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $322, catching a bass that weighed in at 3 pounds, 7 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Sean Wieda of Alexandria, Kentucky, was crowned the Fishing Clash Buckeye Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,328 points to take home the $1,000 payout, while Brent Jones of Okeana, Ohio, won the Fishing Clash Buckeye Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,274 points and earned $500.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 10-12 BFL Regional tournament on Pools 13-17 of the Mississippi River in Quad Cities, Illinois. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Southside’s Wesson Wins Phoenix Bass Fishing League Super Tournament at Alabama River

Jackson’s Graham Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

PRATTVILLE, Ala. (Sept. 16, 2024) – Boater David Wesson of Southside, Alabama, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 28 pounds, 5 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on the Alabama River. The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Bama Division. Wesson earned $4,334 for his victory.

Not having any practice for the tournament actually helped Wesson, in his opinion. That’s because fluctuating water levels changed the playing field from practice to the tournament, and even during the tournament. So, anything learned in practice could have been high and dry when it counted.

“From Friday night to the start of the tournament Saturday, they dropped the water about 2 1/2 feet,” Wesson said.

The water then jumped back up a foot or so overnight from Saturday to Sunday and continued to rise throughout Sunday’s tournament hours. Both changes forced the anglers to adapt.

“Day one, I caught most of my fish on a swimbait in lily pads,” Wesson said. “Day two, I had to make some changes because the water came back up, and those fish weren’t doing the same thing. So I went and hit some water willow with a frog.”

Wesson’s lily pad spot is one he’s fished in the past. Having some familiarity with the area was helpful, but he went in knowing he’d have to feel out the bite. He cycled through a few different baits before settling on the swimbait, which produced 12 pounds, 8 ounces the first day. It would’ve been more had he not lost a couple good fish.

On the second day, not surprisingly, Wesson ran back to the lily pads first thing. But he did it with an open mind and 15 rods on the front deck.

“I went back there thinking those fish should be set up the same but having it in the back of my mind I might have to change up a little since the water level changed,” he said. “I spent the first four hours giving it its due and trying to make it work. I caught one 3-pounder doing that and pulled the plug on it and went out and started running some water willow and got on them with the frog.”

The water willow bite is something Wesson is experienced with from his home waters of Neely Henry. He knows it can require some stubbornness to grind it out and get the right bites, which was the case on Sunday. Thankfully, it put Wesson around the right fish and he was able to bring home the win on the back of a SPRO Bronzeye Frog.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1^st:          David Wesson, Southside, Ala., 10 bass, 28-5, $4,334
2nd:       Donald Griffith, Robertsdale, Ala., 10 bass, 24-12, $2,167
3rd:       Robert Robinson, Mobile, Ala., 10 bass, 23-13, $1,444
4th:        Jason Nixon, Wetumpka, Ala., 10 bass, 23-10, $1,011
5th:        Morgan Brown, Spanish Fort, Ala., 10 bass, 22-8, $1,167
6th:        Stephen Perry, Pike Road, Ala., 10 bass, 21-11, $795
7th:        Allan Glasgow, Ashville, Ala., 10 bass, 21-8, $1,222 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
8th:        Tyler Malone, Chunchula, Ala., 10 bass, 21-0, $650
9th:        Michael M. Smith, Andalusia, Ala., 10 bass, 20-15, $578
10th:     Vernelle Quinnie, Duncanville, Ala., 10 bass, 20-10, $506

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

James Willoughby of Gulfport, Mississippi, caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 4 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $495.

