South Carolina Division boater catches final day limit weighing 17-7 to earn 2026 All-American title and top payout of $100,000

COLUMBIA, S.C. (May 30, 2026) – Jack Story of Atlanta, Georgia, was supposed to walk across the graduation stage with his high school classmates this weekend. Instead, he left the weigh-in stage at the 43rd annual Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) All-American Championship Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Murray atop the leaderboard all three days.

After taking the lead with 22 pounds, 11 ounces on Day 1, Story made all the right adjustments to wrap up a wire-to-wire victory. The youngest-ever winner of the annual grassroots championship, surpassing a mark set by Jacob Wheeler 15 years ago on Cross Lake, the 18-year-old earned $100,000 and qualified for REDCREST 2027, Major League Fishing’s most prestigious event.

Weighing 17-7 on Day 3 brought Story’s total to 61-8, which proved just enough to hold off Brooks Anderson of Marietta, Georgia, who charged up the leaderboard with 22-11 on Day 3 and finished with a 60-14 total. In third, Caz Anderson of Haysville, North Carolina, weighed 59-13, and Tom Frink of Southside, Alabama, finished fourth with 59-8 to round out a very compelling race through much of the day on the MLFNOW! livestream.

Young anglers have been winning the All-American since the beginning. Back in 1984, Shaw Grigsby took the trophy at just 28, and Emil Wagner was 25 when he won a few years ago at Lake Hartwell. But this is the first time the winner skipped high school graduation for Day 1. In doing so, Story set a high-water mark that is going to be very hard to top.

Mostly cool and collected throughout the event, Story erupted on stage when his final weight was called, andit was apparent how much the win meant to him.

“This morning, I had to tie my leader knot four or five times, because my hands were shaking so bad,” he said. “In hindsight, it’s awesome – but not when you can’t tie your leader knot and there are fish schooling around the boat.”
Even though he spent all week fishing in his element, triggering herring-eaters to bite, Story had a trying final day.

“I don’t know what to even say,” he added. “Everybody who has supported me, they’ve made all of this possible. It’s the only reason it can happen. When it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, and today it was just meant to be.”

Raised on Lake Lanier and schooled on LiveScope by Wagner, Story is preternaturally good with a Zoom Fluke and highly in tune with bass that chase blueback herring. So, he wasn’t at all mad about the chance to fish his first All-American on Lake Murray.

“I was confident,” he said. “I’d say I’m pretty good at herring fishing – I don’t want to be overconfident, but when I saw it was here, I was way happier than other places it could have been. I was excited for it to be somewhere relatively close to home, doing what I like doing.”

On Day 1, everything went exactly to plan. Story ran down the lake to his best point, waited until the conditions seemed right, turned on his LiveScope and waylaid 22-11.

It wasn’t that easy the rest of the way.

“Day 2, I went back to the same place, and I started my ‘Scope period,” he said. “They wouldn’t really eat the Fluke that well, so I started throwing a minnow, and I caught some of my weight on a minnow. Day 2, I didn’t have much. I needed something to happen. I ran up the lake to get to a bed fish, because I thought it was sunny. It was sunny when I started running. When I got to the bed fish, I couldn’t see her because it was cloudy. So, I ran out to fish more Fluke stuff. I don’t know what did it, but I looked down the lake and saw clouds and wind. I was like ‘Those fish are going to bite.’ I did a U-turn, got down, threw over them, caught a 3½-pounder, threw again, caught a 5.70, and left them again.”

It was the kind of gut call that wins tournaments if it works, yet could just as easily leave an angler looking frazzled if it doesn’t.

“I ran straight up the lake and straight back. My co-angler was probably confused; I would be too,” he said. “But the conditions are what make smart fish bite – bottom line.”

On Day 3, things went even less smoothly – Story only had 14 or 15 pounds for a long time, and his offshore, herring-oriented fish were not playing nice. So, he burned some of his three hours with LiveScope looking for fry guarders he’d marked during practice.

