San Antonio’s Higgs Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

BROOKELAND, Texas. (Sept. 9, 2024) – Boater Zane Parker of Kingwood, Texas, caught a two-day total of six bass weighing 28 pounds, 8 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on Sam Rayburn Reservoir, which concluded Sunday. Hosted by the Jasper County Development District, the tournament was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Cowboy Division. Parker earned $6,175 for his victory.

At just 19 years old and a recent graduate, Parker is kicking off his fishing career in a big way. He finished fourth in the Toyota Series Southwestern Division Angler of the Year standings, earning a pair of top-10 finishes along the way. And now he’s added a BFL Super Tournament victory.

“Going into this, I was just hoping I could get me a top-10 finish,” he said. “I always like looking on the MLF app and seeing how many top 10s people have. I didn’t expect to get the win, but I definitely tried to go win it. Now I’m just gonna go back home and go work.”

BFL anglers were limited to just three keepers each day at Sam Rayburn to help protect the resource in the late-summer heat. Parker definitely had that regulation and the wind forecast in mind when he was preparing.

“You really don’t have to go search for a quick limit and then maybe catch a good one on the way,” he said of the three-fish limit. “You can search for big ones because you only need three bites. It makes you fish some different stuff as well as targeting bigger fish.

“I had a really good pattern on the other side of the lake, but it was really, really windy yesterday (Saturday) and today, and I had to stay on this side of the lake. So I was limited to what I could fish. I knew that going into practice, so I marked all the brush that wasn’t going to be in the wind.”

Parker spent the tournament covering water and fishing through about 40 brush piles in 15 to 20 feet of water. By staying in protected areas, he was able to fish the piles more easily using a 6th Sense Divine Shakey Worm and a 6th Sense Provoke 106DD jerkbait.

He opened the tournament in second place after Day 1, just 1 ounce behind day-one leader Zack Fogle, and was able to close it out thanks to a key big fish.

“Today (Sunday) I caught my big one, which was a 6 1/2-pounder, at 1:35 at the end of the day, and that was a real clutch fish. I caught that one on a jerkbait in a pile,” he added. “About 20 minutes before weigh-in I jumped off about a 4-pounder. I thought I just lost the tournament. I thought it was over. I’m not going to lie, I went in and I thought I dropped the ball.”

Turns out, it was meant to be for Parker, as he closed out a stellar post-graduate season with a W.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Zane Parker, Kingwood, Texas, six fish, 28-8, $6,175
2nd:       Zack Fogle, Longview, Texas, six fish, 27-2, $4,435 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Jacob Keith, Jefferson, Texas, six bass, 25-0, $2,060
4th:        Justin Morton, Etoile, Texas, six bass, 23-6, $1,441
5th:        Brandon McDonald, Longview, Texas, six bass, 23-1, $1,235
6th:        Cody Ross, Livingston, Texas, six bass, 22-9, $1,132
7th:        Wesley Baxley, Cypress, Texas, six bass, 22-1, $1,029
8th:        Bryan McDonough, Brookeland, Texas, six bass, 21-10, $926
9th:        Bobby Vice, Orange, Texas, six bass, 21-8, $823
10th:     Dicky Newberry, Houston, Texas, six bass, 20-6, $720

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Zack Fogle of Longview, Texas, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $847.

Jeffrey Higgs of San Antonio, Texas, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,033 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of six bass to the scale that weighed 18 pounds, 5 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Jeffrey Higgs, San Antonio, Texas, six bass, 18-5, $3,033
2nd:       Ray Welch, Benton, La., six bass, 18-0, $1,517
3rd:       William Easley, Pollok, Texas, six bass, 16-9, $1,010
4th:        John Hatton, Buna, Texas, six bass, 15-14, $708
5th:        Richard Garcia, Hemphill, Texas, six bass, 15-3, $607
6th:        Michael Glynn, Boerne, Texas, six bass, 14-15, $556
7th:        Grant Pursifull, Princeton, Texas, six bass, 14-12, $922
8th:        Nicholas England, Alexandria, La., six bass, 14-6, $455
9th:        Colton Caskey, Campti, La., five bass, 14-2, $404
10th:     Jay Ferguson, Houston, Texas, six bass, 13-15, $354

Grant Pursifull of Princeton, Texas, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $416, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 4 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

At the conclusion of the event, Tater Reynolds of Florien, Louisiana, was crowned the Fishing Clash Cowboy Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,312 points and earned the $1,000 prize, while Allen Musser of Ada, Oklahoma, won the Fishing Clash Cowboy Division Co-angler of the Year race and the $500 payout with 1,327 points.

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. 17-19 BFL Regional tournament on Wright Patman Lake in Texarkana, Texas. 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.