Phenix City’s Graziano Tops Co-Angler Division

EUFAULA, Ala. (May 5, 2025) – Boater Kyle Sellers of Lumpkin, Georgia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 22 pounds, 1 ounce, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Eufaula. The tournament was the third event of the season for the BFL Bulldog Division. Sellers earned $4,097 for his victory.

It was a sweet win for Sellers. Not only because getting your first BFL win is a huge deal. It was sweet because he caught his fish doing his favorite thing: ledge fishing with Strike King 6XD and 8XD crankbaits.

“I love it. It’s my favorite thing to do,” he said. “Just put it in drive and sit back and idle and listen to music and find as many schools as you can. You idle across a school and look and go, ‘This is about to be fun.’”

Some mechanical troubles during practice hampered Sellers’ efforts to idle the entire lake and mark schools of postspawn bass. And the best school he marked down the lake vanished before the tournament. The situation forced him to limit his target area in the event.

“Without being able to practice on Friday and with those fish being gone, I just decided to stay up the lake,” Sellers said. “I just ran from school to school where I knew they were and checked some spots where they get. I fished basically from Lakepoint to White Oak. I mixed in a little brush here and there but only caught small fish. I only had 14 pounds at 1 o’clock, and I pulled up on a school and fired my crankbait in there and lost one about 5 1/2 pounds. The very next cast I fired back in there and caught a 6-8. Very next cast I caught a 6-pounder. It’s just one of those things. It was a lot of fun.”

Those two kickers essentially carried the day for Sellers because he sat on that school the rest of the day and never got another bite. In addition to the crankbaits, he mixed in a jighead minnow and caught one fish on a football jig, but the crankbaits were definitely the main players.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Kyle Sellers, Lumpkin, Ga., five bass, 22-1, $4,097
2nd:      John Lee, Cataula, Ga., five bass, 21-6, $1,816
3rd:       Buddy Benson, Dahlonega, Ga., five bass, 20-5, $1,710 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
4th:        John Pearson, Perry, Ga., five bass, 20-1, $847
5th:        Carson Maddux, Hoover, Ala., five bass, 18-14, $726
6th:        Shane Powell, Dothan, Ala., five bass, 17-14, $666
7th:        Chandler Ray, Bainbridge, Ga., five bass, 17-3, $705
8th:        Todd Classon, Camilla, Ga., five bass, 17-0, $545
9th:        Jim Murray Jr., Parrott, Ga., five bass, 16-10, $484
10th:     John Duvall, Madison, Ga., five bass, 16-7, $424

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Sellers caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $465.

Steve Graziano of Phenix City, Alabama, won the co-angler division and $1,816 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 7 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Steve Graziano, Phenix City, Ala., three bass, 12-7, $1,816
2nd:      Jacob Chandler, Covington, Ga., three bass, 11-3, $1,140
3rd:       Shawn Malcom, Monroe, Ga., three bass, 9-0, $606
4th:        Brayden Tisdale, Opp, Ala., three bass, 8-0, $424
5th:        John Patterson, Milledgeville, Ga., three bass, 7-14, $363
6th:        Jeffrey Webb, Watkinsville, Ga., three bass, 7-13, $383
7th:        Justin Merritt, Adairsville, Ga., three bass, 7-11, $303
8th:        Adam Johnson, Duluth, Ga., three bass, 7-8, $272
9th:        Benjie Winkler, Cleveland, Ga., three bass, 7-4, $242
10th:     Jeff Cook, Columbus, Ga., three bass, 7-0, $212

Jacob Chandler of Covington, Georgia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $232, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 11 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After three events, Michael Wilder of Lizella, Georgia, now leads the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 718 points, while Daniel Arnberg of Auburn, Alabama, leads the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 706 points.

The next event for BFL Bulldog Division anglers will be held June 14, at Lake Sinclair in Milledgeville, Georgia. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.

The top 60 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. 17-18 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Seminole in Bainbridge, 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 award of $20,000.

The 2025 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is 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 tournament winners, will advance to one of 12 BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top three, 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 2025 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, Deep Dive App, E3 Sport Apparel, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Humminbird, Lew’s, Li Time Batteries, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak, Mystik Lubricants, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, 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 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.