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.