Brian Graham of Jackson, Alabama, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,167 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale that totaled 16 pounds, 9 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Brian Graham, Jackson, Ala., 10 bass, 16-9, $2,167
2nd:       Frank Mackin, State Line, Miss., 10 bass, 14-12, $1,083
3rd:       Brian Carroll, Glencoe, Ala., 10 bass, 14-7, $724
4th:        Daniel Arnberg, Auburn, Ala., 10 bass, 13-6, $506
5th:        Samuel Fish, Chelsea, Ala., eight bass, 12-8, $433
6th:        Caleb Gwaltney, Athens, Ala., eight bass, 12-4, $397
7th:        Danny Pinho, Bay Minette, Ala., five bass, 10-8, $608
8th:        Curtis Simmons, Chancellor, Ala., five bass, 9-15, $325
9th:        Mark Black, Selma, Ala., seven bass, 9-14, $289
10th:     Chandler Sheehan, Valley Grande, Ala., seven bass, 9-6, $253

Danny Pinho of Bay Minette, Alabama, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $247, catching a bass that weighed in at 3 pounds, 11 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Robert Robinson of Mobile, Alabama, was crowned Fishing Clash Bama Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,334 points and earned the $1,000 prize, while Reid Hale of Jasper, Alabama, won the Fishing Clash Bama Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,287 points to win the $500 prize.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 10-12 BFL Regional tournament on Santee Cooper Lakes in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

New Jersey Angler Alex Johnson Wins Rescheduled Phoenix Bass Fishing League Event at Potomac River

Virginia’s Baird Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

MARBURY, Md. (Sept. 16, 2024) – Boater Alex Johnson of Milltown, New Jersey, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 12 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on the Potomac River . Hosted by the Charles County Board of Commissioners and Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau, the tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. Johnson earned $3,383 for his victory.

This tournament was originally scheduled for Lake Oneida earlier this season but was postponed due to unsafe boating conditions and later rescheduled for Saturday on the Potomac. Northeast Division anglers clashed again on Sunday in a one-day Super Tournament on the Potomac River to conclude their season.

To get the win in Saturday’s event, Johnson relied primarily on a homemade black-and-blue ball-head jig. Catching the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a 5 1/2-pounder that earned him $355 – along with a pair of 4-pounders boosted him to the top of the standings.

“It was not a total slugfest,” he said. “I caught 15 fish probably. I stayed in one area for most of the day, for probably four or five hours, but then the back half of the day I started running around a little bit and kind of chasing the tide. The water had totally stopped moving where I was. It was wind against tide today, so it kind of held the water up and slacked off a bit.”

Johnson’s primary area was a creek he located during practice on Friday. He targeted four key stretches, hitting each one twice and flipping a “little bit of a mix” of targets.

“I was trying to concentrate on hard cover,” he said. “But the hard cover needed to have grass around it. It couldn’t just be like a random bank of laydowns. It had to be hard cover within a grass bed.”

Johnson, who owns a commercial swimming pool business with his college roommate, caught that big kicker early in the morning. He said it was entirely unexpected – a nice surprise on tournament day – and helped him accumulate about 16 pounds in the first three hours of competition. When he left his starting creek in the afternoon, he ran around to areas where he could find some moving water. That changeup produced the key 4-pounder that sealed his victory.

“I just tried to keep the trolling motor moving and take as many casts as I could,” he added. “I was trying to pick everything apart. I was flipping every 5 feet.”

The top 11 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Alex Johnson, Milltown, N.J., five bass, 18-12, $3,383
2nd:       Todd Langford, Great Falls, Va., five bass, 16-4, $2,014 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Stacey Craft, Dunkirk, Md., five bass, 14-4, $1,008
4th:        Fred Aldridge, Brandy Station, Va., five bass, 13-10, $707
5th:        Connor MacDougall, Cape Coral, Fla., five bass, 12-15, $606
6th:        Robert Grike, Dumfries, Va., five bass, 12-14, $555
7th:        Jeffrey Davis, Wendell, N.C., five bass, 12-13, $479
7th:        Logan Kaplon, Rural Valley, Pa., five bass, 12-13, $479
9th:        Joe Zombek II, Scranton, Pa., five bass, 12-12, $829
10th:     William Kronander, Brownsville, Pa., five bass, 12-10, $335
10th:     John Duarte, Middle River, Md., five bass, 12-10, $335

