LBL Division boater catches final day limit weighing 17-4 to earn All-American title and top payout of $120,000

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (May 31, 2025) – The final day of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) All-American Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Hamilton was never a blowout, but boater Matteo Turano of Puryear, Tennessee, always had an answer for his competition. Weighing 17 pounds, 4 ounces on Saturday, the 23-year-old angler closed strong after catching two 19-pound bags to start the event with a 56-11 total for the win. The winner of last fall’s BFL Regional on Pickwick, Turano has made the Top 10 in more than half the MLF events he’s fished, and after banking $120,000 for the win in the All-American, he’s got a robust winnings total as well. In addition to the money, Turano qualified for the Toyota Series Championship this fall, as well as REDCREST 2026, where he’ll be pitted against the best anglers that MLF has to offer.

Lake Hamilton produced more truly big fish than most non-locals expected in the event, though some locals knew there were plenty of big ones to be caught in the lake. However, despite some impressive weights, nobody had it easy on Hamilton, and while a limit wasn’t much of a problem any day, catching a kicker and assembling a solid bag around it was something that only Turano did all three days.

“I just wasn’t too sure what to think about the lake,” Turano said of his practice period. “It seemed like I could catch fish on a variety of different techniques and all types of spots. Every point seemed to have bass on it. It made it really hard to know which points were going to have a big fish on it and to just catch a big fish, like, what bait they were going to eat. In practice, I caught one 5 1/2-pounder on a jig and minnow, and that kind of gave me some confidence in it. But at the same time, it was just one bite, and I was kind of thinking it might have just been a random one.”

On Day 1, Turano caught a 3-pounder around 11 o’clock, and then shortly after boxed a 7-pounder – both on the minnow.

“That’s when I just stuck it in my hand and just went to town,” he said. “All my big fish, I believe they were fry guarders, which is really weird. I actually have a lake back home where big females will guard fry, and there are a lot of little fish in that lake and just a few giants.

“That place reminds me a lot of this place. When I’m there, I just put the trolling motor down until I see a big one on LiveScope, and then I try to catch it. I’m passing over lots of little fish, and it gets very mentally draining. But I’m so used to doing that at that lake and just trying to catch a giant; that’s what I was doing the last three days, just moving really slow.”

To aid in his search for big bites, Turano backed his LiveScope range down to 80 feet, which allowed him to see more detail close to the bottom and tell the size of fish better. Between brush, grass and some stumps, Hamilton is loaded with shallow to mid-depth cover, but Turano had to constantly expand his horizons as the event went on.

“It seemed like everybody else in the Top 10 was also fishing a similar area, and the fish that were left were just super smart, and it was really hard to get them to bite,” Turano explained. “Part of the key this week, I think I caught all three big fish on three completely different stretches, and I just felt like I needed to keep fishing new water and try to find something nobody else had found. It started off on really obvious points, and then it turned to just me running down a contour line and staying in that 10- to 12-foot range when I was looking for a big one.”

Turano used a few minnows on a Buckeye G-Stroll head, with either a 7-foot, 6-inch, medium light or a 7-7, medium Phenix K2 Torzite spinning stick.

Since moving to Tennessee from Illinois, Turano has rigged boats for A.C.S. Marine and fished, often very successfully. This year, he finished in the Top 10 in the Central Division of the Toyota Series and he finished 16th in last year’s Toyota Series Championship. But the All-American can be the break an angler needs to go to the next level, and $120,000 will likely pay a lot of entry fees for Turano the next few years.

“It’s something I’ve always dreamed of, not just winning the All-American, but just winning a big tournament,” Turano said. “I got so close at Guntersville a couple weeks ago, and I can’t believe I got another opportunity to have a chance at winning and actually doing it. It just feels amazing.”

The Top 10 boaters at the 2025 Phoenix BFL All-American on Lake Hamilton finished:

1st:        Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., 10 bass, 56-11, $120,000
2nd:       Tanner Hadden, Appling, Ga., 15 bass, 53-7, $35,000
3rd:       Caz Anderson, Haysville, N.C., 15 bass, 48-12, $25,000
4th:        Clint Knight, Russellville, Ky., 15 bass, 45-7, $14,000
5th:        Buddy Benson, Dahlonega, Ga., 15 bass, 44-10, $18,000
6th:        Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 15 bass, 44-9, $14,000
7th:        Dillon Falardeau, Hixson, Tenn., 15 bass, 43-2, $11,000
8th:        Harbor Lovin, New Concord, Ky., 15 bass, 42-14, $10,000
9th:        Cody Ross, Livingston, Texas, 10 bass, 42-9, $9,000
10th:     Zack Fogle, Longview, Texas, 15 bass, 41-2, $8,000

A full list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 50 bass weighing 146 pounds, 7 ounces caught by the final 10 boaters on Saturday. All of the final 10 boaters caught a five-bass limit.