“I had four of them, and I was saving them,” Story explained. “I ran to the first one – gone. The second one – gone. Third one – gone. The fourth one, by luck, was still there. I threw to her with four or five different minnows, and the fifth minnow got her. I knew if I could get one good fish during my ‘Scope period, I felt confident I could do one more after.”

A Zoom Fluke in chartreuse or chartreuse herring did most of the damage for Story, and he mostly threw them weightless. However, for his last cull, Story pulled out a D-Style Geelacanth to pluck a bed fish.

“I thought the pocket looked good – I don’t really know what else to say,” explained Story. “It just looked perfect. I pulled up, it looked how I liked it, and I was weaving in and out between the docks. I looked down, and I saw one of the bigger fish I’ve seen on this lake over a light spot. I put a dot down, fished though the entire cove and went straight to that bed. I caught the male – it was 3-14 – and the female had to have been two times the size. It looked like a grass carp.”

That one didn’t make it in the boat, but Story’s final cull was enough to keep him ahead of Anderson and cement his name in the history books of bass fishing.

“I caught four of my fish without ‘Scope today, and I wouldn’t have believed that (beforehand),” he said. “I found some in practice, but I really wouldn’t have believed I’d have weighed the fish that won the All-American off a bed. When it’s your time, it’s your time.”

The top 10 boaters at the 2026 Phoenix BFL All-American on Lake Murray finished:

1st:          Jack Story, Atlanta, Ga., 15 bass, 61-8, $100,000
2nd:        Brooks Anderson, Marietta, Ga., 15 bass, 60-14, $35,000
3rd:         Caz Anderson, Haysville, N.C., 15 bass, 59-13, $15,000
4th:         Tom Frink, Southside, Ala., 15 bass, 59-8, $21,000
5th:         Lucas Murphy, West Columbia, S.C., 15 bass, 57-6, $18,000
6th:         Matt McCluskey, Ashburn, Va., 15 bass, 57-1, $12,000
7th:         Landon Lawson, Jonesborough, Tenn., 14 bass, 54-3, $12,000
8th:         Cody Mackie, McMinnville, Tenn., 15 bass, 50-12, $10,000
9th:         William Bates, Alpharetta, Ga., 13 bass, 49-12, $9,000
10th:       Zeke Gossett, Pell City, Ala., 14 bass, 49-7, $8,000

A full list of boater results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 46 bass weighing 161 pounds, 4 ounces caught by 10 boaters on Saturday. The catch included seven five-bass limits.

The highest-finishing boater from each Regional Championship (including the Wild Card and TBF) at the All-American also now advance to the 2026 Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning $235,000.

The 14 boaters that finished highest from their region and earned an automatic qualification to compete at the 2026 Toyota Series Championship on Tennessee’s Pickwick Lake are:

Matt McCluskey, Ashburn, Va.
Jack Story, Atlanta, Ga.
Jeremy Mull, Pawnee, Ill.
Nicholas Seitz, Monclova, Ohio
Cody Mackie, McMinnville, Tenn.
Joshua Teply, Harrah, Okla.
Justin Berger, Murray, Ky.
Tom Frink, Southside, Ala.
Landon Lawson, Jonesborough, Tenn.
Brooks Anderson, Marietta, Ga.
Corey Neece, Bristol, Tenn.
Riley Harris, Orange, Texas
Michael Murphy, Gilbert, S.C.
Caz Anderson, Haysville N.C.

 

Zachary Howell of Tipton, Iowa, won the All-American co-angler division on Saturday with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 28 pounds, 6 ounces to earn the top prize package of $50,000. Co-angler James Ramsey of Boaz, Alabama, finished runner up in second place with a three-day total of eight bass weighing 26 pounds, 9 ounces, good for $10,000.

“My dad, brother and I came down here and practiced, but we couldn’t really figure them out,” said Howell. “It annoyed us a bit. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but my boater had us around fish, and I was just throwing the right bait at the right time and got some fish in the boat.”

That bait was, of course, a Zoom Fluke in white and chartreuse.

