California’s Kojima Tops Co-Angler Division

ROYAL, Ark. (April 14, 2025) – Boater Brennan Cole of White Hall, Arkansas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 2 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine at Lake Ouachita . The tournament was the second event of the season for the BFL Arkie Division. Cole earned $6,616, including the lucrative $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.

Cole went old school on Lake Ouachita, catching his fish on the old “ball and chain” – a Carolina rig.

“I had a tough day of practice yesterday flipping bushes,” he said. “It was a bite here and there. I picked up a Carolina rig late yesterday and pulled up on one main-lake point and caught a couple 3-pounders. I decided that’s what I was going to run today. I ran main-lake points all day, chucking a Carolina rig.”

The best points were steep. If he had his boat parked 30 or so yards off the bank, the bottom beneath him might be 50 feet deep. Cole then lobbed his rig up on the point and dragged it down the sides and off the end.

On his rig, he used a Zoom Brush Hog or Midsize Brush Hog, primarily in watermelon red flake. The most exciting moment came at 11:40 a.m. – Cole verified the time – when he landed an 8-pound, 6-ounce bass that earned him the Berkley Big Bass award and its $475 prize.

“I fired my rig up there and thought it was a bream bite,” he recalled. “I set the hook and told my co-angler this ain’t no bass, but if it is, it’s a head. She came up and jumped three times. With a Carolina rig, that’s kind of a death trap, but I got her in the boat. I went from about 10 pounds with four fish to 18-something.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:          Brennan Cole, White Hall, Ark., five bass, 20-2 $6,616 (includes $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:        Austin Rose, Mena, Ark., five bass, 15-14, $1,820
3rd:         Gerard Johnson, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 15-1, $1,214
4th:         Blake Martin, Dardanelle, Ark., five bass, 14-4, $1,014
4th:         Justin Bean, Benton, Ark., five bass, 14-4, $889
6th:         Danny Brustrom, Cave City, Ark., five bass, 13-13, $668
7th:         Matt Wood, Jessieville, Ark., five bass, 13-10, $607
8th:         Brian Bean, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-3, $546
9th:         Keith Green, Arkadelphia, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $485
10th:       Larry Nixon, Quitman, Ark., five bass, 13-1, $425

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Cole caught a bass that weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $475.

Takaaki Kojima of Temecula, California, won the co-angler division and $1,820 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 4 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:          Takaaki Kojima, Temecula, Calif., three bass, 11-4, $1,820
2nd:        Joseph Aguilar, Bauxite, Ark., three bass, 9-3, $910
3rd:         Don Billiot, Hot Springs Village, Ark., three bass, 7-14, $607
4th:         Dulin Smith, Little Rock, Ark., three bass, 7-13, $425
5th:         Gene Mitchell, Stuart, Okla., three bass, 7-8, $364
6th:         Philip James, Benton, Ark., three bass, 7-5, $318
6th:         Christian Knight, Alexander, Ark., three bass, 7-5, $318
8th:         Eian Odle, Willow Springs, Mo., three bass, 6-11, $273
9th:         William Brady Rutledge, Mount Ida, Ark., three bass, 6-8, $243
10th:       Jason Phillips, Rison, Ark., three bass, 6-0, $212

Kojima also earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $237, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 3 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

After two events, Brady Horton of Clinton, Arkansas, now leads the Fishing Clash Arkie Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 485 points, while Joseph Aguilar of Bauxite, Arkansas, leads the Fishing Clash Arkie Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 487 points.

The next event for BFL Arkie Division anglers will be held April 26, at Greers Ferry Lake out of Greers Ferry, Arkansas. 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. 24-25 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Eufaula in Eufaula, Oklahoma. 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. 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 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 Sports 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.