Sedalia’s Green Tops Co-Angler Division

LEXINGTON, N.C. (April 14, 2025) – Boater Austin Garland of Kernersville, North Carolina, caught a five-bass limit weighing 27 pounds, 1 ounce, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on High Rock Lake. The tournament was the third event of the season for the BFL North Carolina Division. Garland earned $3,545 for his victory.

What a pleasant surprise it was for Garland to see 27-1 pop up on the weigh-in scale. He thought he only had about 20 pounds. But, when you fish like Garland does, you tend to put some impressive weights on the scale.

“I fish to win,” Garland said. “I don’t get a lot of bites – I might get five, six, seven bites a day. But I’m just trying to catch the biggest ones, I guess. I had like seven bites (on Saturday).”

Garland fished a little bit old school, power-fishing in staging areas that he’s discovered over the years on High Rock.

“It’s an area deal,” he added. “It’s not just going down the bank. I’m hitting certain areas, and it may be a dock in the mouth of a pocket kind of on the main lake going in. Just staging areas. I didn’t catch anything in the pockets.”

Garland says that at High Rock, success really comes down to timing. You can fish a stretch of great docks at 8 and not get a bite, then come back at noon and catch 20 pounds. When he lost two fish early, he thought he’d missed the window and lost the tournament, but he kept his head down and kept grinding and it all worked out. He put an impressive stringer in the box then never got another bite after 1 p.m. To him, it was just his day.

“I’m a little shook up,” he added. “It’s not the biggest tournament, but it’s still hard to win in a BFL. There are some good anglers. They’re not slouches by any means. I’m fishing the NPFL this year, too. It’s my first year. My mom (Amy) passed last September. I get upset talking about it, but I more or less did it for her. That’s why I’m fishing the NPFL. She always wanted me to do it. I’m just doing it to make her proud. And I do it because I love doing it. I wanted to win it for her.”

The top 11 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Austin Garland, Kernersville, N.C., five bass, 27-1, $3,545
2nd:      Kaden Buchmann, Troutman, N.C., five bass, 24-0, $1,773
3rd:       Jason Barnes, Concord, N.C., five bass, 22-4, $1,806 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
4th:        Travis Donaldson, Cleveland, N.C., five bass, 22-0, $827
5th:        Chad Poteat, Mount Airy, N.C., five bass, 18-15, $1,154
6th:        Scott Beattie, Sherrills Ford, N.C., five bass, 18-14, $650
7th:        Austin Wike, Salisbury, N.C., five bass, 18-12, $591
8th:        Robert Walser, Lexington, N.C., five bass, 18-11, $532
9th:        Chad Sims, Lancaster, S.C., five bass, 18-10, $419
9th:        David Bright, Mooresville, N.C., five bass, 18-10, $419
9th:        Tommy Jones, Salisbury, N.C., five bass, 18-10, $419

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Chad Poteat of Mount Airy, North Carolina, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $445.

Robert Green of Sedalia, North Carolina, won the co-angler division and $2,395 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 6 ounces.

The top 11 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Robert Green, Sedalia, N.C., three bass, 12-6, $2,395
2nd:      Jared Jones, Denver, N.C., three bass, 10-12, $886
3rd:       Stephen Barr, Wilmington, N.C., three bass, 10-10, $591
4th:        Charles Wood, Thomasville, N.C., three bass, 10-1, $414
5th:        Sean Tobatto, Greensboro, N.C., three bass, 9-11, $355
6th:        Billy Taylor, Newton, N.C., three bass, 9-6, $325
7th:        Trevor Lewis, Wake Forest, N.C., three bass, 9-5, $295
8th:        Joseph Faile, Dallas, N.C., three bass, 9-1, $266
9th:        Felix Snyder, Lexington, N.C., three bass, 8-12, $236
10th:     Paul Brittain, Icard, N.C., three bass, 8-10, $196
10th:     Benjamin Warner, Laurel Springs, N.C., three bass, 8-10, $196

Robert Green of Sedalia, North Carolina, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $222, catching a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After three events, Kaden Buchmann of Troutman, North Carolina, now leads the Fishing Clash North Carolina Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 736 points, while Travis Ruff of Connelly Springs, North Carolina, leads the Fishing Clash North Carolina Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 728 points.

The next event for BFL North Carolina Division anglers will be held May 3, at Kerr Lake in Henderson, North Carolina. 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. 10-11 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina. 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 Sports 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.