“It was the same thing every day,” said Howell. “Day 1, I caught two on a Fluke and then one on a drop-shot. Then, it was a Fluke bite the rest of the way. Just like everybody else, you had to hit them early, because around 10 or 11 o’clock, the bite shut off.”

The main story is that Howell almost didn’t come to the event, as his grandma Rose was in the hospital.

“She’s been in the hospital the last three weeks battling cancer; she’s been battling it for over a year,” said Howell. “She wasn’t doing well. We went and saw her last week, and we were talking about the tournament, and I told her initially that I wasn’t going to go because of how sick she was. I wanted to be around family. She grabbed my hand and told me ‘Go win $50,000.’ She passed away on Tuesday. I couldn’t help but think that she had a front row seat up there.”

Howell has real-life uses for the paycheck: He wants to re-power his Phoenix and pay off his truck. But those are not likely to be his primary takeaways from the week.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. It’s an unreal feeling,” he said after winning. “I never thought something like this could happen to me. I gave it hell this week, but I couldn’t help but think that my grandma was watching over me.”

The top 10 co-anglers at the 2026 Phoenix BFL All-American on Lake Murray finished:

1st:          Zachary Howell, Tipton, Iowa, nine bass, 28-6, $50,000
2nd:        James Ramsey, Boaz, Ala., eight bass, 26-9, $10,000
3rd:         Jordan Smith, Middletown, Ohio, eight bass, 25-1, $6,000
4th:         Dustin Forrest, Knob Lick, Ky., nine bass, 24-10, $5,000
5th:         Mason Franklin, McCalla, Ala., seven bass, 24-4, $4,500
6th:         Wayne Smelser, Wytheville, Va., seven bass, 23-1, $4,000
7th:         Tyson Giesbrecht, Gurley, Ala., six bass, 20-9, $3,500
8th:         Darren Kelly, Wartburg, Tenn., nine bass, 20-4, $3,000
9th:         Jordan Clayton, Archer City, Texas, five bass, 18-0, $2,500
10th:       Jeff Rikard, Leesville, S.C., seven bass, 17-5, $2,000

A full list of co-angler results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 18 bass weighing 49 pounds, 10 ounces caught by the final 10 co-anglers on Saturday. The catch included three three-bass limits.

The 14 co-anglers that finished highest from their region and earned an automatic qualification to compete at the 2026 Toyota Series Championship on Tennessee’s Pickwick Lake are:

Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va.
Jeff Rikard, Leesville, S.C.
Zachary Howell, Tipton, Iowa
Jordan Smith, Middletown, Ohio
Dustin Forrest, Knob Lick, Ky.
Jordan Clayton, Archer City, Texas
Larry Stewart Jr., Brandon, Miss.
Mason Franklin, McCalla, Ala.
Wayne Smelser, Wytheville, Va.
Preston Williams, Tallahassee, Fla.
Darren Kelly, Wartburg, Tenn.
John McCullar, Benton, Ark.
Nolan Clark, Apex, N.C.
James Ramsey, Boaz, Ala.

The three-day All-American was hosted by Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism, and showcased the nation’s best weekend grassroots anglers. It awarded the winning boater a top prize of up to $120,000 – and an automatic qualification into REDCREST 2027, MLF’s most prestigious event – and the winning co-angler a top prize of $50,000.

Television coverage of the 2026 Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American Presented by T-H Marine will premiere Sunday, Aug. 23 at 10 a.m. ET on VICE TV. The full television air schedule can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The full field of 47 boaters and 47 co-anglers competed on Days 1 (Thursday) and 2 (Friday) of the event. After two days of competition, the field was cut to just the top 10 boaters and co-anglers, based on two-day total cumulative weight, and the final 10 anglers competed on Championship Saturday. The boater and co-angler that caught the heaviest three-day total weight were crowned the 43rd Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American Champions.

The 2025 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine was a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 134 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 60 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, advanced to one of 12 BFL Regional tournaments where they competed to finish in the top three, which then advanced them to compete in the 2026 BFL All-American. The field also includes the top eligible finisher from each of seven The Bass Federation (TBF) divisions in the 2026 TBF National Championship.

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.