LITTLETON, N.C. (Sept. 28, 2026) – Boater Jason Barnes of Concord, North Carolina, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 37 pounds, 13 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Gaston . The tournament was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL North Carolina Division. Barnes earned $10,880, including a $7,000 Phoenix bonus, for his victory.

Barnes said he hadn’t been to Lake Gaston in 15 years and didn’t know what to expect.

“I didn’t have a stellar practice,” Barnes said. “So I decided to just find an area with some good-looking water and just settle in there.

“Saturday started out real slow,” Barnes went on to say. “I caught my first fish around 10 o’clock, but it progressed from there, and I ended up catching one that went 7-2 that afternoon.”

Barnes threw a topwater bait for shallow fish in the mornings. He said a spinnerbait was also particularly effective on Saturday, while a buzzbait and jig were the preferred bait on Sunday.

Barnes said Sunday started off a little better for him, as he had three good keepers in the boat by 8:30. He kept grinding in the mid- to lower-lake area and finished out a limit.

“My main objective was just to catch a decent limit,” Barnes said. “I don’t have a history on Gaston, so I was just trying to do the best I could. Sometimes when you go into an event you think it might set up in your favor. This one was not necessarily setting up in my favor, due to my lack of knowledge there.

“Today when I caught my fifth fish, I weighed them and the scale said 15 pounds,” Barnes went on to say. “I started running some numbers in my head and thought, ‘I need to catch one more good one.’ But it worked out.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Jason Barnes, Concord, N.C., 10 bass, 37-13, $10,880 (includes $7,000 Phoenix bonus)
2nd:      Evan White, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., 10 bass, 34-14, $1,640
3rd:       Logan Anderson, Sherrills Ford, N.C., 10 bass, 33-1, $1,020
4th:        Blake Richardson, Littleton, N.C., 10 bass, 32-8, $770
5th:        Chad Sims, Lancaster, S.C., 10 bass, 30-7, $680
6th:        James Joyner, Jarratt, Va., 10 bass, 30-0, $650
7th:        Ryan Harrell, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., 10 bass, 29-2, $630
8th:        Rodney Bell, Salisbury, N.C., 10 bass, 24-10, $600
9th:        Steve Michaels, Garner, N.C., 10 bass, 24-6, $580
10th:     Keith Roberts, Hurt, Va., seven bass, 18-11, $560

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Tournament winner Barnes earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 7-pound, 2-ounce bass worth $300.

Landon Dorman of White Bluff, Tennessee, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,540 Sunday after bringing six bass to the scale that totaled 16 pounds, 15 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Landon Dorman, White Bluff, Tenn., six bass, 16-15, $1,540
2nd:      Robert Green, Sedalia, N.C., six bass, 16-3, $920
3rd:       Thomas Pennell III, Boiling Springs, S.C., five bass, 15-14, $610
4th:        Larry Freeman Jr., La Crosse, Va., six bass, 15-10, $435
5th:        Shaquille Freeman, Farmville, Va., five bass, 14-15, $340
6th:        John Richardson, Winston-Salem, N.C., six bass, 14-10, $325
7th:        Douglas Washburn, Bracey, Va., five bass, 14-0, $320
8th:        Mark Lee, Gastonia, N.C., five bass, 13-5, $300
9th:        Wesley Trotter, Monroe, N.C., five bass, 12-9, $290
10th:     Jim Freeland, Youngsville, N.C., four bass, 11-2, $280

Thomas Pennell III of Boiling Springs, South Carolina, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 4-pound, 12-ounce bass worth $150.

With all five events in the division now complete, boater Jason Barnes of Concord, North Carolina, won the 7 Brew North Carolina Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 1,341 points and earned the $1,000 prize, while Thomas Pennell III of Boiling Springs, South Carolina, won the North Carolina Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 1,343 points and earned the $500 payout.

The top 45 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. 15-17 BFL Regional tournament on Clarks Hill Lake in Appling, Georgia. 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 prize of a new Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500.

The 2026 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 co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top seven, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2027 BFL All-American will take place June 5-7, at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and is hosted by Experience Kissimmee.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly Nicotine Pouches, Mercury, MillerTech, Mystik Lubricants, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PiranhO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated tournament information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular BFL 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, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, 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.