Virginia’s Baird Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

MARBURY, Md. (Sept. 16, 2024) – Boater Alex Johnson of Milltown, New Jersey, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 12 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on the Potomac River . Hosted by the Charles County Board of Commissioners and Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau, the tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. Johnson earned $3,383 for his victory.

This tournament was originally scheduled for Lake Oneida earlier this season but was postponed due to unsafe boating conditions and later rescheduled for Saturday on the Potomac. Northeast Division anglers clashed again on Sunday in a one-day Super Tournament on the Potomac River to conclude their season.

To get the win in Saturday’s event, Johnson relied primarily on a homemade black-and-blue ball-head jig. Catching the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a 5 1/2-pounder that earned him $355 – along with a pair of 4-pounders boosted him to the top of the standings.

“It was not a total slugfest,” he said. “I caught 15 fish probably. I stayed in one area for most of the day, for probably four or five hours, but then the back half of the day I started running around a little bit and kind of chasing the tide. The water had totally stopped moving where I was. It was wind against tide today, so it kind of held the water up and slacked off a bit.”

Johnson’s primary area was a creek he located during practice on Friday. He targeted four key stretches, hitting each one twice and flipping a “little bit of a mix” of targets.

“I was trying to concentrate on hard cover,” he said. “But the hard cover needed to have grass around it. It couldn’t just be like a random bank of laydowns. It had to be hard cover within a grass bed.”

Johnson, who owns a commercial swimming pool business with his college roommate, caught that big kicker early in the morning. He said it was entirely unexpected – a nice surprise on tournament day – and helped him accumulate about 16 pounds in the first three hours of competition. When he left his starting creek in the afternoon, he ran around to areas where he could find some moving water. That changeup produced the key 4-pounder that sealed his victory.

“I just tried to keep the trolling motor moving and take as many casts as I could,” he added. “I was trying to pick everything apart. I was flipping every 5 feet.”

The top 11 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Alex Johnson, Milltown, N.J., five bass, 18-12, $3,383
2nd:       Todd Langford, Great Falls, Va., five bass, 16-4, $2,014 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
3rd:       Stacey Craft, Dunkirk, Md., five bass, 14-4, $1,008
4th:        Fred Aldridge, Brandy Station, Va., five bass, 13-10, $707
5th:        Connor MacDougall, Cape Coral, Fla., five bass, 12-15, $606
6th:        Robert Grike, Dumfries, Va., five bass, 12-14, $555
7th:        Jeffrey Davis, Wendell, N.C., five bass, 12-13, $479
7th:        Logan Kaplon, Rural Valley, Pa., five bass, 12-13, $479
9th:        Joe Zombek II, Scranton, Pa., five bass, 12-12, $829
10th:     William Kronander, Brownsville, Pa., five bass, 12-10, $335
10th:     John Duarte, Middle River, Md., five bass, 12-10, $335

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Lenny Baird of Stafford, Virginia, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,064 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 14 pounds, 13 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:        Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., five bass, 14-13, $2,064
2nd:       Matt Hummel, Dillsburg, Pa., four bass, 12-15, $934
3rd:       Robert Wedding, Welcome, Md., five bass, 12-7, $505
4th:        Clarence Dove, Linthicum Heights, Md., five bass, 12-5, $353
5th:        Hunter Navari, Colchester, Vt., five bass, 11-4, $303
6th:        Melvin Smitson, Baltimore, Md., five bass, 10-9, $278
7th:        Richard Jordan, Muncy Valley, Pa., five bass, 10-2, $252
8th:        Logan Bloomfield, East Berlin, Pa., five bass, 10-0, $227
9th:        Troy Mills, Lewistown, Pa., five bass, 9-14, $202
10th:     Andrew Hostler, Tyrone, Pa., five bass, 9-9, $177

Matt Hummel of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $177, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 13 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After Saturday’s tournament, Daniel Gray of Butler, Pennsylvania, held the lead in the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year race with 937 points, while Lenny Baird of Stafford, Virginia, led the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-angler of the Year race with 972 points.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, have qualified 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. The 2025 BFL All-American will take place May 29-31, 2025, at Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and is hosted by hosted by Visit Hot Springs and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

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, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, WIX Filters 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.