GROVE, Okla. (Oct. 26, 2026) – Boater Roger Fitzpatrick of Eldon, Missouri, caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 50 pounds, 5 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Grand Lake. The tournament, hosted by the City of Grove, concluded Saturday. For his win, Fitzpatrick earned a prize package valued at $50,000, including a Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard worth $50,000.

The Grand Lake event served as the Regional championship for the BFL Arkie, Cowboy, Great Lakes and Ozark divisions. The field included the top 45 boaters and co-anglers in each division based on point standings, plus each division’s tournament winners. The top seven boaters and co-anglers at each regional and the Wild Card qualify for the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American. The highest-finishing boater and co-angler from each regional and the Wild Card at the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American qualify for the 2027 Toyota Series Championship. The 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American boater champion qualifies for REDCREST 2028.

Fitzpatrick said he was very pleased by what he found during his practice period for the Regional championship – fishing was exceptional and every day he caught limits in the high teens to 20 pounds.

“In a nutshell, practice was very good, especially for this time of year,” Fitzpatrick said. “The bite seemed to be better from mid-lake down toward the dam.”

Fitzpatrick found a pattern fishing boat docks with 7/8- and 1-ounce versions of an Omega Pro Mega Structure Jig with a Bojangles Baits Z-Daddy trailer. He said he also caught one key fish Day 2 and two key fish on Day 3 on a glide bait.

“The fishing was so good I caught them from the backs of the creeks all the way to the main channel,” Fitzpatrick said. “My (Garmin) LiveScope helped. You could see which docks had fish and which ones didn’t. And they were holding pretty tight to those docks.”

On the first day of the tournament the fish continued to bite for Fitzpatrick, and he weighed 18-13 despite losing a solid fish during the day. Day 2, however, was a different story.

“I have no explanation for what happened,” Fitzpatrick said. “I only caught seven all day, and I didn’t have a limit until 2 o’clock. I just couldn’t get a bite.

“I went from thinking ‘I’m going to make the All-American for sure’ on the first day of practice, to going into Day 3 with some questions,” Fitzpatrick went on to say. “If my last day started like Day 2, I was probably going to scrap my plan and have to rely on fishing history – things I had fished in the past.”

Fitzpatrick ended up going to a row of docks he hadn’t fished since his practice and caught a limit to settle him down and finish the day confidently.

“At that point I figured I had probably made the All-American and just needed to fish for big fish after that,” Fitzpatrick said. “Thankfully, it all worked out.”

Earlier in the day on Saturday Fitzpatrick lost a 5-pounder and figured that fish had cost him a chance at winning the Regional championship.

“I thought I was a fish away,” Fitzpatrick said. “I didn’t expect the guys ahead of me to falter. I mean, the fish bit Saturday. So, taking home the win after losing that big bite was a bit of a surprise.”

The top seven boaters who qualified for the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:          Roger Fitzpatrick, Eldon, Mo., 15 bass, 50-5, $50,000
2nd:        TJ Martin, Claremore, Okla., 15 bass, 49-0, $10,220 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Bonus)
3rd:         Dale Andrews, Jay, Okla., 15 bass, 48-8, $3,570
4th:         Chase Fitzpatrick, St. Louis, Mo., 15 bass, 48-0, $2,140
5th:         Adam Boehle, Warrenton, Mo., 15 bass, 47-15, $1,530
6th:         Justin Luetkemeyer, Lake Ozark, Mo., 15 bass, 46-0, $1,280
7th:         Chris Darby, Hot Springs, Ark., 15 bass, 45-5, $1,140

The remaining top 10 finished:

8th:         Travis Spears, Anderson, Mo., 15 bass, 44-4, $1,000
9th:         Matt Baker, Glenwood, Ark., 15 bass, 43-9, $850
10th:       Travis Mosley, Benton, Ark., 15 bass, 42-3, $1,060

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Travis Mosley of Benton, Arkansas, won the Berkley Big Bass Boater award and $350 for landing a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 1 ounce, the biggest of the tournament.

Dylan Mickle of Claremore, Oklahoma, won the co-angler division Saturday after bringing a three-day total of nine bass weighing 25 pounds, 4 ounces, to the scale. Mickle earned the top co-angler award of a Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500.

The top seven co-anglers who qualified for the 2027 Phoenix BFL All-American finished:

1st:         Dylan Mickle, Claremore, Okla., nine bass, 25-4, $33,500
2nd:        Darrin Wood, Rochester, Minn., nine bass, 23-9, $4,860
3rd:         Ron Knight, Hot Springs Village, Ark., eight bass, 23-2, $1,785
4th:         Alan Bernicky, Dardanelle, Ark., nine bass, 22-9, $1,220
5th:         Blake Miller, Cedar Falls, Iowa, eight bass, 21-13, $715
6th:         Connor Richmond, Cleveland, Okla., nine bass, 21-3, $640
7th:         James Edmonds, Hot Springs Village, Ark., nine bass, 20-5, $570

The remaining top 10 finished:

8th:         Charlie Saucier, Marrero, La., eight bass, 19-12, $500
9th:         Grant Denbow, Springfield, Mo., seven bass, 18-14, $430
10th:       Steven Fisher, Nacogdoches, Texas, seven bass, 17-4, $355

Wesley Pigeon of Randolph, Wisconsin, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces, to win the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award worth $175.

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 Nicotine Pouches, 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.