South Carolina’s Blanton Tops Co-Angler Division

HENDERSON, N.C. (April 21, 2025) – Boater Kaden Buchmann of Troutman, North Carolina, caught a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 2 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Kerr Lake . The tournament, hosted by the Vance County Tourism Development Authority, was the second event of the season for the BFL Shenandoah Division. Buchmann earned $4,182 for his victory.

Buchmann is off to a roaring start this spring. He won the North Carolina Division tournament on Lake Norman on March 1, finished runner-up at Smith Mountain Lake in the Piedmont Division on March 30, finished second again in the North Carolina Division on April 12 at High Rock Lake and now has win No. 2 on the season with his victory at Kerr Lake.

“If you want me to put in into one word, it would be confidence,” said Buchmann, a junior business major at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina, when reflecting on his success. “Every time I’ve put my boat in the water this year, I’ve felt like I had a chance to win.

“I think it’s a combination of I’ve figured out how I like to fish, what I like to fish, and I feel like I’ve figured out the fish a little bit more than I previously have.”

This is only Buchmann’s second season fishing the BFLs, and really, it’s his first full season. Last year, he only entered one event, finishing third at Lake Norman in the North Carolina Division Super Tournament. His worst finish in a BFL event to date: 14th at the second stop of this year’s North Carolina Division at Lake Wylie.

Buchmann’s not the only Lander angler having success. His roommate, Andrew Blanton, won the Co-angler Division at Kerr Lake on Saturday – his second top-10 finish of the season.

As for the fishing at Kerr, Buchmann kept it pretty simple.

“This is my first week on the lake, pretty much,” he said. “I found a couple of stretches of bushes down the lake and kind of just soaked ’em.”

He figures the bass were starting to spawn. Though he never spotted any on beds, Buchmann said all the bass he caught were in spawning pockets. The aspiring professional angler caught his winning fish from as shallow as 6 inches of water and from some deeper bushes, with one coming on a jig and the rest on a wacky-rigged worm.

“It started quick because I lost a couple big ones,” Buchmann added. “But I caught a small limit right off the get-go. And I just kind of caught one every hour, hour and a half, two hours. I just had to weed through the males.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Kaden Buchmann, Troutman, N.C., five bass, 17-2, $4,182
2nd:      Adam Lester, Huddleston, Va., five bass, 16-4, $2,291
3rd:       Ben Dalton, Bracey, Va., five bass, 15-10, $1,362
4th:        Raymond Jones III, Mocksville, N.C., five bass, 15-8, $952
5th:        Daniel Weber, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 15-6, $816
6th:        Jackson Pleasant, Four Oaks, N.C., five bass, 14-14, $748
7th:        Tyler Trent, Nathalie, Va., five bass, 14-5, $680
8th:        Wesley Cashwell, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., five bass, 14-1, $1,172
9th:        Kelly Robinette, South Chesterfield, Va., five bass, 14-0, $1,044 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
10th:     Michael Birr, Franklinton, N.C., five bass, 13-15, $476

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Wesley Cashwell of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $560.

Andrew Blanton of Chesnee, South Carolina won the co-angler division and $2,041 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 10 pounds, 6 ounces.

The top 11 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Andrew Blanton, Chesnee, S.C., three bass, 10-6, $2,041
2nd:      Craig Wheeler, Avenue, Md., three bass, 8-15, $1,021
3rd:       Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va., three bass, 8-8, $683
4th:        Ryan Spivey, Fairfax, Va., three bass, 8-6, $476
5th:        Lew Jenkins, Waldorf, Md., three bass, 8-3, $408
6th:        David Rosenbaum, Leesburg, Va., three bass, 8-2, $637
6th:        Douglas Washburn, Bracey, Va., three bass, 8-2, $357
8th:        Nelson Bailey, Virginia Beach, Va., three bass, 8-1, $306
9th:        Victor Cuevas, Supply, N.C., three bass, 7-14, $272
10th:     Brent Allison, Littlestown, Pa., three bass, 7-13, $276
10th:     James Wade, Loris, S.C., three bass, 7-13, $226

David Rosenbaum of Leesburg, Virginia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $280, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 9 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After two events, Broderick Luckey of Lynchburg, Virginia, now leads the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 490 points, while Jason Hinger of Timberlake, North Carolina, leads the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 479 points.

The next event for BFL Shenandoah Division anglers will be held May 17, at the Potomac River out of Marbury, Maryland. 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. 3-4 BFL Regional tournament on the James River in Richmond, Virginia. 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.