Ypsilanti’s Bucciarelli Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

TRENTON, Mich. (Sept. 23, 2024) – Boater Nolan Mandel of Harrison Township, Michigan, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 46 pounds, 5 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on the Detroit River . The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Michigan Division. Mandel earned $12,077, including the lucrative $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.

It’s been a banner season for Mandel, to put it lightly. He finished in the top 10 in all five Michigan Division events, including wins in the opener and the Super Tournament. Between his regular tournament winnings and Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus dollars, Mandel earned more than $25,000 just in Michigan Division tournaments this season. He also won the Fishing Clash Michigan Division Angler of the Year title in a stacked division of big-water smallmouth anglers.

Of course, what you don’t see in the stats are the unique challenges tournament anglers face. For Mandel, a bad case of food poisoning derailed most of his plans to dissect the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair during Super Tournament practice. Thankfully, he didn’t need much practice time on Friday to figure out where to start the tournament.

“I was fishing and saw a lot of perch fishermen in this section of the lake called the dumping grounds,” he said. “I thought, I’m just going to go try out there because there’s all these perch fishermen, and that’s a pretty good sign. I went out there and took one cast with a jerkbait on a hump and caught a 5-pounder.”

In the tournament, Mandel ran to his starting area and began trying to put together a bag using live sonar. It became clear very quickly that he needed to make an adjustment.

“I wasn’t seeing anything, so I started using heavier weighted Ned rigs and heavier weighted drop-shots. I used 1/2 and 5/8 ounce to get down in the grass. I started catching them doing that.”

Mandel’s go-to baits were a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General and a Z-Man Scented TRD . If he did mark fish on live sonar, he threw a small swimbait at them. But mostly he used the heavy drop-shot and Ned rigs to pitch to holes in the grass or thicker clumps of grass. The clumps were spots where he knew he wouldn’t be able to see fish on live sonar, but where they might be set up.

“I fished two spots,” Mandel said. “One was anywhere from like 16 to 18 feet deep, and then the other area was around 12 foot but had humps that came up to 8 feet of water. I probably covered two miles of water, but I had like four or five different humps that were either thick grass or bald that I would kind of rotate through.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:       Nolan Mandel, Harrison Township, Mich., 10 bass, 46-5, $12,077 (includes $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:        Dan Mittlestat, Woodhaven, Mich., 10 bass, 44-11, $2,839
3rd:         Brayden Federer, Adrian, Mich., 10 bass, 44-3, $1,694
4th:         Cody Kelley, Plainwell, Mich., 10 bass, 43-1, $1,822
5th:         Noah Stauffer, Gowen, Mich., 10 bass, 41-5, $1,015
6th:         Jeff Vizachero, Grosse Ile, Mich., 10 bass, 41-1, $931
7th:         Wilson Burton, Findlay, Ohio, 10 bass, 39-0, $846
8th:         Pat Upthagrove, Monroe, Mich., 10 bass, 38-14, $762
9th:         Matthew Davis, Morenci, Mich., 10 bass, 38-9, $677
10th:       Shane Nelson, Wadsworth, Ohio, 10 bass, 36-13, $592

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Cody Kelley of Plainwell, Michigan, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $637.

Terry Bucciarelli of Ypsilanti, Michigan, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,082 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale that weighed 39 pounds, 6 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:         Terry Bucciarelli, Ypsilanti, Mich., 10 bass, 39-6, $3,082
2nd:        Tommy Pritchard, Bargersville, Ind., eight bass, 36-14, $1,266
3rd:         Craig Fanning, Elwood, Ill., 10 bass, 36-2, $846
4th:         Dayton Land, Coatesville, Ind., 10 bass, 33-6, $591
5th:         Michael Sitko, Pinckney, Mich., 10 bass, 33-0, $506
6th:         John Wall, Western Springs, Ill., nine bass, 32-13, $464
7th:         Ashten Lynch, Waynesville, Ohio, 10 bass, 32-9, $422
8th:         Brian Townley, Wyoming, Mich., nine bass, 31-4, $380
9th:         Daniel Dumais, Trenton, Mich., 10 bass, 30-5, $338
10th:       Kendra Mueller, Fowlerville, Mich., eight bass, 27-13, $295

Jon Angstmann of St. Marys, Ohio, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $311, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Mandel was crowned the Fishing Clash Michigan Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,364 points to take home the $1,000 payout, while Scott Davis of Morenci, Michigan, won the Fishing Clash Michigan Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,339 points and earned the $500 prize.

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. 10-12 BFL Regional tournament on Pools 13-17 of the Mississippi River in Quad Cities, Illinois. 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.