| Boater winner Gavin Clevenger of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Strike-King co-angler winner Gary Haraguchi of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. |
| Murfreesboro’s Haraguchi Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 28, 2024) – Boater Gavin Clevenger of Knoxville, Tennessee, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 26 pounds, 14 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Wild Card on Cherokee Lake . The tournament, which was hosted by Visit Jefferson County, TN, concluded Saturday. For his win, Clevenger earned $2,833 and a spot in the 2025 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 do not make a Regional championship. Sixty-four boaters and co-anglers competed in this season’s Wild Card tournament. Clevenger capitalized on homefield advantage and a seasonal shift in fishing regulations to seal up the Wild Card win in front of the hometown fans. In the fall, anglers are allowed to keep five smallmouths over 15 inches, while summertime regs on Cherokee limit anglers to just one smallie over 18. “Obviously, I’ve spent quite a bit of time out there, with it being pretty much my home lake for my whole life,” he said. “I kind of knew with the smallmouth being in play, I knew the areas that played more with smallmouth versus a mix of both. And I knew how the smallmouth were biting from when the BFL (Volunteer Division Super Tournament) got cancelled previously. So I kind of just stayed in the few areas that I knew bigger ones lived, but also knew where tournament history had been won. I stayed in those areas and found some stuff that people weren’t really fishing as much as the obvious stuff.” When Clevenger was prepping for the Super Tournament in September, he found fish setting up a bit deeper on current breaks. Now that the current has reduced and the weather has cooled, the fish have moved shallower. He rotated through a handful of areas, using Garmin LiveScope and a Queen Tackle 3/16- or 1/4-ounce jighead to “scope” quality keeper smallmouth each day. One of the keys, however, was not getting too dialed in. Instead, Clevenger stayed flexible, rotated around and reacted to what he saw each day. “Day one was very, very rough,” Clevenger said. “I had one bass at 12 o’clock, and I kind of knew it was going to be that way from how practice had went. I was on more of a later-in-the-day bite, I would say. So day one was pretty tough. I was confident in what I was doing and that I was doing the right thing for the bite that I was on, so I just stuck with it all day and managed to catch my fifth keeper on day one at 3:30. I was due in at 4.” Day two, Clevenger enjoyed a morning turnaround – and some last-minute heroics once again. “It actually started out a little better than I expected,” he said. “I had two by like 9:30, 10 o’clock, and then I kind of went and sampled some stuff. I ended up rolling up on a point at like 11:30 and filled my limit by 12:30. I jumped off a couple big ones, but then after that I kind of knew that I had a chance to do something special, being on my home place. I pulled up on a point and wound up culling two times off the point, and this was by about 2 o’clock. And then I knew my best chance at catching a 3-plus-pounder was down the lake closer to the area where I’d found a lot bigger fish. I actually ended up pulling up at a place that I’ve known about for a while and I didn’t check until day one of the tournament. I ended up catching a 3-pounder and one right at 4. I caught those at like 3:45, and I was due in at 4:30.” The late culls helped boost the Abu Garcia College Fishing angler up from second place to first for the Wild Card win and a shot at his first All-American title. Staying patient and staying confident in his pattern were keys to getting it done. And to Clevenger, there was also something much bigger than that at play. “It’s pretty awesome,” he said of qualifying for the All-American. “That was pretty much my goal going into it. I knew when I didn’t make the Regional it happened for a reason because that’s one of the big things I believe in is God will put you in the place that you need to be. I felt like I was put in that position to give myself the best chance, and it made it pretty special to quality for my first All-American by winning on my home lake.” The top six boaters who qualified for the 2025 All-American finished: 1st: Gavin Clevenger, Knoxville, Tennessee, 10 bass, 26-14, $2,883 2nd: Buddy Benson, Dahlonega, Ga., 10 bass, 23-0, $1,942 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus) 3rd: Brad Stalnaker, Eatonton, Ga., eight bass, 20-9, $960 4th: Kevin Powers, Unicoi, Tenn., eight bass, 19-5, $1,098 5th: Caz Anderson, Haysville, N.C., seven bass, 15-10, $577 6th: Mel Kennedy, Hiawassee, Ga., six bass, 14-4, $529 The rest of the top 10 finished: 7th: Tom Frink, Southside, Ala., six bass, 12-10, $481 8th: David Mundy, Dandridge, Tenn., six bass, 12-7, $433 9th: Kain Joiner, Calvert City, Ky., four bass, 12-7, $384 10th: Justin McGaha, Knoxville, Tenn., five bass, 11-14, $336 Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.  Jimmy Hays of Loveland, Colorado, won the Berkley Big Bass boater award and $320 for landing a bass that weighed 3 pounds, 14 ounces. Gary Haraguchi of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, won the Strike King co-angler division Saturday after bringing a two-day total of four bass weighing 9 pounds, 3 ounces, to the scale. For his win, Haraguchi won $1,127. The top six Strike King co-anglers who qualified for the 2025 All-American finished: 1st: Gary Haraguchi, Murfreesboro, Tenn., four bass, 9-3, $1,127 2nd: Hunter Tibbetts, Centreville, Va., three bass, 5-9, $563 3rd: Andrew Rogers, Johnson City, Tenn., two bass, 5-8, $376 4th: D. Michael Lowe, Clinton, Tenn., two bass, 5-2, $263 5th: Joe Yocum, Commercial Point, Ohio, two bass, 4-6, $225 6th: Bill Hockaday, Nashville, Ark., one bass, 3-15, $564 The rest of the top 10 finished: 7th: Richard Hooter, Natchitoches, La., two bass, 3-12, $188 8th: Marcus Dudley, Twinsburg, Ohio, one bass, 3-1, $169 9th: Nicholas Ploussard, Saint Francis, Minn., one bass, 3-0 10th: William Lewis, Jacksonville, Fla., one bass, 2-11 Bill Hockaday of Nashville, Arkansas, won the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $107 for catching a bass that weighed 3 pounds, 15 ounces. 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. Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew Coffee, 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. |