The highest-finishing boater from each Regional Championship (including the Wild Card) at the All-American also now advance to the 2025 Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning $235,000.

The eight boaters that finished highest from their region earned an automatic qualification in to the 2025 Toyota Series Championship on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees are:

Caz Anderson, Haysville, N.C.
Logan Anderson, Sherrills Ford, N.C.
Mike Brueggen, La Crosse, Wis.
Tanner Hadden, Appling, Ga.
Cody Ross, Livingston, Texas
Bradley Sullivan, Shawnee, Okla.
Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn.
Scott Wiley Jr., Bay Minette, Ala.

Scott Standafer of Milford, Ohio, led wire-to-wire and won the All-American co-angler division on Saturday with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 28 pounds even to earn the top prize package of $50,000. Co-angler Kade Wesner of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, finished runner up in second place with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 26 pounds, 7 ounces, good for $10,000.

“It’s actually my first win. I’ve been at it for eight or nine years and just couldn’t get one — I figured I’d save it for the All-American,” Standafer said on stage, holding the trophy with a mix of relief and excitement.

“I lost one the first day that probably cost me three quarters of a pound to a pound, and I was praying it wouldn’t come back to bite me. And it didn’t. I left the door open just enough. But if someone was going to beat me, they deserved it. I knew they’d have to catch nine or ten pounds to get me.”

With his family cheering him on from the crowd, Standafer called the experience “a trip of a lifetime” and smiled through the moment every co-angler dreams of, calling his victory “an investment in future fishing.”

The Top 10 co-anglers at the 2025 Phoenix BFL All-American on Lake Hamilton finished:

1st:        Scott Standafer, Milford, Ohio, nine bass, 28-0, $50,000
2nd:       Kade Wesner, Lancaster, Pa., nine bass, 26-7, $10,000
3rd:       Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va., nine bass, 24-3, $6,000
4th:        D. Michael Lowe, Clinton, Tenn., nine bass, 23-15, $5,000
5th:        William Easley, Pollok, Texas, nine bass, 22-10, $4,500
6th:        Ernest Stephens, Orrum, N.C., nine bass, 19-14, $4,000
7th:        Brad Sampson, Knoxville, Tenn., nine bass, 19-1, $3,500
8th:        Robert Massey, Calhoun, La., nine bass, 18-11, $3,000
9th:        Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga., nine bass, 18-9, $2,500
10th:     Brent Jones, Okeana, Ohio, nine bass, 17-12, $2,000

Overall, there were 30 bass weighing 70 pounds, 9 ounces caught by the final 10 co-anglers on Saturday. All of the final 10 co-anglers brought a three-bass limit to the scale.

The eight co-anglers that finished highest from their region and now earn an automatic qualification to compete at the 2025 Toyota Series Championship on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees are:

Levi Allgeier, Bardstown, Ky.
William Easley, Pollok, Texas
Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga.
Brent Jones, Okeana, Ohio
D. Michael Lowe, Clinton, Tenn.
Scott Standafer, Milford, Ohio
Ernest Stephens, Orrum, N.C.
Kade Wesner, Lancaster, Pa.

The three-day All-American was hosted by Visit Hot Springs and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, and showcased the nation’s best weekend grassroots anglers. It awarded the winning boater a top prize of up to $120,000 – and an automatic qualification into REDCREST 2026, MLF’s most prestigious event – and the winning co-angler a top prize of $50,000.

Television coverage of the 2025 Phoenix BFL All-American Presented by T-H Marine will premiere at 10 a.m. ET, November 22, on CBS Sports. The full television air schedule can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The full field of 49 boaters and 49 co-anglers competed on Days 1 (Thursday) and 2 (Friday) of the event. After two days of competition, the field was cut to just the top 10 boaters and co-anglers based on two-day total cumulative weight, and the final 10 anglers competed on Championship Saturday. The boater and co-angler that caught the heaviest three-day total weight earned the title of the 42nd Phoenix BFL All-American Champions.

The 2024 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine was 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 event winners, advanced to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they competed to finish in the top six, which then advanced them to compete in the 2025 BFL All-American. The field also included the top eligible finisher from each of seven The Bass Federation (TBF) divisions in the 2025 TBF National Championship.

Proud sponsors of the 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, PiranhO2, 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.