SPRING CITY, Tenn. (May 4, 2026) – Boater Billy Joe Wheat of Evensville, Tennessee, caught a total of five bass on Sunday weighing 21 pounds, 14 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Watts Bar Lake . The tournament, hosted by Rhea County Department of Tourism – Fish Spring City, was the third of five events of the season for the BFL Volunteer Division, and the second in a back-to-back BFL weekend on Watts Bar Lake. Wheat earned $2,220 for Sunday’s victory.

Wheat said he knew exactly how he wanted the tournament to unfold for him, and he wasted no time at takeoff and stuck close to the Piney area of Watts Bar.

“I went straight to the shallow stuff,” Wheat said. “The wind wasn’t blowing, so I went up to some shallow grass and caught a big one. I went through some areas I knew had big ones in it.”

Wheat said a Copper Red Baits frog was a key bait for him during the tournament. He explained the frog bite was consistent and produced quality fish. Wheat said once the wind picked up, he caught fish on a Z-Man ChatterBait Elite EVO as well.

“They were eating (the frog) pretty good,” Wheat said. “I just got the better bites today. We just happened to find the right area at the right time, I guess.”

Wheat said his day started slowly, but he fished more shallow as the day progressed and he had most of his weight by noon. Weigh-in proved to be a very special time for Wheat.

“I’ll be 56 years old in August,” said Wheat, who fished his first BFL event in 1998. “I’ve been fishing in and out of the BFL tournaments my whole life. This is just amazing. When everything comes together, it just comes together, you know? It’s no (Garmin) LiveScope. It’s just an old guy out there just trying to have fun and catching them the way you want to catch them.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Billy Joe Wheat, Evensville, Tenn., five bass, 21-14, $2,220
2nd:      Tim Smiley, White Pine, Tenn., five bass, 20-8, $1,360
3rd:       Canyon Padgett, Clinton, Tenn., five bass, 19-15, $1,230 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
4th:        Derrick Blake, Rockwood, Tenn., five bass, 19-11, $530
5th:        Chase Henley, Kingston, Tenn., five bass, 19-6, $470
6th:        Chris Dodson, Spring City, Tenn., five bass, 18-9, $420
7th:        Justin McGaha, Knoxville, Tenn., five bass, 18-5, $410
8th:        Dale Pelfrey, Rockwood, Tenn., five bass, 17-11, $385
8th:        Jeremy Gordon, Rutledge, Tenn., five bass, 17-11, $385
10th:     Kevin Powers, Unicoi, Tenn., five bass, 17-8, $520

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Tim Smiley of White Pine, Tennessee, earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing an 8-pound, 12-ounce bass worth $200.

Clinton Harrison of Georgetown, Tennessee, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,110 Sunday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 13 pounds, 4 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Clinton Harrison, Georgetown, Tenn., three bass, 13-4, $1,110
2nd:      Brad Barton, Middlesboro, Ky., three bass, 10-6, $630
3rd:       Lynn Spears, Athens, Tenn., three bass, 10-4, $415
4th:        Cody Stokes, Ooltewah, Tenn., three bass, 9-13, $265
5th:        Michael League, Sparta, Tenn., three bass, 9-1, $235
6th:        Jermaine Shephard, Knoxville, Tenn., three bass, 8-15, $210
7th:        Corey Williams, Lenoir City, Tenn., three bass, 8-14, $210
8th:        Larry Griffith, Harriman, Tenn., three bass, 8-6, $195
9th:        Josh Hester, Dalton, Ga, three bass, 8-5, $190
10th:     Steve Ouellette, Knoxville, Tenn., three bass, 8-4, $185

Lynn Spears of Athens, Tennessee, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 5-pound, 10-ounce bass worth $100.

After three events, Justin McGaha of Knoxville, Tennessee, now leads the 7 Brew Volunteer Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 730 points, while Clinton Harrison of Georgetown, Tennessee, leads the Volunteer Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 735 points.

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 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.