Georgia’s Lemaster Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Oct. 14, 2024) – Boater Wade Grooms of Bonneau, South Carolina, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 33 pounds, 8 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Santee Cooper Lakes . The tournament, which was hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce, concluded Saturday. For his win, Grooms earned a prize package valued at $58,344, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200hp Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000.

The Santee Cooper event served as Regional championship for BFL Region 4. The field included the top 45 boaters and co-anglers based on point standings, plus each of the tournament winners, from the 2024 Bama, Bulldog, Gator and North Carolina divisions. The top six boaters and co-anglers have qualified for the 2025 BFL All-American, which will be held on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 29-31.

For the safety of the anglers, Major League Fishing proactively cancelled day one of the Santee Cooper event due to extreme winds caused by Hurricane Milton. But it was actually lingering effects of Hurricane Helene that had the biggest impact on this tournament.

Around the time anglers started practicing, lake managers dropped the bottom out of the fishery, lowering it by about 5 1/2 feet to make room for runoff into the system. Then the runoff arrived, raising the lake level each day through practice and the event.

According to Grooms, who lives on Santee Cooper, water level fluctuations like this are rare. It made a drastic impact on the fishery.

“The lake was pristine,” he said, referring to conditions before the storm. “There was a lot of grass. It was crystal clear, like an aquarium. Over the last four or five days it has come up a foot a day. So that rise in water brought orange mud water. It was the nastiest, foamy looking and there was all this debris.

“There was a lot of grass in the lake,” he added. “What happened when it went low and came back up, it was so much inflow that it was just current – like a strong current of muddy water. It ripped out a bunch of the grass. The conditions were tough.”

On top of that, a cold front arrived on day one, and it was 37 degrees in the morning.

“It hasn’t been that cold since last April. All the conditions you don’t want with bass fishing occurred here within one week.”

Mother Nature rolled out a real challenge for the Regional qualifiers, but that’s kind of the point, right? Fall fishing is all about navigating changing weather and seasonal transitions, and the best anglers in their region should be challenged for a shot at grassroots fishing’s biggest tournament.

Grooms adapted, using his knowledge of good grass beds and some solid logic regarding the current conditions.

“I tried to find the cleanest water I could find,” he said. “There was one little strip I found that was 500 yards wide by 500 yards long.”

Within that stretch, he targeted a clumpy mix of hydrilla and eelgrass. There were actually a lot of fish in the area, but they got tougher to catch as the tournament went on. On day one, Grooms caught an impressive 19-pound limit – the biggest limit of the tournament – anchored by a pair of 5-pound, 10-ounce bass.

On day two, the area had shrunk in half, with muddy water moving in and forcing Grooms to slide closer to the bank to stay in the cleaner water. That was a challenge too, because he was catching his fish where clean water and grass met in about 6 feet. Grooms realized the fish weren’t moving with that clearer water, and he caught only 14 pounds, 8 ounces fishing a bit shallower on the final day. Still, it was enough to get the win by a half-pound over Scott Wiley Jr.

Grooms caught all his fish on a junebug-colored Zoom Speed Worm.

“It was weighted, and I was slow-rolling it and just ticking the grass,” Grooms said. “If you weren’t making contact with grass you weren’t getting bit. So that was the main thing.”

Grooms navigated quite the mix of challenges to earn a trip to his first All-American. You could credit the win to his local knowledge, a great strategy or his willingness to buckle down in one area and grind it out. He said all those things played a part, but so did something else.

“The power of prayer,” he said. “It works.”

The top six boaters who qualified for the 2025 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:        Wade Grooms, Bonneau, S.C., 10 bass, 33-8, $58,344
2nd:       Scott Wiley Jr., Bay Minette, Ala., 10 bass, 33-0, $9,344
3rd:       Jamie Fountain, East Dublin, Ga., eight bass, 26-7, $5,173
4th:        Chad Poteat, Mount Airy, N.C., 10 bass, 26-0, $4,428 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
5th:        Vernelle Quinnie, Duncanville, Ala., eight bass, 25-3, $1,669
6th:        Andrew George, Poplar Branch, N.C., 10 bass, 24-12, $1,502

The rest of the top 12 finished:

7th:        Donald Griffith, Robertsdale, Ala., seven bass, 23-15, $1,335
8th:        Lucas Murphy, West Columbia, S.C., 10 bass, 23-15, $1,168
9th:        Michael Smith, Andalusia, Ala., nine bass, 23-13, $1,001
10th:     Michael Campbell, Pineville, S.C., 10 bass, 23-9, $918
11th:     Brooks Anderson, Marietta, Ga., seven bass, 23-5, $834
12th:     Matt Wieteha, Miami, Fla., nine bass, 22-13, $1,834

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The top-finishing boater from each division (not including the winner) earned a $1,000 bonus for placing highest in the event. Those anglers included:

Bama:                            Scott Wiley Jr., Bay Minette, Ala., 2nd Place, $1,000
Bulldog:                         Jamie M. Fountain, East Dublin, Ga., 3rd Place, $1,000
Gator:                            Matt Wieteha, Miami, Fla., 12th Place, $1,000
North Carolina:            Chad Poteat, Mount Airy, N.C., 4th Place $1,000

Gary Givens of Semmes, Alabama, and Chad Smith of Buckhead, Georgia, tied for the Berkley Big Bass Boater award, each landing a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces. They each took home $500 for their share of the prize.

Justin Lemaster of Royston, Georgia, won the Strike King co-angler division Saturday after bringing a two-day total of eight bass weighing 16 pounds, 10 ounces, to the scale. His $50,000 prize package included a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200hp Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The top six Strike King co-anglers who qualified for the 2025 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:        Justin Lemaster, Royston, Ga., eight bass, 16-10, $50,000
2nd:       Jeffrey Webb, Watkinsville, Ga., eight bass, 15-15, $4,788
3rd:       Tony Stevens, Monroe, Ga., seven bass, 15-9, $2,145
4th:        Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga., six bass, 14-5, $1,286
5th:        Tim Greene, Loganville, Ga., seven bass, 12-15, $858
6th:        Daniel Arnberg, Auburn, Ala., six bass, 12-12, $1,272

The rest of the top 12 finished:

7th:        John Burt Jr., Montgomery, Ala., four bass, 12-5, $686
8th:        Shaun Ireland, Lake Worth, Fla., six bass, 11-14, $1,100
9th:        Curtis Hillman, Eufaula, Ala., five bass, 11-6, $515
10th:     Caleb Gwaltney, Athens, Ala., five bass, 11-4, $472
11th:     Chad Cleckner, Spring Lake, N.C., five bass, 10-9, $929
12th:     Josh McCrimmon, Nashville, Ga., five bass, 10-8, $679

The top-finishing co-angler from each division (not including the winner) earned a $500 bonus for placing highest in the event. Those anglers included:

Bama:                            Daniel Arnberg, Auburn, Ala., 6th Place, $500
Bulldog:                         Jeffrey Webb, Watkinsville, Ga., 2nd Place, $500
Gator:                             Shaun Ireland, Lake Worth, Fla., 8th Place, $500
North Carolina:            Chad Cleckner, Spring Lake, N.C., 11th Place $500

Brody Bowen of Cleveland, Georgia, and Jeff Turner of Morris, Illinois, tied for the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award. They each took home $250 for catching a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce.

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: 7 Brew Coffee, 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.