Illinois’ Westfall Tops Co-Angler Division

GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (March 17, 2025) – Boater Brad Kell of Benton, Kentucky, caught a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 14 ounces, Sunday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Kentucky-Barkley Lakes . The tournament, hosted by Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, was the first event of the season for the BFL LBL Division. Kell earned $4,244 for his victory.

Mother Nature presented a big challenge to the LBL anglers, giving them muddy water, high water and a north wind to contend with. Kell fell back on one of his tried-and-true tactics for the big Tennessee River reservoir.

“I did the same thing I’ve been doing for years – throwing a (lipless crankbait) on river bars and current breaks, looking for schools of smallmouth with my eyeballs and not necessarily forward-facing sonar. I never turned it on,” he said. “I found them just by fishing; fishing by the seat of my pants.”

To be clear, Kell wasn’t sight-fishing. It was way too muddy for that. But these days, casting and winding on main-lake bars without sonar can feel a little like stepping back in time. And time was also a factor for Kell.

“These were places that I’ve been fishing since I was 15 years old,” he said. “Sweet spots that I’ve found since I was a little kid. It’s related to the time of year. The fish are coming up to do their thing, and they get ganged up.”

Kell ran far enough south that he could see the Paris Landing bridge. There, he caught a limit of smallmouth bass, primarily from two schools. He had three other schools located, but the weather shut those fish down.

“It took a little bit (to get a bite),” he said. “My first spot didn’t pan out. I hung out there for about an hour. The second spot, it was on like Donkey Kong – 4- or 5-pounders on every cast. I lost a 7. I had a 7-pounder straighten out a split ring, and then it jumped up by the boat, and my co-angler (Kristin Hamilton), she saw it too. It was a 7-pound smallmouth all day long.”

Kell figures that giant bass created such a commotion that the rest of the school shut down because he never got another bite.

“The next spot, I caught them really good,” he continued. “They were smaller, but I did catch one that I weighed in. And when she (Hamilton) went to net the fish, it came off and the hook caught her right in the nose. The fish came off and fell in the net. She was bleeding. The fish was bleeding. It was pandemonium.”

After those two flurries, bites were tough to come by, but Kell had all he needed to sew up the win. He caught his fish primarily with Duo Realis G-Fix lipless crankbaits.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Brad Kell, Benton, Ky., five bass, 24-14, $4,244
2nd:       Kane Hackemack, Georgetown, Ind., five bass, 23-7, $2,122
3rd:       Levi Kohl, Edinburg, Ill., five bass, 22-8, $1,413
4th:        Garrett McDowell, Windsor, Ill., five bass, 22-5, $990
5th:        Harlan Thomas, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 21-14, $849
6th:        Randy Stone, Dexter, Ky., five bass, 21-1, $778
7th:        Josh Dowdy, Mayfield, Ky., five bass, 19-15, $707
8th:        Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., five bass, 18-11, $637
9th:        Harold Buchmeier, Gilbertsville, Ky., five bass, 18-5, $566
10th:     Harrison Terry, Burns, Tenn., five bass, 18-0, $495

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

John Riegger of Metropolis, Illinois, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $600.

Mike Westfall of Norris City, Illinois, won the co-angler division and $2,122 Sunday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 12 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Mike Westfall, Norris City, Ill., three bass, 12-12, $2,122
2nd:      Philip Thomas, Clarksville, Tenn. three bass, 12-8, $1,061
3rd:       Eric Law, Primm Springs, Tenn., three bass, 11-13, $707
4th:        Jerry North II, Three Way, Tenn., three bass, 11-8, $495
5th:        Jeff McWhorter, New Concord, Ky., three bass, 11-1, $424
6th:        Jack Ryan, Salem, Ill., three bass, 10-12, $389
7th:        Daniel Nolen, Lexington, Tenn., three bass, 10-4, $354
8th:        Mike Raymer, Paris, Tenn., three bass, 9-9, $318
9th:        Joshua Smith, Benton, Ky., three bass, 9-7, $283
10th:     Bo Bivins, Evansville, Ind., three bass, 9-6, $248

Anthony Cancelli of Clarksville, Tennessee, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $300, catching a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

In addition to winning the tournament, Brad Kell of Benton, Kentucky, has the early lead the Fishing Clash LBL Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 250 points, while Mike Westfall of Norris City, Illinois, leads the Fishing Clash LBL Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 250 points.

The next event for BFL LBL Division anglers will be held May 10, at Kentucky-Barkley Lakes out of Gilbertsville, Kentucky. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.

The top 60 boaters and co-anglers in the division based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 24-25 BFL Regional tournament on Dale Hollow Lake in Byrdstown, Tennessee. Boaters will fish for a top award of a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard worth $50,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $20,000.

The 2025 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 134 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 60 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of 12 BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top three, 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 2025 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, Deep Dive App, E3 Sports Apparel, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Humminbird, Lew’s, Li Time Batteries, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak, Mystik Lubricants, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, 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 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.