Hampton Robinson of Bealeton, Virginia, tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

MARBURY, Md. (Sept. 16, 2024) – Boater Todd Langford of Great Falls, Virginia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 15 ounces, Sunday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament on the Potomac River . Hosted by the Charles County Board of Commissioners, the tournament was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. Langford earned $7,232, including the lucrative $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.

BFL Super Tournaments are typically two-day events, scheduled in early fall to conclude each BFL division season. In order to make up a previous tournament that was postponed due to unsafe boating divisions, the Northeast Division anglers squared off twice over the weekend at the Potomac River. First, they fished their fourth qualifying event on Saturday – a normal one-day tournament. They then squared off again on Sunday to conclude their season in a shortened one-day Super Tournament.

Langford finished second in Saturday’s Potomac River event with 16 pounds, 4 ounces. He fished more or less the same area and pattern in Sunday’s event. And even though he said the fishing was a little tougher (he caught about half as many fish on Sunday), he managed to get bigger bites, improving his weight and locking down the win.

“I was just fishing heavy matted grass,” he said. “You’ve really got to kind of pinpoint the best areas, and I just got fortunate. I found a couple little hundred-yard stretches that they were on.”

One of the keys, said Langford, was “waiting them out.” In other words: being patient. The fish repositioned within the mats based on the tides and were on the move throughout the tournament. To try to stay on them, Langford worked the mats thoroughly, fishing in the middle and the edges with a punch rig and a frog.

“You had to make them react,” he added. “You could get some bites on a frog, but you had to kind of call them up a little bit.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:         Todd Langford, Great Falls, Va., five bass, 18-15, $7,232 (includes $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:        Aaron Dixon, Bel Alton, Md., five bass, 18-9, $2,366
3rd:        Tom Bateman, Welcome, Md., five bass, 16-14, $1,577
4th:         Michael Ortel, Stewartstown, Pa., five bass, 15-11, $1,229
5th:         Joseph Thompson, Coatesville, Pa., five bass, 15-4, $946
6th:         Fred Aldridge, Brandy Station, Va., five bass, 13-14, $868
7th:         John Duarte, Middle River, Md., five bass, 13-14, $1,089
8th:         Jarrett Kuipers, Oakland, N.H., five bass, 13-14 , $710
9th:         Spencer Cookson, Sheffield, Mass., five bass, 13-7, $631
10th:       Robert Grike, Dumfries, Va., five bass, 12-15, $552

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Jason Orecchio of Andover, New Jersey, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 8 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $555.

Hampton Robinson of Bealeton, Virginia, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,366 Sunday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 9 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st:         Hampton Robinson, Bealeton, Va., five bass, 11-9, $2,366
2nd:        Ryan Spivey, Fairfax, Va., five bass, 11-2, $1,183
3rd:         Ricky Windsor III, Huntingtown, Md., five bass, 10-3, $790
4th:         Brent Kauffman, Marysville, Pa., five bass, 10-1, $552
5th:         Bonnie Lucas, Largo, Md., five bass, 9-14, $473
6th:         Logan Bloomfield, East Berlin, Pa., five bass, 9-12, $434
7th:         Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., five bass, 9-9, $394
8th:         Nathan Routzahn, Myersville, Md., five bass, 9-9, $355
9th:         Troy Mills, Lewistown, Pa., five bass, 9-8, $315
10th:       Robert Wedding, Welcome, Md., five bass, 9-3, $276

Jeff Turner of Morris, Illinois, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $277, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Joseph Thompson of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was crowned the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,298 points to bring home the $1,000 award, while Lenny Baird of Stafford, Virginia, won the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-angler of the Year race with 1,341 points to earn $500.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 3-5 BFL Regional tournament on Kerr Lake in Henderson, North Carolina. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

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: 7Brew, 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.