Cookeville’s Catalin Earns Victory in Co-Angler Division

SPARTA, Tenn. (March 30, 2026) – Boater Casey Taylor of Smithville, Tennessee, caught a total of five bass weighing 20 pounds, 3 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Center Hill. The tournament was the second of five events of the season for the BFL Mountain Division. Taylor earned $3,340 for his victory.

“It was a cold day compared to what we had had the previous couple of days,” Taylor said. “I caught them on clean gravel beds on a Carolina rig, and it was just a real fun day of fishing. I was blessed to land every fish that bit. I didn’t get many bites, but the ones that bit were good ones.

Taylor’s Carolina rig was tipped with a Gene Larew Biffle Bug that accounted for a total of seven keepers during the course of the day. He said smaller males were available anywhere on the bank, but the larger females were holding in deeper water from seven to 15 feet.

“I think they were on the beds where you couldn’t see them, and you just had to drag around and feel for them,” Taylor said.

Taylor said his catches were spread out during the day with his last cull coming after 2 o’clock, but he still didn’t think he had enough weight to be in contention for a win.

“I figured everybody had blistered them,” Taylor said. “I figured if I caught what I caught it was going to be a hard tournament to win. I figured there would be bags around 20 pounds people had caught with forward-facing sonar. And I never used it all day. I was just old-school fishing.

“I’ve fished 46 MLF tournaments at different levels over the years, so it feels really nice to actually win one,” Taylor went on to say.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Casey Taylor, Smithville, Tenn., five bass, 20-3, $3,340
2nd:      Brandon Young, Kingston, Tenn., five bass, 19-13, $1,880
3rd:       Timothy Wacker, Clinton, Tenn., five bass, 19-2, $850
4th:        Adam Wagner, Cookeville, Tenn., five bass, 18-14, $680
5th:        Cody Mackie, McMinnville, Tenn., five bass, 18-10, $600
6th:        Tim Staley, Dowelltown, Tenn., five bass, 18-6, $520
7th:        Brad Adkins, West Liberty, Ky., five bass, 18-4, $500
8th:        Greg Perry, Byrdstown, Tenn., five bass, 17-14, $980 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
9th:        Bryan Drury, Harrodsburg, Ky., five bass, 17-13, $460
10th:     Keith Monson, Harrodsburg, Ky., five bass, 17-0, $430

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Brandon Young of Kingston, Tennessee, earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 5-pound, 13-ounce bass worth $200.

Pop Catalin of Cookeville, Tennessee, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,670 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 9 pounds, 3 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Pop Catalin, Cookeville, Tenn., three bass, 9-3, $1,670
2nd:      Jimmy Rhodus, Versailles, Ky., three bass, 9-0, $682
2nd:      Brent Jones, Ashland, Ky., three bass, 9-0, $632
4th:        Kendall Parnell, Monticello, Ky., three bass, 8-13, $320
4th:        Michael League, Sparta, Tenn., three bass, 8-13, $320
6th:        Randy Wilson, Murfreesboro, Tenn., three bass, 8-10, $255
6th:        Kevin Jones, Somerset, Ky., three bass, 8-10, $355
8th:        Tim Underwood, Danville, Ky., three bass, 8-9, $240
9th:        Dewayne Drummonds, Gray, Ky., three bass, 8-0, $230
10th:     Jeanelle Smith, Byrdstown, Tenn., three bass, 7-13, $215

Jeremy Nash of Cookeville, Tennessee, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 5-pound, 3-ounce bass worth $100.

After two events, Timothy Wacker of Clinton, Tennessee, now leads the 7 Brew Mountain Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 487 points, while Kendall Parnell of Monticello, Kentucky, leads the Mountain Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 495 points.

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, 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.