Collins Wins Strike King Co-Angler Division

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (May 22, 2023) – Boater Flint Davis of Leesburg, Georgia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds even Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Sinclair Presented by Brown Oil Company. The tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Bulldog Presented by Mystik Lubricants Division. Davis earned $4,889 for his victory.

“I fished for a couple of hours during practice, but couldn’t get anything going on,” said Davis. “I just ran down the lake for the first couple of hours trying to find a shad spawn and never had a bite for two hours.”

Davis said he switched tactics and began running bream bed pockets in search of his first bite.

“The first fish is a crazy story,” Davis said. “The first one was a 6-pounder, and I hooked it, and it swam under a dock and got wrapped around some concrete posts for five minutes. I figured there was no way possible I was getting that fish in. I was about to break my line, and I felt it kick one more time. I let all my slack out, and the fish swam out from under the dock and floated right to me. I thought, ‘Today might be one of those days.’”

Davis continued to run bream beds in clear water and targeted fish on his Garmin Livescope. He added two 4-pounders to the livewell, and continued fishing topwater baits in shade to fill his weigh bag.

“It’s been a slow season for me, but I finally turned things around,” said Davis. “It’s been one of those years where everything that could go wrong has, so it feels good to finally get everything to flow and it happened the way it’s supposed to this week.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Flint Davis, Leesburg, Ga., five bass, 20-0, $4,889
2nd:       Matthew O’Connell, Brooks, Ga., five bass, 18-2, $2,744 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Mark Burns, Good Hope, Ga., five bass, 16-6, $1,297
4th:        Noah Armstrong, Fayetteville, Ga., five bass, 16-4, $907
5th:        Chris Blair, Newnan, Ga., five bass, 14-8, $778
6th:        Kip Carter, Eatonton, Ga., five bass, 14-7, $713
7th:        Emil Wagner, Marietta, Ga., five bass, 13-8, $648
8th:        Shane Salisbury, Cumming, Ga., five bass, 13-5, $583
9th:        Pete Fargo, Acworth, Ga., five bass, 13-0, $486
9th:        Jimmy Cassity, Auburn, Ga., five bass, 13-0, $486

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Noah Cobb of Canton, Georgia, caught a bass that weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $525.

Demetrice Collins of Thomson, Georgia, won the Strike King co-angler division and a total of $1,944 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 13 pounds, 7 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Demetrice Collins, Thomson, Ga., five bass, 13-7, $1,944
2nd:       Conery Williams, Macon, Ga., five bass, 10-2, $972
3rd:       Rodney Soles, Dublin, Ga., five bass, 10-0, $649
4th:        Tyler Mangum, Canton, Ga., five bass, 9-9, $454
5th:        Ryan Soles, Dublin, Ga., five bass, 9-7, $389
6th:        Gerald Bennett, Dallas, Ga., five bass, 8-13, $340
6th:        Benjie Winkler, Cleveland, Ga., five bass, 8-13, $340
8th:        Garry Hutchison, Sharpsburg, Ga., five bass, 8-10, $292
9th:        Deondre Cooksey, Thomasville, Ga., five bass, 8-0, $259
10th:     Chandler White, Covington, Ga., five bass, 7-14, $227

Colby Matthews of Madison, Georgia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $262, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 2 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After four events, Matthew O’Connell of Brooks, Georgia, leads the BFL Bulldog Presented by Mystik Lubricants Division Boater Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 938 points, while Benjie Winkler of Cleveland, Georgia, leads the Strike King Co-Angler Division AOY race with 930 points.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 19-21 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Norman in Huntersville, North Carolina. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury 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 outboard.

The 2023 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 2023 All-American event will take place May 31-June 2, on Lake Hartwell in Seneca, South Carolina. The event is hosted by Visit Oconee SC.

Proud sponsors of the 2023 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 13 Fishing, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Rifle Coffee, E3, Epic Baits, Favorite Fishing, General Tire, Grundéns, Gill, Lew’s, Lowrance, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Mystik Lubricants, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, Strike King, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, Wiley X 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.