Alabama’s Wiggins Tops Leaderboard in Co-Angler Division

CLANTON, Ala. (March 16, 2026) – Boater Keith Marston of Mobile, Alabama, caught a total of five bass weighing 18 pounds even to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Mitchell. The tournament was the third of five events of the season for the BFL Bama Division. Marston earned $3,260 for his victory.

“I’ve fished Mitchell for about 15 years,” Marston said. “It’s just a fun place to fish where you can always go catch a lot of fish. I usually go up there this time of year and spend a couple of days there.

“I prefished Thursday afternoon in a gale-force wind and didn’t learn much of anything,” Marston continued. “The temperature fell overnight and the water temperature fell six or seven degrees, so Friday I didn’t learn much, neither.”

Marston said his plan for tournament day was to make a run up to a creek mouth, near the dam where he caught a good fish in practice. After an hour of fog delay, the field was released to fish and Marston headed for the creek mouth. The spot didn’t produce, however, and Marston was forced to run back south to some islands below the dam he had never fished before.

“I threw my shaky head up there on the point of an island that had current running around it, and I caught a 6-5 largemouth,” Marston said. “It was just being at the right place at the right time. It was a fight on a spinning rod.”

Marston’s shaky head rig consisted of an Owner Shakey Ultrahead and a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw. Marston also mixed up his presentation with a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver.

After 30 minutes of inactivity, Marston returned to midlake to fish rocks and bulkheads. That strategy paid off, as Marston finished his limit then began to run the lake trying to cull smaller fish. Moving water forced Marston to go heavier with his bait, and he chose a War Eagle jig.

“We had about an hour to go and I knew I had about 16½ pounds, and I asked my co-angler if he wanted to run back up to the creek mouth below the dam,” Marston said. “We ran up there and he culled a fish and then I stuck one about 3¼ pounds. I culled out a 2 ½-pounder, and it gave me just enough to eke out a win.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Keith Marston, Mobile, Alabama., five bass, 18-0, $3,260
2nd:      Blake Davenport, Jemison, Ala., five bass, 17-13, $1,500
3rd:       James Willoughby, Gulfport, Miss., five bass, 16-8, $770
4th:        Robert Pelt II, Montgomery, Ala., five bass, 16-7, $585
4th:        Tyler Wesley, Pinson, Ala., five bass, 16-7, $585
6th:        Kevin Jackson, Eufaula, Ala., five bass, 15-9, $480
7th:        Mark McCaig, Oxford, Ala., five bass, 15-6, $960 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
8th:        David Parsons, Dothan, Ala., five bass, 15-5, $440
9th:        Chris Allen, Wedowee, Ala., five bass, 14-3, $420
10th:     Phillip Herring, Richton, Miss., five bass, 13-15, $410

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Marston earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award with his 6-pound, 5-ounce bass, worth an extra $200.

Randy Wiggins of Birmingham, Alabama, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,440 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 10 pounds, 1 ounce.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Randy Wiggins, Birmingham, Ala., three bass, 10-1, $1,440
2nd:      Michael Donaldson, Thorsby, Ala., three bass, 9-11, $710
3rd:       Jim Jeter, Birmingham, Ala., three bass, 9-5, $370
4th:        John Bryan, Carrollton, Ga., three bass, 9-0, $265
4th:        Raymond Sturz, Opelika, Ala., three bass, 9-0, $265
4th:        Phillip Easterling, Clanton, Ala., three bass, 9-0, $265
7th:        Rodney Graham, Childersburg, Ala., three bass, 8-12, $230
8th:        David Rhudy, Calera, Ala., three bass, 8-11, $215
9th:        Jeffrey Ford, Trion, Ga, three bass, 8-9, $210
10th:     Scott Noles, Woodland, Ala., three bass, 8-8, $200

Brian Lasiter of Kinston, Alabama, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 3-pound, 15-ounce bass worth $100.

After three events, Blake Davenport of Jemison, Alabama, now leads the 7 Brew Bama Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 724 points, while Jeffrey Ford of Trion, Georgia, leads the Bama Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 736 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 Watts Bar Lake in Spring City, Tennessee. 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, CBS Sports Network, 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.