New Jersey’s Tracy Wins Co-Angler Division

HUDDLESTON, Va. (March 23, 2026) – Boater Greg Stallings of Dry Fork, Virginia, caught five bass weighing 24 pounds, 5 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Smith Mountain Lake. The tournament was the first of five events of the season for the BFL Piedmont Division. Stallings earned $3,530 for his victory.

“I practiced for two days, and I was on them,” Stallings said. “I went in there Friday and had five good bites. So, Saturday I went in there and fished for an hour and never got a bite. So, I left there and started hitting spots that have always been good to me.”

Stallings began adding fish to the livewell – first a 2-pounder, then a 3-pounder and then his day got interesting.

“I got a bite, and I caught a 7-1,” Stallings said. “That was my third fish. I kept catching fish and added a couple of 5-pounders, and that was it. I had that weight at 2 o’clock.”

Stallings said he focused on Smith Mountain’s lower-lake docks and caught two of his weigh-in fish on a jig and three on a spinnerbait, but he never thought the weight he had in his livewell was enough for a win.

“You can come in with 24 pounds on this lake and finish fourth or fifth,” said Stallings, who earned his first career BFL win in 55 attempts. “When I had my 24 pounds my co-angler said, ‘Man, you’ve got this thing won.’ I said, ‘Man, you don’t know this lake.’”

“This win is a monkey off my back,” Stallings said.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Greg Stallings, Dry Fork, Va., five bass, 24-5, $3,530
2nd:      Louis Monetti, Huntersville, N.C., five bass, 20-14, $1,770
3rd:       Shannon Breeding, Moneta, Va., five bass, 19-9, $990
4th:        William Croteau, Hiwassee, Va., five bass, 19-3, $710
5th:        Matt McCluskey, Ashburn, Va., five bass, 18-13, $630
6th:        Christopher Milton, Prince George, Va., five bass, 18-7, $540
7th:        Steve Allender, Fallston, Md., five bass, 16-14, $520
8th:        Todd Langford, Great Falls, Va., five bass, 16-8, $490
9th:        Travis Donaldson, Cleveland, N.C., five bass, 15-11, $470
10th:     Ron Rousseau III, Raleigh, N.C., five bass, 15-10, $450

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Tim Macknair of Guntersville, Alabama, earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 7-pound, 3-ounce bass worth $200.

Ronald Tracy of Marlton, New Jersey, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,915 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 16 pounds, 2 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Ronald Tracy, Marlton, N.J., three bass, 16-2, $1,915
2nd:      Zach Picucci, Powhatan, Va., three bass, 12-13, $885
3rd:       Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va., three bass, 10-1, $445
4th:        Scott Howard, Bedford, Va., three bass, 9-10, $355
5th:        Ben Meisinger, West Chester, Pa., three bass, 9-6, $315
6th:        Jim Freeland, Youngsville, N.C., two bass, 8-10, $270
7th:        Andrew Hostler, Tyrone, Pa., three bass, 8-1, $260
8th:        Johnnie Hopkins, Greensboro, N.C., three bass, 7-14, $245
9th:        Timothy King, Fallston, Md., three bass, 7-13, $240
10th:     Troy Mitten, Cumberland, Va., three bass, 7-5, $225

Ronald Tracy of Marlton, New Jersey, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award catching a 7-pound, 15-ounce bass, good for $100.

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. 8-10 BFL Regional tournament on the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland. 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 2026 BFL All-American will take place May 28-30, at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, and is hosted by Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism.

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, Mercury, MillerTech, Mystik Lubricants, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, 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.