| Boater winner Eddie Armstrong of West Point, Mississippi, and co-angler winner Jonathan Goodman of Ethelsville, Alabama. |
| Alabama’s Goodman Tops Co-Angler Division COLUMBUS, Miss. (May 5, 2025) – Boater Eddie Armstrong of West Point, Mississippi, 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 the Columbus Pool. The tournament was the third event of the season for the BFL Mississippi Division. Armstrong earned $3,021 for his victory. In mid-April, the Bassmaster Open on the Columbus Pool of the Tombigbee system was won on a white swim jig in the grass, while several others in the top 10 also worked a white swim jig or vibrating jig. Armstrong knew about the results of that tournament, and he knew the rest of the field did, too. So he purposely changed it up to avoid the most heavily pressured areas. “All the locals had jumped on the bandwagon, and I knew everybody that would come pre-fish was going to be doing the same thing,” he said. “And that’s what they did. “I got to messing around with just some isolated stuff that didn’t look good to everybody else and noticed that the fish had really pulled out of the grass and were a boat length away from the grass. Every fish I weighed in but one came off a junebug lizard, and I caught one off a frog that was actually on an isolated stump with grass on it.” Armstrong fished his 8-inch lizard on a Texas rig with a 3/16-ounce weight. He tossed it into the edge of the grass – sparse grass; “just a few springs” – and fished it back slowly, bringing it off the edge and letting it drop while staying a long way off. That slow approach and staying back produced better-than-average fish. “We learned that a long time ago out here,” he said. “This is not something that’s new. A lot of times the fish will back off from the grass (when there’s heavy fishing pressure).” Another key was staying in shallow water. Armstrong held the boat in 3 to 4 feet of water most of the time and at the deepest was only in about 8 feet. Using this approach, he fished four primary areas. He caught a limit from the first spot then culled four of those bass throughout the day. “I always fish to win,” Armstrong added. “I felt like I had a good chance after what I saw yesterday and knowing what everybody else was going to do and I wouldn’t have anybody (to share water with). One of the places that I fished had probably 10 boats go down that all went by fast throwing a swim jig because there wasn’t hardly any grass there. They were just really going from spot to spot, and we (he and his co-angler) actually caught four keepers off that spot.” The top 10 boaters finished the tournament: 1st: Eddie Armstrong, West Point, Miss., five bass, 14-12, $3,021 2nd: Hunter Briles, Russellville, Ala., five bass, 14-3, $1,511 3rd: Luke Glasgow, Guin, Ala., five bass, 12-5, $1, 507 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus) 4th: Kyle Shaw, Millport, Ala., five bass, 11-13, $705 5th: David Dove, Columbus, Miss., five bass, 11 – 09 $604 6th: John Anderson, