Oklahoma’s Stallings Claims Co-Angler Division

GROVE, Okla. (Oct. 13, 2025) – Boater Joshua Teply of Harrah, Oklahoma, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 38 pounds, 14 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Grand Lake Presented by Mando Deodorant . The tournament, which was hosted by City of Grove, wrapped up on Saturday. For his win, Teply earned a prize package valued at $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200hp Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The Grand Lake event served as the Regional championship for the BFL Ozark and Okie divisions. The field included the top 60 boaters and co-anglers based on point standings, plus each division’s tournament winners. The top three boaters and co-anglers have also now qualified for the 2026 BFL All-American.

Boat malfunctions limited Teply’s practice time on Grand, but he didn’t let that hamper his chances for the tournament.

“Everybody is on Grand this time of the year,” Teply said. “I had an idea of what was going on. Fishing is pretty simple to me right now, and I caught a lot of fish each day.

“For the most part I stayed in the mid-lake region and covered a ton of water,” Teply added. “Once I found fish I stayed put for as long as I kept catching fish.”

Teply, who mentioned he was very adept with forward-facing sonar, said he concentrated his efforts offshore and fairly deep in 25 feet of water. He said the rest of the field seemed to be focusing on shallow water, and he had the depths to himself during the tournament.

“I look for whatever looks good when I’m fishing with the sonar,” Teply said. “Sometimes it’s rocks, sometimes it’s trees that have floated in, sometimes it’s brushpiles or schools of fish. I just look for anything that looks good. I tell everybody, ‘Look for stop signs for bass.’ I look for places with not a lot of cover. But then when you do find a piece of cover, it is a key piece of cover with a group of fish on it.”

Teply said he doesn’t use sonar to pick out individual fish on his electronics. Rather, he uses it as a tool to locate structure, then approaches the fish with a self-described ‘old-school’ technique.

“I throw a big ¾-ounce brown and purple Destroyer jig and a big worm,” Teply said. “I like a redbug Zoom Magnum Ol Monster or a Zoom Magnum Trick Worm, with a ½-ounce tungsten unpegged weight and a big, heavy flippin’ hook on 22-pound Sunline Shooter . Big rod, big line, big hook, big bait. Just set the hook and flip ‘em in the boat – none of this netting stuff.

“I caught fish shaking a minnow this week, but they weren’t the right ones,” Teply added. “I just couldn’t catch the right ones on it. The bait had to be fished on the bottom and fished very slowly. I had to quit looking at that screen and just drag that bait.”

The top three boaters who qualified for the 2026 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:        Joshua Teply, Harrah, Okla., 10 bass, 38-14, $50,000
2nd:       Derek Felton, Shell Knob, Mo., 10 bass, 36-0, $9,268 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Brandon Ackerson, Afton, Okla., 10 bass, 32-0, $4,422

Rounding out the top 10 boaters were:

4th:        Cody Miller, Shell Knob, Mo., 10 bass, 30-0, $3,783
5th:        David Youngblood, Owasso, Okla., 10 bass, 29-14, $1,814
6th:        Jeremy Johnson, Sapulpa, Okla., 10 bass, 28-14, $1,640
7th:        Kolton Dauber, Osage Beach, Mo., 10 bass, 28-6, $1,466
8th:        William Gaddis, Afton, Okla., 10 bass, 28-5, $1,293
9th:        Micah Littlejohn, Grove, Okla., 10 bass, 27-14, $1,119
10th:     Scott Ross, Claremore, Okla., 10 bass, 27-10, $1,032

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Cody Miller of Shell Knob, Missouri, won the Berkley Big Bass Boater award and $1,000 for landing a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces – the biggest of the tournament.

Scott Stallings of Glencoe, Oklahoma, won the co-angler division Saturday after bringing a two-day total of six bass weighing 19 pounds, 8 ounces, to the scale. Stallings earned the top co-angler award of $17,421 for his victory.

The top three co-anglers who qualified for the 2026 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:        Scott Stallings, Glencoe, Okla., six bass, 19-8, $17,421
2nd:       Jordan Clayton, Wichita Falls, Texas, six bass, 17-0, $4,382
3rd:       Mark Taylor, Oklahoma City, Okla., six bass, 15-14, $2,309

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers were:

4th:        Tad Harp, Cave Springs, Ark., six bass, 15-6, $1,340
5th:        Eian Odle, Willow Springs, Mo., six bass, 14-13, $905
6th:        Caleb Arterberry, Republic, Mo., six bass, 14-8, $818
7th:        Kaleb O’Brien, Wagoner, Okla., six bass, 14-7, $731
8th:        Steve Cummins, Bartlesville, Okla., six bass, 14-6, $645
9th:        J.P. Northcutt, Grove, Okla., six bass, 14-4, $558
10th:     Clay Tresler, Fayetteville, Ark., six bass, 14-3, $514

Scott Stallings of Glencoe, Oklahoma, and Donnie Agnew of Farmington, Missouri, each caught a bass that weighed 3 pounds, 12 ounces, to split the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award worth $500.

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 tournament winners, now 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 43rd annual BFL All-American. The BFL All-American will take place May 28-30, 2026, at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, and is hosted by the Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board.

Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew Coffee, 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, PirahnO2, 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 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, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV and Game & Fish TV, 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.