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Lenny Baird of Stafford, Virginia, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,064 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 14 pounds, 13 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., five bass, 14-13, $2,064
2nd:       Matt Hummel, Dillsburg, Pa., four bass, 12-15, $934
3rd:       Robert Wedding, Welcome, Md., five bass, 12-7, $505
4th:        Clarence Dove, Linthicum Heights, Md., five bass, 12-5, $353
5th:        Hunter Navari, Colchester, Vt., five bass, 11-4, $303
6th:        Melvin Smitson, Baltimore, Md., five bass, 10-9, $278
7th:        Richard Jordan, Muncy Valley, Pa., five bass, 10-2, $252
8th:        Logan Bloomfield, East Berlin, Pa., five bass, 10-0, $227
9th:        Troy Mills, Lewistown, Pa., five bass, 9-14, $202
10th:     Andrew Hostler, Tyrone, Pa., five bass, 9-9, $177

Matt Hummel of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $177, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 13 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After Saturday’s tournament, Daniel Gray of Butler, Pennsylvania, held the lead in the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year race with 937 points, while Lenny Baird of Stafford, Virginia, led the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-angler of the Year race with 972 points.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified for the Oct. 3-5 BFL Regional tournament on Kerr Lake in Henderson, North Carolina. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The 2024 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 Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, 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 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel

Georgetown’s Bennett Lawshe Battles Elements to Triumph at Toyota Series at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Suzuki Marine

CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Sept. 15, 2024) – Were it not for blustery conditions and massive waves on the dual lakes of Santee Cooper on Saturday, Georgetown, South Carolina pro Bennett Lawshe may have turned a blowout into a beatdown. Instead, his trolling motor batteries died by lunchtime as he fought the conditions and came to the scales on the final day of the  Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southern Division finale with 13 pounds, 8 ounces – good enough to best pro Reid Heard of Bainbridge, Georgia, by an ounce shy of 7 pounds.

Lawshe, 24, calls Santee his home lakes and rarely fishes anywhere else. For years, he’s been unlocking the secrets of Lakes Marion and Moultrie, which aided in his massive 25-7 bag on Day 2 and allowed him to fill out a limit on the final day despite gusting winds and a nonfunctional trolling motor.

“I wasn’t really stressed,” he said of losing trolling motor capabilities early in the day. “If it would have been two years ago, I would have probably spun out. It wasn’t that bad. I didn’t panic or anything.”

Part of the reason for his calmness was knowing it would have taken a big bag to overtake him, and considering the stingy late-summer bite that pushed weights down and made big bites few and far between, Lawshe knew he was still in good position to win. And that all came down to making some sound decisions on Days 1 and 2 after observing a key factor on the last day of practice.

“There was a mayfly hatch,” Lawshe explained. “You could drive by the trees and shake them and mayflies hit the water and bream would be popping all over the place. I found it the last day of practice and I probably shook off 30 pounds.

“I’ve caught them like that before, but never this time of year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in the fall. I just know what happens when they do that. It’s like all the big fish in the area scoot into that one place. I didn’t have one small bite in that area.”

That area was near Pack’s Landing, where Lawshe took advantage of the mayfly hatch by popping a SPRO Bronzeye frog around trees. That pattern accounted for a 4- and a 5-pounder on Day 1 and a 7-pounder on Day 2. After catching those kickers, Lawshe ran back to his primary offshore area to utilize forward-facing sonar to fill out his limit and cull up.

“It’s just a big area and I’ve just spent a lot of time there,” he said of his primary offshore spot. “I’ve graphed the entire area and can tell you where everything is on the bottom.

“At some point in the day there was a big school of fish that would pull up on one of two brushpiles, and I had to be sitting on the right one at the right time.”

To fish those brushpiles situated in 20 and 15 feet of water, Lawshe relied on a pair of jerkbaits: a deep-diving Rapala model and a shallow-diving Megabass model. While he used forward-facing sonar to locate those brushpiles and fish and know where to cast, he says he’s not proficient enough with the technology to see his bait on the screen and watch the fish eat it.

The win was only Lawshe’s third tournament with Major League Fishing, having previously turned in a couple Top-25 finishes in Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine events at Santee in 2022 and 2023. Those tournaments took place in early spring, though – a time of year during which he’s not all that confident fishing.

“I’ve always been good this time of year,” he said. “It’s my favorite time of year to fish. I’m good at junk fishing. I’ve gotten good at knowing when to pick your trolling motor up and leave somewhere. I literally burned an entire tank of gas each day all three days.”

Though still a college student (he’ll graduate in December from Francis Marion University with a degree in environmental science), he’s not sweating the gas money. Winning $32,142 will have that effect.

“All the contingency money for the boat and truck, I always give it to my grandad,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with the winner check.”

The top 10 pros at the Toyota Series at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Suzuki Marine finished:

1st:        Bennett Lawshe, Georgetown, S.C., 15 bass, 64-1, $32,142
2nd:       Reid Heard, Bainbridge, Ga., 14 bass, 63-6, $12,955
3rd:       Bryan Cook, .Vance, S.C., 15 bass, 63-1, $9,643
4th:        Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 15 bass, 61-13, $8,036
5th:        Ben Harris, Haines City, Fla., 14 bass, 61-3, $7,232
6th:        Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, 11 bass, 61-1, $6,428
7th:        Colbie Caigle, Edgewater, Fla., 13 bass, 61-0, $5,625
8th:        Casey Warren, Longs, S.C., 11 bass, 60-9, $4,821
9th:        Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 15 bass, 60-6, $4,018
10th:     Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 15 bass, 60-4, $5,214 (includes $1,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus)

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Pro Brad Robinson of Hagerstown, Indiana, earned Thursday’s $500 Berkley Big Bass Award with a bass weighing 7 pounds, 5 ounces. Pro Reid Heard of Bainbridge, Georgia, earned the $500 Berkley Big Bass Award on Friday with a bass weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces.

Keith Honeycutt of Temple, Texas, won the Strike King Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 11 bass weighing 27 pounds, 4 ounces. Honeycutt earned the top co-angler prize package worth $33,500, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard motor.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers at the Toyota Series at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Suzuki Marine finished:

1st:        Keith Honeycutt, Temple, Texas, 11 bass, 27-4, Phoenix 518 Pro boat w/115-hp Mercury outboard
2nd:       Dan Basham, Taylorsville, Ky., nine bass, 24-4, $4,141
3rd:       Grant McPeters, Marion, N.C., six bass, 23-13, $3,313
4th:        Billy Foster, Leesburg, Ga., 10 bass, 23-11, $2,899
5th:        Alan Hults, Gautier, Miss., nine bass, 23-4, $2,485
6th:        David Underwood, Waco, Texas, eight bass, 21-9, $2,071
7th:        Wendell Grantham, Eatonton, Ga., eight bass, 20-11, $1,656
8th:        Patrick Brown, Swainsboro, Ga., eight bass, 20-0, $1,449
9th:        Clyde Cox, Silver Grove, Ky., six bass, 19-2, $1,542
10th:     Todd Mowery, Madison, Ala., eight bass, 18-12, $1,035

Strike King Co-angler Clyde Cox of Silver Grove, Kentucky, earned Thursday’s $150 Berkley Big Bass co-angler award with a 7-pound, 12-ounce bass, while Friday’s Day 2 $150 co-angler award went to Josh Williams of Orange Park, Florida, who weighed in a 5-pound, 14-ounce bass.

The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Suzuki was hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce. It was the third and final regular-season tournament for the Toyota Series Southern Division. The next event for the Toyota Series Southern Division will be the 2024 Toyota Series Championship, Nov. 7-9 on Wheeler Lake in Huntsville, Alabama. For a complete schedule of events, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The 2024 Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats consists of six divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern, Southwestern and the Western Division Presented by Tackle Warehouse – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International and Wild Card divisions. Anglers who fish in any of the six divisions or the Wild Card division and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship on Wheeler Lake for a shot at winning up to $235,000 and a qualification to REDCREST 2025. The winning Strike King co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard. The 2024 Toyota Series Championship on Wheeler Lake is hosted by the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Madison County Commission, and the Huntsville Sports Commission.

Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Toyota Series include: 7 Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, FX Custom Rods, General Tire, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, WIX Filters, YETI.

For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Toyota Series updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 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 17 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.

by AnglersChannel