Indiana’s Ruster Wins Co-Angler Division

GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (March 2, 2026) – Boater Drew Morgan of Murray, Kentucky, caught a total of five bass weighing 23 pounds, 10 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Kentucky-Barkley Lake. The tournament, hosted by Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, was the first of five events of the season for the BFL LBL Division. Morgan earned $3,530 for his victory.

“During practice I did a bunch of looking around, practicing for not being able to use forward-facing sonar the whole day,” Morgan said. “So, I was going around marking exactly where my boat needed to be set up. And I was waypointing what I was actually casting at, whether it was a stump, rock pile, brush or a school of fish still in that winter schooling action that’s still going on. I found a handful of spots that had a good population of fish in an area, and a lot of it had to do with the current and the fish setting up correctly.”

Morgan said he hit his first spot and left his forward-facing sonar off to see if he could catch fish without it. He caught three on a swimbait right off the bat then relocated to his second spot and turned on his Garmin LiveScope. After about 45 minutes of fishing, he had boosted his weight to about 22 pounds.

Morgan said he fished from Paris Landing to the dam and threw a crankbait as well as an Alabama rig during his non-scope time purely for the fish-drawing power of the A-rig.  He tried a 4.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbait both with and without the aid of LiveScope. His main producer, however, was a ¼-ounce jighead and a Rapala Crush City Freeloader . Morgan said when he reached 22 pounds he thought he might have a chance at winning the tournament but still felt someone would have a 23-pound bag.

“At 10:45 I caught a 4¾-pound fish that put me at 23-10, and then I didn’t catch a fish the rest of the day,” Morgan said. “Fishing without the ’Scope for about an hour I knew it was over for me. I had done about all I could do. All I could do was get on them fast and catch what I could catch. It was almost like it was a three-hour tournament for me.”

The win is Morgan’s second BFL win, with the first coming on Kentucky-Barkley Lake in April 2024.

“To win here is a pretty special feeling,” Morgan said. “Especially with the competition in the LBL division. It’s pretty stout.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Drew Morgan, Murray, Ky., five bass, 23-10, $3,530
2nd:      Noah Morgan, Russellville, Ky., five bass, 21-3, $1,770
3rd:       Harlan Thomas, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 18-8, $890
4th:        John Rediess, Smiths Grove, Ky., five bass, 18-2, $710
5th:        B.J. Fitzgerald, Whitesville, Ky., five bass, 17-11, $1,130 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
6th:        Marty Sisk, Evansville, Ind., five bass, 17-6, $540
7th:        Stephen Barga, Benton, Ky., five bass, 16-13, $520
8th:        Connor Deweese, Evansville, Ind., five bass, 16-8, $490
9th:        Mason Woley, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 16-6, $470
10th:     Dustin Vaal, Farmington, Ky., five bass, 16-4, $550

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Brian Futch of Herrin, Illinois, earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 7-pound, 4-ounce bass worth $200.

Doug Ruster of New Palestine, Indiana, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,865 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 4 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Doug Ruster, New Palestine, Ind., three bass, 11-4, $1,865
2nd:      Phillip Altice, Springfield, Tenn., three bass, 10-10, $885
3rd:       Adam Lucas, Cape Girardeau, Mo., three bass, 10-8, $495
4th:        Marcus Mann, Benton, Ky., three bass, 9-15, $455
5th:        Jerry North II, Three Way, Tenn., three bass, 9-0, $315
6th:        Barrett Washburn, Hardin, Ky., three bass, 7-9, $270
7th:        Maddox Stamper, Fancy Farm, Ky., three bass, 7-2, $260
8th:        James Harper, Palmersville, Tenn., three bass, 6-5, $245
9th:        Corey Green, Paducah, Ky., two bass, 6-4, $240
10th:     Jeff Johnston, Nashville, Tenn., three bass, 6-3, $187
10th:     Hayden Swain, Tamaroa, Ill., two bass, 6-3, $187

Doug Ruster of New Palestine, Indiana, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 4-pound, 11-ounce bass worth $100.

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.