Alabama’s Ramsey Claims Co-Angler Division

COUNCE, Tenn. (Nov. 17, 2025) – Boater Lucas Murphy of West Columbia, South Carolina, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 46 pounds, 4 ounces, to win the Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Wild Card on Pickwick Lake . The tournament, which was hosted by Hardin County Convention & Visitors Bureau, concluded Saturday. For his win, Murphy earned $4,017 and a spot in the 2026 BFL All-American.

The BFL Wild Card is an annual event held at the conclusion of the BFL postseason as a last-chance opportunity to make the All-American. It’s open to BFL contestants who pay an entry fee prior to the tournament for all five tournaments in a division, fish two or more tournaments in the same division, and are not already advancing to the All-American. A total of 104 boaters and 104 co-anglers competed in this season’s Wild Card tournament.

Murphy’s previous fishing experience on Pickwick Lake before the Wild Card event consisted of one spring visit, so he practiced for 2½ days before the tournament hoping to gain crucial knowledge to secure a berth into the 2026 All-American, which takes place on his home waters of Lake Murray.

“I thought I had found some areas that I could catch some,” Murphy said. “Not many, but some big ones. So, on the first day of the tournament, I scrambled down the lake a little bit and fished main-river bars and gravel flats to catch a 19½-pound bag of mostly smallmouth.”

On the second day of the tournament, Murphy eyed the leaderboard and knew he had to catch a big limit to close the gap to the top of the field.

“I figured I’d stay down the lake, by the dam, where a lot of the big largemouth seemed to be hanging out,” Murphy said. “If I caught five, I’d catch five, and if I didn’t, I didn’t. And at the end of the day, I had caught a lot of them.”

Murphy said he caught 20 bass that weighed more than 4 pounds, and six that checked in at more than 5 pounds on Saturday.

“All of the fish were quality,” Murphy said. “There weren’t many little fish in there. There are a lot of really big fish biting in Pickwick right now. If you get a bite right now, it’s at least a 3-pounder.”

Murphy said the fish were in a typical fall pattern – chasing shad on gravel bars, or sitting behind ambush points on stumps or on bluffs. Murphy said the baits that produced for him were a Strike King 3X ElazTech Z Too Soft Jerkbait in various shad colors, an Alabama rig and a jighead minnow. Murphy said a slow, dragging-the-bait presentation turned the fish off; many times, they wanted a bait burned past them to trigger a bite.

“At 10:00 I had 22½ pounds, and the thought started creeping into my head that I might have a shot at qualifying for the All-American,” Murphy said. “Winning the tournament wasn’t even a thought until I checked in and saw the leaderboard.

“I’m ecstatic about this,” Murphy went on to say. “Now I can relax a little bit knowing I’ll be fishing the All-American at home on Lake Murray. I can’t wait.”

The top three boaters who qualified for the 2026 All-American finished:

1st:        Lucas Murphy, West Columbia, S.C., 10 bass, 46-4, $4,017
2nd:       Caz Anderson, Haysville, N.C., 10 bass, 45-9, $1,958
3rd:       Gavin Clevenger, Knoxville, Tenn., 10 bass, 45-5, $1,307

The rest of the Top 10 finished:

4th:        Jackson Bennett, Knoxville, Tenn., 10 bass, 44-10, $914
5th:        Clint Knight, Russellville, Ky., 10 bass, 43-10, $783
6th:        Harlan Thomas, Paducah, Ky., 10 bass, 42-14, $718
7th:        Zane Parker, Kingwood, Texas, 10 bass, 42-4, $653
8th:        Buddy Benson, Dahlonega, Ga., 10 bass, 42-0, $588
9th:        Dustin Blasengame, Booneville, Miss., 10 bass, 40-11, $522
10th:     Kaden Buchmann, Troutman, N.C., 10 bass, 40-8, $457

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Clint Pegg of Caledonia, Mississippi, won the Berkley Big Bass boater award and $520 for landing a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces.

James Ramsey of Boaz, Alabama, won the co-angler division Saturday after bringing a two-day total of six bass weighing 20 pounds, 8 ounces, to the scale. For his win, Ramsey won $1,958 and also advances to the All-American to compete as a co-angler.

The top three co-anglers who qualified for the 2026 All-American finished:

1st:        James Ramsey, Boaz, Ala., six bass, 20-8, $1,958
2nd:       Tyson Giesbrecht, Gurley, Ala., six bass, 20-8, $979
3rd:       Jimmy Rhodus, Versailles, Ky., six bass, 16-7, $653

The rest of the Top 10 finished:

4th:        James Menold, Amory, Miss., five bass, 15-15, $457
5th:        Scott Sayasing, Grantville, Ga., four bass, 15-10, $392
6th:        Mark Miller, Baltic, Ohio, four bass, 15-10, $359
7th:        Ben Carter, Lancaster, Ky., five bass, 14-15, $326
8th:        Arturo Baquera, Noble, Okla., four bass, 13-4, $294
9th:        Nicholas Mowen, Pataskala, Ohio, three bass, 12-13, $261
10th:     Brian Huber, St. Charles, Mo., four bass, 12-5, $228

Dennis Blakely of Norwalk, Ohio, won the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $260 for catching a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces.

The 2025 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine was 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, advanced to one of 12 BFL Regional tournaments, and the Wild Card, where they competed to finish in the top three, which then qualified them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the 43rd annual BFL All-American. The BFL All-American will take place May 28-30, 2026, at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, and is hosted by the Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board.

Proud sponsors of the 2025 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew Coffee, 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, PirahnO2, 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 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, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV and Game & Fish TV, 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.