Desoto’s McClellan Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

KIMBERLING CITY, Mo. (Sept. 9, 2024) – Boater Roger Fitzpatrick of Eldon, Missouri, caught a two-day total of nine bass weighing 31 pounds, 1 ounce, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on Table Rock Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine . The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Ozark Division. Fitzpatrick earned $6,121 for his victory.

This makes win No. 2 on the season for Fitzpatrick, who also won the Lake of the Ozarks BFL tournament back in March. Like then, Fitzpatrick took advantage of his recent transition into retirement to put in extra time on the lake. In fact, he made several trips over three weeks to Table Rock to put in the prep time.

“As soon as I got here I realized there were some good fish shallow,” he said of his practice. “The other thing I noticed was the water color had a slight stain to it for Table Rock. It had a Lake of the Ozarks color to it – nice and green.”

Right away, Fitzpatrick found a good practice bite throwing topwater and flipping a jig on shallow rock banks and around docks where bass were targeting spawning bluegills. Eventually, that pattern transitioned. As the bluegills wrapped up their spawn, gizzard shad moved into nearby areas. The bass shifted to targeting gizzard shad, and Fitzgerald followed them.

“Everything I was catching before was on a rocky bank,” he said. “Now it’s all gone to gravel – at least the good ones. I had a 6-2 today (Sunday), and it came real shallow on gravel.”

Fitzgerald caught most of his fish throwing a Berkley Choppo topwater and flipping a 1/2-ounce Omega jig in water 5 feet deep or shallower. He also worked in a glide bait.

“I fished from the mouth of the White River all the way to Indian Point, which is a pretty good area,” he said. “The water was the same color everywhere. The key for me was I had to be fishing around either the bluegills or the gizzard shad. If you weren’t around one of those two, you were just twiddling your thumbs. But when you found them, you had to be on your tiptoes because you were going to get a bite. A lot of the fish came around docks; any kind of shade. Had to have some shade.”

On day two, Fitzpatrick only weighed in four bass. He said the bite is really starting to slow down. Keeping his head down and knowing he was around the right quality of fish from his extensive practice helped him stay confident.

“It went from being you could just go down the bank three weeks ago and reel them in, to you had to know there were fish there to keep doing it, because anybody with any sanity would’ve given up doing it,” Fitzgerald added. “I just knew if I kept going, eventually a good one would grab it.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Roger Fitzpatrick, Eldon, Mo., nine bass, 31-01, $6,121
2nd:       Cole Findley, Forsyth, Mo., 10 bass, 29-10, $3,060
3rd:       Drew Tabor, Harrison, Ark., 10 bass, 28-03, $2,041
4th:        Eric Olliverson, Shell Knob, Mo., 10 bass, 27-09, $1,928 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
5th:        Shane Long, Willard, Mo., 10 bass, 27-05, $1,224
6th:        Drew Sagely, Rogers, Ark., nine bass, 26-01, $1,122
7th:        Cole Breeden, Lebanon, Mo., 10 bass, 25-06, $1,020
8th:        Casey Martin, Ozark, Mo., 10 bass, 25-04, $918
9th:        Corey Cook, Lebanon, Mo., 10 bass, 24-06, $816
10th:     Ronnie Dobbs, Shell Knob, Mo., 10 bass, 24-03, $714

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Ricky Crawford of Shell Knob, Missouri, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $840.

Chris McClellan of Desoto, Missouri, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,060 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of six bass to the scale that weighed 11 pounds, 13 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Chris McClellan, Desoto, Mo., six fish, 11-13, $3,060
2nd:       Geoff Blair, Nixa, Mo., six fish, 11-2, $1,530
3rd:       Kieth Rhymer, Mountain Home, Ark., five bass, 10-14, $1,020
4th:        David Blankenship, Galena, Mo., five bass, 10-9, $714
5th:        Brian Weaver, Lampe, Mo., five bass, 10-0, $762
6th:        James Welch, Bolivar, Mo., five bass, 9-13, $561
7th:        Jake Mantovani, Naperville, Ill., four bass, 9-10, $510
8th:        Kirk Short, St. Clair, Mo., four bass, 9-8, $459
9th:        Jeremy Johnson, Kansas City, Kan., four bass, 8-6, $408
10th:     Kevin Witty, Rogersville, Mo., three bass, 7-10, $777

Kevin Witty of Rogersville, Missouri, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $420, catching a bass that weighed in at 3 pounds, 14 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

At the conclusion of the event, Eric Olliverson of Shell Knob, Missouri, was crowned the Fishing Clash Ozark Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,320 points and took home the $1,000 payout, while Kirk Short of St. Clair, Missouri, won the Fishing Clash Ozark Division Co-Angler of the Year race and the $500 payout with 1,348 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, have qualified for the Oct. 3-5 BFL Regional tournament on Pickwick Lake in Counce, Tennessee. 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.