Missouri’s Falter Earns Victory in Co-Angler Division

WARSAW, Mo. (May 4, 2026) – Boater Tom Silber of Labadie, Missouri, caught a total of five bass weighing 18 pounds, 13 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake of the Ozarks. The tournament was the third of five events of the season for the BFL Ozark Division. Silber earned $2,710 for his victory.

“I’ve fished the river my whole life, so I know it pretty well, and I know most of the creeks are spring fed,” Silber said. “While most of the place was dirty water, those spring-fed creeks tend to clear up. So, I went into the creeks where the water was the right color for me.”

Silber said he had found fish on docks in three feet of water, but after an hour of fishing without a bite, he was stumped as to what had changed.

“I threw my spinnerbait up on the bank, and something hit it as soon as it hit the water,” Silber said. “I missed him, so I threw my jig up there and caught him. He was like in six inches of water.”

Silber said he changed his approach to targeting spawning fish he couldn’t see in less than a foot of water.

“I missed one fish with two or three hours left to go and went back to try to catch it again, because it was a 3- or 3½-pounder,” Silber said. “And I caught it, but it turned out to be 5-7. And that was my last pitch of the day with 25 minutes left.”

Silber said he caught all of his fish on a black and blue jig between the 65- and 75-mile markers.

“Toward the end I had around 16½ pounds and knew if I could get one more 4- to 5-pounder I could have a pretty good chance at winning,” Silber said. “And this win has been a long time coming. I’m a river guy. Put me in dirty, shallow water. That’s my thing.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Tom Silber, Labadie, Mo., five bass, 18-13, $2,710
2nd:      Dennis Berhorst, Holts Summit, Mo., five bass, 17-13, $1,750 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
3rd:       Trevor Barlett, Grain Valley, Mo., five bass, 17-8, $670
4th:        Corbin Bailey, Camdenton, Mo., five bass, 17-6, $550
5th:        Kolton Dauber, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 17-5, $490
6th:        Danny Burns, Nixa, Mo., five bass, 16-13, $430
7th:        Adam Boehle, Warrenton, Mo., five bass, 16-2, $420
8th:        Chase Fitzpatrick, Saint Louis, Mo., five bass, 14-14, $410
9th:        Roger Hughes, Nowata, Okla., five bass, 14-7, $385
9th:        Ryan Stagner, Robertsville, Mo., five bass, 14-7, $385

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Silber also earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 5-pound, 7-ounce bass worth $200.

Josh Falter of Dixon, Missouri, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,205 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 9 pounds, 15 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Josh Falter, Dixon, Mo., three bass, 9-15, $1,205
2nd:      Grant Denbow, Springfield, Mo., three bass, 9-6, $725
3rd:       Peyton Keathley, Kansas City, Mo., three bass, 8-1, $335
4th:        Jacob Sloan, Paola, Kan., three bass, 7-11, $260
4th:        Troy Stumfoll, Fort Scott, Kan., three bass, 7-11, $260
6th:        Dylan Mickle, Claremore, Okla., three bass, 7-6, $215
7th:        Vincent Jones, Robertsville, Mo., three bass, 7-2, $207
7th:        Benjamin Wells, Nixa, Mo., three bass, 7-2, $207
9th:        Jeff Moss, Oronogo, Mo, three bass, 7-0, $300
10th:     Donnie Agnew, Farmington, Mo., three bass, 6-12, $190

Grant Denbow of Springfield, Missouri, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 4-pound, 5-ounce bass worth $100.

After three events, Cody Miller of Shell Knob, Missouri, now leads the 7 Brew Ozark Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 736 points, while Thad Hewitt of Delaware, Oklahoma, leads the Ozark Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 731 points.

The top 45 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. 22-24 BFL Regional tournament on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. 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 prize of a new Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500.

The 2026 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 co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top seven, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2026 BFL All-American will take place May 28-30, at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, and is hosted by Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, Mystik Lubricants, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

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, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, 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.