Kentucky’s Luken Wins Co-Angler Division

SANDUSKY, Ohio (Aug. 17, 2026) – Boater Brandon Smith of Mason, Ohio, caught a total of five bass weighing 21 pounds, 15 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Erie. The tournament was the fourth of five events of the season for the BFL Buckeye Division. Smith earned $3,340 for his victory.

“In typical Erie fashion, we left the bay and Erie was way rougher than it was supposed to be,” Smith said. “It took an hour and a half to run 40-plus miles across the lake like most of us do. I got to my starting spot, which was pretty much one area I had found the day before. The area was about the size of a football field. I turned on my (Garmin) LiveScope and pretty much in the first couple of minutes caught a 2½-pounder and five minutes later caught a 3-pounder, and I just upgraded from there. I had a limit of 17 pounds in the first 45 minutes to an hour.”

Smith targeted smallmouth in the 25- to 30-foot range where the larger bass tend to hold this time of year. He said he caught all of his fish on a Berkley Powerbait MaxScent Flat Worm, and the color didn’t seem to matter – as long as it was green pumpkin, black or goby – traditional successful Erie colors. He said he rotated colors as he moved through rock piles to change up the look.

Smith said he kept upgrading a pound at a time every time he caught a smallmouth and added a 5-pounder and several that weighed 4 pounds to his bag.

“As I had to turn my ‘Scope off, I set myself up on a rock vein I had caught a couple on,” Smith said. “I ended up catching my last one without my ‘Scope that got me up to 21 pounds there at the end of the day. And my co-angler ended up catching one there that was the big bass on the co-angler side. So that was good.”

Smith said Erie is the kind of fishery where anyone can win if they commit to making the run out into the lake – fighting the waves to catch a large bag of smallmouth when you find a “magical” area that holds a good number of the roaming bass.

“Any time you can get over 20 pounds on Erie you’re OK,” Smith said. “I knew when I had 17 pounds I had a check. When I got to 19 pounds I thought I would be close to a top-five finish. When I got to 20 pounds, I thought I was doing really well. Then when I got to 21 pounds I thought I had a chance at the win. But it’s Erie. You never know what can happen on the Great Lakes.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Brandon Smith, Mason, Ohio, five bass, 21-15, $3,340
2nd:      Drew Six, Clinton, Ohio, five bass, 21-1, $1,880
3rd:       Codea McCathran, Mansfield, Ohio, five bass, 20-3, $850
4th:       Eric Cook, Marblehead, Ohio, five bass, 19-11, $680
5th:       Sean Wieda, Alexandria, Ky., five bass, 19-8, $600
6th:       Pat Upthagrove, Monroe, Mich., five bass, 19-4, $620
7th:       Wilson Burton, Findlay, Ohio, five bass, 18-7, $1,000 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
8th:       John Decessna, Perrysburg, Ohio, five bass, 18-5, $480
9th:       Jesse Hickman, Waynesville, Ohio, four bass, 17-4, $610
10th:     Hunter Colwell, Zanesfield, Ohio, five bass, 16-7, $430

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Drew Six of Clinton, Ohio, earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 6-pound, 8-ounce bass worth $200.

Matt Luken of Independence, Kentucky, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,670 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 8 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Matt Luken, Independence, Ky., three bass, 12-8, $1,670
2nd:      Terry Bucciarelli, Ypsilanti, Mich., three bass, 12-4, $990
3rd:       Jim Feathers, Vermilion, Ohio, three bass, 11-13, $425
4th:       Kayden Madden, Greenville, Ohio, three bass, 10-9, $340
5th:       Alex Richardson, Cincinnati, Ohio, three bass, 10-7, $300
6th:       Dylan Phillips, Albany, Ohio, three bass, 9-8, $260
7th:       Chad McQueen, Fairfield, Ohio, three bass, 9-3, $250
8th:       Jordan Smith, Middletown, Ohio, three bass, 9-2, $240
9th:       James Larosa, Boyers, Penn., three bass, 8-12, $230
10th:     Jason Stock, Maineville, Ohio, two bass, 8-10, $215

Daniel Beckner of Huntington, West Virginia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 5-pound, 6-ounce bass worth $100.

After four events, Chris Martinkovic of Hamilton, Ohio, now leads the 7 Brew Buckeye Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 961 points, while Austin Herbst of Hamilton, Ohio, leads the Buckeye Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 939 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. 8-10 BFL Regional tournament on the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland. 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 2027 BFL All-American will take place June 5-7, at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and is hosted by Experience Kissimmee.

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, PiranhO2, 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.