Grose, of Nettie, West Virginia, Wins Strike King Co-Angler Division

HUDDLESTON, Va. (April 8, 2024) – Boater Chris Brummett of Lynch Station, Virginia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 27 pounds, 9 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Smith Mountain Lake. The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Shenandoah Division. Brummett earned $7,701 for his victory.

After 12 top-10 finishes in BFL competition, Brummett finally earned his first win. And he did it in a very loud way. His impressive 27-pound, 9-ounce limit was nearly 6 pounds better than second place.

Not only that, but Brummett didn’t even need the whole day to get it done.

“I put all the rods up at 1:30, and I took my co-angler for a ‘guide trip,’” he joked.

Before the tournament, a wave of bass had moved up to spawn, but then a cold front swept through and pushed most of those fish off the beds.

“There were so many empty beds during practice,” Brummett said. “It pushed them off to isolated cover – anything rock-related.”

Luckily for Brummett, not every bass abandoned the bed. At the very end of his practice, he found a little bit of Smith Mountain gold – a 4 1/2-pounder on a bed, with another fish swimming nearby that he figured was about 7 pounds.

“I was boat 183, and I figured there was no way I would get to that fish first,” he said. “And I rolled up there and my very first cast with the jig was an 8-pounder. My second cast was with a drop-shot, and the 4 1/2-pounder ate the drop-shot. I set the hook but the fish came off. So, I put another worm on and threw it over and he ate it again and came in the boat.”

The 8-pounder was the Berkley Big Bass for the day.

Brummett spent the rest of the day hitting isolated targets. It was mostly rock under and around boat docks.

“It’s not very big stuff, so not everybody knows where it is,” he said.

Brummett also hit a couple rare isolated patches of hydrilla. It’s all stuff he’s found while fishing the lake over the years.

“I probably fished 25 of those types of spots today for 6 bites,” Brummett added.

To catch his final bass, Brummett pitched a jig up under a dock to a rock vein.

“I actually cast under that dock six times and finally that fish bit,” he said. “But when that fish bit, I put that one in the boat, and it was a 6-pounder. I traded a 6 for a 2.75, and that upgraded me to 27 and change. That’s when I put my rods up.”

The top 11 boaters finished the tournament:

1st: Chris Brummett, Lynch Station, Va., five bass, 27-9, $7,701
2nd: Zach Peaslee, Draper, Va., five bass, 21-12, $2,960
3rd: Wyatt Kelley, Altavista, Va., five bass, 20-6, $1,974
4th: Brandon Pritchett, Goode, Va., five bass, 20-0, $1,382
5th: Chris Daves, Spring Grove, Va., five bass, 19-12, $1,184
6th: Todd Langford, Great Falls, Va., five bass, 18-11, $1,585 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
7th: Bryan Elrod, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 18-1, $987
8th: Michael Taylor, Sandston, Va., five bass, 17-5, $888
9th: Stefan Ward, Wirtz, Va., five bass, 17-4, $789
10th: Robert Lee, Covington, Va., five bass, 16-15, $656
10th: Brandon Gray, Bullock, N.C., five bass, 16-15, $656

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Brummett caught a bass that weighed 8 pounds even and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $980.

Mason Grose of Nettie, West Virginia, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,437 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 18 pounds, 4 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st: Mason Grose, Nettie, W.Va., five bass, 18-4, $3,437
2nd: James (Boo) Burtner, Penn Laird, Va., five bass, 15-13, $1,476
3rd: Ben Dacey, Powhatan, Va., five bass, 15-4, $1,134
4th: Cody Howard, Snow Hill, N.C., five bass, 13-8, $689
5th: Konnor Sweet, Abingdon, Va., five bass, 13-3, $590
6th: Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va., five bass, 12-12, $541
7th: Dan Garner, Littleton, N.C., four bass, 12-4, $492
8th: Ryan Lemmon, Mount Pleasant, Pa., four bass, 11-10, $443
9th: Jonathan Ceaser, Maidens, Va., three bass, 11-2, $369
9th: William Lisenby, Centreville, Va., five bass, 11-2, $369

Mason Grose of Nettie, West Virginia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $485, catching a bass that weighed in at 8 pounds, 11 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

The next event for BFL Shenandoah Division anglers will be held May 11, at the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 3-5 BFL Regional tournament on Kerr Lake in Henderson, North Carolina. 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.

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, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota 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.