Missouri’s Montgomery Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

COUNCE, Tenn. (Oct. 7, 2024) – Boater Matteo Turano of Puryear, Tennessee, caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 78 pounds, 5 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Pickwick Lake . The tournament, which was hosted by the Hardin County Convention & Visitors Bureau, concluded Saturday. For his win, Turano earned a prize package valued at $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200hp Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000.

The Pickwick Lake event served as Regional championship for BFL Region 1. The field included the top 45 boaters and co-anglers based on point standings, plus each of the tournament winners, from the 2024 LBL, Mountain, Ozark and Savannah River divisions. The top six boaters and co-anglers from the Regional now qualify for the 2025 BFL All-American, which will be held on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 29-31.

For the anglers at the top of the standings, it was a slugfest on Pickwick. The water was rising and the current was heavy, and the Regional anglers who figured out the bite went to work. Two anglers averaged more than 25 pounds per day, four caught more than 70 in three days and 11 cracked the 50-pound mark.

“It was insane,” said Turano, who earned his first career victory. “I was not expecting that. I knew the weights were going to be big, but that was a lot. I had no idea I could do that for three days.”

Turano caught his fish primarily with a Buckeye Lures G-Stroll Jighead and a minnow-style soft plastic. While his winning strategy revolved around Garmin LiveScope, he wasn’t looking at every fish. Turano used the technology to spot any kind of cover or structure that was deflecting the heavy current flowing down the Tennessee River. He fished in less than 10 feet in the mornings then 12 to 14 feet in the middle of the day.

“I wouldn’t even see the fish all the time,” Turano said. “Sometimes the fish were behind a rock or a big piece of concrete or something, just lying on the bottom. So I was just casting to structure. They would come up and eat it. A big part of landing these big fish was using my 7-7 Phenix Feather series rod.”

Turano got off to a hot start on Thursday. His first fish was a 5-pound smallmouth that bit on a current seam. He went on to land 20 pounds by about 9 a.m. and eventually culled out his last 4-pounder with plenty of time to spare. Final tally: 26 pounds, 10 ounces.

On Friday, Turano went back to the current seam where he began on day one. The flow had changed, and so had the fishing.

“By 11 o’clock, I still didn’t have a keeper in the boat. Didn’t even have a bite yet,” he said.

Turano kept grinding, putting his minnow in front of fish until he finally got a bite. Then another and another. Then his luck totally changed.

“I switched to a tree and caught a 6-6 and another over 5,” he said. “I think by 11:30 I was sitting on like 25 pounds. I went from zero to 25 in like 30 minutes. I don’t know what changed, but they just started biting.”

By the time the action was done, Turano had the tournament’s biggest limit – 27 pounds, 12 ounces. On day three, everything went right once again.

“I think I had a limit by 8:30, but it was kind of a smaller limit,” Turano said. “All of my fish I’ve been catching this week, the average was like 4 or 5 pounds. I knew today (Saturday), when I was catching some smaller fish, I had probably fished my areas too much.”

He adjusted by running new water, including a spot he’d found in practice but was yet to ever fish. There, he caught a 5-pound smallmouth to cull out a 2-pounder. Soon after, he caught a 5 1/2-pound fish. And that was it.

The 22-year-old employee of A.C.S. Marine – a Phoenix Boats dealer in Paris, Tennessee – earned his way to a BFL Regional win and a shot at the All-American.

“I’m so excited for that,” he said. “It’s gonna be my first All-American. I can’t wait to go down there and fish.”

The top six boaters that qualified for the 2025 Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American were:

1st:        Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., 15 bass, 78-5, $60,000
2nd:       Harbor Lovin, New Concord, Ky., 15 bass, 75-1, $11,000
3rd:       Matt O’Connell, Brooks, Ga., 15 bass, 73-5, $7,925 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
4th:        Jake Lawrence, Buchanan, Tenn., 15 bass, 70-2, $3,000
5th:        Trent Suratt, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., 15 bass, 69-8, $3,000
6th:        Clint Knight, Lewisburg, Ky., 15 bass, 63-11, $1,800

Rounding out the top 12 boaters were:

7th:        Eli Lubbehusen, Huntingburg, Ind., 15 bass, 60-7, $1,600
8th:        Ryan Kirkpatrick, Benton, Ky., 14 bass, 56-5, $1,400
9th:        Grant Meisenhelter, Decatur, Ill., 13 bass, 55-13, $1,200
10th:     Spencer Sato, Gainesville, Ga., 15 bass, 54-6, $1,100
11th:     Levi Kohl, Edinburg, Ill., 13 bass, 53-6, $1,000
12th:     Clayton Ellis, Saltillo, Miss., 10 bass, 38-3, $1,000

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The top four boaters from each division that earned a $1,000 bonus for placing highest in the event were:

LBL: Harbor Lovin, New Concord, Ky., 2nd Place, $1,000
Mountain: Trent Suratt, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., 5th Place, $1,000
Ozark: Dillon Statler, Galena, Mo., 23rd Place, $1,000
Savannah River: Matt O’Connell, Brooks, Ga., 3rd Place $1,000

Matt O’Connell of Brooks, Georgia, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $1,000.

Gabe Montgomery of Jackson, Missouri, won the Strike King co-angler division on Saturday. His $50,000 prize package included a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200hp Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The top six Strike King co-anglers that now advance to the 2025 Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American are:

1st:        Gabe Montgomery, Jackson, Mo., nine bass, 27-14, $50,000
2nd:       Wes Proctor, Manhattan, Kan., seven bass, 18-14, $5,500
3rd:       Barrett Washburn, Dexter, Ky., six bass, 18-5, $3,000
4th:        Chris Medlin, Dumas, Miss., seven bass, 17-15, $1,500
5th:        Noah Gurkin, Pelzer, S.C., five bass, 17-11, $2,000
6th:        Levi Allgeier, Bardstown, Ky., six bass, 16-6, $1,400

Rounding out the top 12 Strike King co-anglers are:

7th:        Barry Gunter, Trafalger, Ind., five bass, 16-3, $800
8th:        Dennis Taylor, Murray, Ky., five bass, 14-14, $700
9th:        Jerry North II, Tree Way, Tenn., five bass, 14-5, $600
10th:     Dan Marin, Appling, Ga., six bass, 14-4, $550
11th:     Javon Booker, Beaver Dam, Ky., five bass, 12-15, $500
12th:     Dustin Miller, Sparland, Ill., four bass, 10-4, $500

The top four Strike King Co-anglers from each division that earned a $500 bonus for placing highest in the event were:

LBL: Barrett Washburn, Dexter, Ky., 3rd Place, $500
Mountain: Levi Allgeier, Bardstown, Ky., 6th Place, $500
Ozark: Wes Proctor, Manhattan, Kan., 2nd Place, $500
Savannah River: Noah Gurkin, Pelzer, S.C., 5th Place $500

Noah Gurkin of Pelzer, South Carolina, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $500, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 14 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the tournament.

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: 7 Brew Coffee, 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.