South Carolina’s Chadwick Tops Co-Angler Division

APPLING, Ga. (June 30, 2025) – Boater Andy Wicker of Cayce, South Carolina, caught a five-bass limit weighing 14 pounds, 12 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Clarks Hill Lake. The tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Savannah River Division. Wicker earned $4,259 for his victory.

For Wicker, the shallow bite never really happened. And while he wanted to go chase suspended schoolers, he never really unlocked how to catch big fish using that approach. So, with a three-bass limit in effect for this tournament, he decided to slow down and go fish with confidence for a few good bites using an old-school approach.

“I was basically just throwing a worm around,” he said. “I caught the big one (a 6-pound, 10-ounce bass) out of a brush pile. The other ones were just on stereotypical summer places – rocks and brush mostly. I started dragging a worm around old-school style.

“The three-fish limit I think was pretty key,” he added. “I don’t know that I would’ve done what I did with a five-fish limit. I probably would’ve wanted to chase schooling fish or suspended fish. It (the three-fish limit) makes it easier mentally to just go throw a big worm and get three bites.”

In most brush pile events, Wicker prefers to have a big milk run. But he only had a half-day to practice. So he stuck to one primary area, running from target to target with a Zoom Ol’ Monster.

“I got a fair amount of bites,” he added. “I guess it was tough and it wasn’t. I have a couple brush piles that are really good, but outside of those there’s a lot of dead brush. So you can go a long time in between bites.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Andy Wicker, Cayce, S.C., three bass, 14-12, $4,259
2nd:       Wesley Sandifer, Chapin, S.C., three bass, 12-9, $1,840
3rd:       Dan Geurtsen, Chapin, S.C., three bass, 12-0, $1,225
4th:        Eric Allen, Powder Springs, Ga., three bass, 11-10, $859
5th:        Lane Parker, Waleska, Ga., three bass, 10-13, $736
6th:        Greg Rikard, Leesville, S.C., three bass, 10-10, $1,300 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contginency Bonus)
7th:        Caleb Sheldon, West Columbia, S.C., three bass, 10-7, $613
8th:        Bart Blackburn, North Augusta, S.C., three bass, 10-5, $552
9th:        Matt O’Connell, Brooks, Ga., three bass, 9-14, $491
10th:     Michael Wilson, Burnsville, N.C., three bass, 9-13, $429

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Wicker caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $480.

Tim Chadwick of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, won the co-angler division and $1,840 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 9 pounds, 6 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Tim Chadwick, Mount Pleasant, S.C., three bass, 9-6, $1,840
2nd:       Gibson Huntley, Inman, S.C., three bass, 8-6, $920
3rd:       Jeff Rikard, Leesville, S.C., three bass, 7-1, $520
3rd:       Dwayne Parton, Anderson, S.C., three bass, 7-1, $520
5th:        James Akins, Cumming, Ga., three bass, 6-15, $352
5th:        Ashton Mabery, Wellford, S.C., three bass, 6-15, $352
7th:        Jason Wood, Windsor, S.C., three bass, 6-10, $307
8th:        Chase Gurkin, Simpsonville, S.C., three bass, 6-8, $276
9th:        Jackson Williams, Keysville, Ga., three bass, 6-6, $245
10th:     Benjie Winkler, Cleveland, Ga., three bass, 5-14, $215

Joe Smith of Sardis, Georgia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $240, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After four events, Lane Parker of Waleska, Georgia, now leads the Fishing Clash Savannah River Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 963 points, while Rusty Odom of Simpsonville, South Carolina, leads the Fishing Clash Savannah River Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 965 points.

The next event for BFL Savannah River Division anglers will be held Sept. 27-28, at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina. 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. 10-11 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina. 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.

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.