Ontario’s Wittren Tops Co-Angler Division

LA CROSSE, Wis. (May 19, 2025) – Boater Cade Laufenberg of Onalaska, Wisconsin, caught a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 1 ounce, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on the Mississippi River Presented by Lew’s . The tournament, hosted by Explore La Crosse, was the second event of the season for the BFL Great Lakes Division. Laufenberg earned $6,132, including the lucrative $2,500 Phoenix Bonus, for his victory.

Laufenberg is well known in his region as a skilled river rat and has enjoyed success throughout his career. This is his 11th win across MLF and FLW competition as a boater, co-angler and collegiate angler, and it’s his eighth BFL victory fishing from the front of the boat.

“It just came together perfect,” he said. “My boat number was a big deal. I had an early boat draw. I was just looking for fish that were coming off the beds and getting into that postspawn stage. It’s the same way I’ve won a lot of my tournaments this time of year. I was dragging a really small, lightweight Texas rig. This time it was all about the Strike King Scounbug.”

Laufenberg’s postspawn fish were all smallmouth bass. With his early boat draw, he was able to get on the right group of fish and had his weight by 9 a.m. He spent the rest of the day hunting largemouth but never did upgrade.

“It’s just something I have a lot of confidence in, going after postspawn smallmouth this time of year,” Laufenberg said. “They’re just more predictable (than largemouth), I guess, the way that I’m fishing for them. When they’re guarding fry and stuff like that, they use trees a lot. The fry get on the trees, and the fish will roam on the ends of those trees.”

That’s where the Texas rig factors in. It’s weedless, so it can be fished in and around wood cover. When paired with a 1/8-ounce weight, the rig flutters slowly down in front of fry-guarding fish (and fish just recuperating from their spawn), tormenting them into biting. Some of the key areas were 6 to 10 feet deep.

The bites don’t always come easy. There are packs of bluegills in the area foraging on fry and drawing attention from the bass. It can be challenging to get the bass to shift their attention to an artificial lure. Laufenberg counters by making repeating casts and slowly working the bait through the zone.

“It’s a lot of running and gunning,” he added. “Basically, you’re only going to get one or two bites off of each area.

“(The key was) just keeping a clear head and being really persistent on some of those fish that I knew were there but were hard to catch. Some of them took quite a while to get the bite I was looking for.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Cade Laufenberg, Onalaska, Wis., five bass, 20-1, $6,132 (includes $2,500 Phoenix Bonus)
2nd:      Wyatt Becker, West Salem, Wis., five bass, 19-4, $1,816
3rd:       Clayton Weber, West Salem, Wis., five bass, 19-2, $1,210
4th:        Tom Monsoor, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 19-1, $847
5th:        Darren Zumach, Onalaska, Wis., five bass, 18-6, $726
6th:        Dan Mohn, Lansing, Iowa, five bass, 17-8, $766
7th:        Tyler Fitch, Fall River, Wis., five bass, 17-6, $605
8th:        Nick Trim, Galesville, Wis., five bass, 17-0, $545
9th:        Zach Williamson, Stoddard, Wis., five bass, 16-12, $454
9th:        Jerry Robackouski, Joliet, Ill., five bass, 16-12, $454

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Mike Feldermann of Galena, Illinois, caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 13 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $465.

Timothy Wittren of Ontario, Wisconsin, won the co-angler division and $2,098 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 13 pounds, 2 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Timothy Wittren, Ontario, Wis., three bass, 13-2, $2,098
2nd:      Hertz Skaer, Holmen, Wis., three bass, 10-6, $1,008
3rd:       David Pospisil, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, three bass, 9-15, $606
4th:        Jason Swanson, Waterloo, Iowa, three bass, 9-12, $424
5th:        Clint Goodwin, La Crescent, Minn., three bass, 9-11, $363
6th:        Ma Xiong, Menomonee Falls, Wis., three bass, 9 – 10 $318
6th:        Adam Beckwith, Madison, Wis., three bass, 9-10, $318
8th:        Jeff Ripp, Sparta, Wis., three bass, 9-9, $272
9th:        Trevor Gnotke, Pine Island, Minn., three bass, 9-8, $242
10th:     Kevin Clark, Lancaster, Wis., three bass, 9-7, $212

Timothy Wittren of Ontario, Wisconsin, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $232, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After two events, Tom Monsoor of La Crosse, Wisconsin, now leads the Fishing Clash Great Lakes Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 496 points, while Trevor Gnotke of Pine Island, Minnesota, leads the Fishing Clash Great Lakes Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 487 points.

The next event for BFL Great Lakes Division anglers will be held June 14, at the Mississippi River out of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.

The top 60 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. 3-4 BFL Regional tournament on the Mississippi River in Quad Cities, Illinois. 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 award of $20,000.

The 2025 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 134 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 60 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of 12 BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top three, 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 2025 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, Deep Dive App, E3 Sport Apparel, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Humminbird, Lew’s, Li Time Batteries, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak, Mystik Lubricants, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, 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 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.