Pennsylvania’s Bernier Tops Co-Angler Division

MARBURY, Md. (May 12, 2025) – Boater Joshua McGeary of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 4 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on the Potomac River . The tournament, hosted by Charles County Recreation, Parks and Tourism, was the first event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. McGeary earned $11,127, including the lucrative $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.

Most of the action came early for McGeary, who took advantage of the high tide to put an early limit in the livewell.

“I just wanted to go to a place where I knew there were fish – more or less a community hole,” he said. “We fished around there for the first two hours of the day.”

After that, McGeary strategically played the wind. He knew that the forecast called for the wind to build throughout the day, making it harder to fish and travel on the east side of the river. So he ran over to that side after leaving the community hole before the wind got too bad. After fishing there for a while, he jumped over to the west side midday to avoid the worst of the wind later in the day.

McGeary had his final weight by lunchtime – a good thing because, eventually, the tide pulled out so hard that getting bit was tough in the afternoon.

“I was going to areas that I knew were protected from the wind and areas I knew that traditionally hold fish,” McGeary said. “I didn’t have much practice for this tournament, so I just was fishing off my gut. And it worked out. I caught over 20 keepers today, and I just whittled my way up. I never really had a big fish. I just had a good solid five-fish limit.”

For McGeary, the ChatterBait bite was tough, but he still caught two of his weigh fish on the vibrating jig. The rest came on a Texas-rigged X Zone Adrenaline Bug. Most of his fish came off various types of hard cover.

“It was just one of those days where I was in a groove, making a lot of right decisions,” McGeary added. “It just worked out.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Joshua McGeary, Mount Pleasant, Pa., five bass, 18-4, $11,127 (includes $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:      Ryan Lachniet, Gum Spring, Va., five bass, 18-2, $2,064
3rd:       Robert Grike, Dumfries, Va., five bass, 17-10, $1,377
4th:        Safulla (Safu) Rana, Manassas, Va., five bass, 17-0, $1,538
5th:        Brian Mullaney, Ijamsville, Md., five bass, 16-2, $825
6th:        Aaron Dixon, Bel Alton, Md., five bass, 15-12, $757
7th:        Jason Orecchio, Andover, N.J., five bass, 15-4, $688
8th:        Peter Yanni, Gaithersburg, Md., five bass, 15-2, $619
9th:        Jay Clingenpeel, Bridgeport, W.Va., five bass, 15-1, $1,116
9th:        Tom Bateman, Welcome, Md., five bass, 15-1, $516

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Safulla (Safu) Rana of Manassas, Virginia, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $575.

Cole Bernier of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, won the co-angler division and $2,064 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 11 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Cole Bernier, Saylorsburg, Pa., three bass, 11-11, $2,064
2nd:       Gerald Dam, Pine Plains, N.Y., three bass, 11-4, $1,032
3rd:       Chris Slater, Boston, Mass., three bass, 10-9, $975
4th:        Marvin Stith, Piscataway, N.J., three bass, 10-6, $482
5th:        Hayward Thaxton III, Hagerstown, Md., three bass, 10-4, $413
6th:        David Paszkiewicz, Kearny, N.J., three bass, 9-15, $478
7th:        Pat Kendrick, Bumpass, Va., three bass, 9-14, $344
8th:        David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., three bass, 9-2, $292
8th:        Nathan Routzahn, Myersville, Md., three bass, 9-2, $292
10th:     Richard Obrien, New Market, Md., three bass, 9-1, $241

Chris Slater of Boston, Massachusetts, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $287, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 15 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

In addition to winning the event, Joshua McGeary of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, has the early lead in the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 250 points, while Cole Bernier of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, leads the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 250 points.

The next event for BFL Northeast Division anglers will be held July 12, at the St. Lawrence River out of Massena, New York. 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 James River out of Richmond, Virginia. 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.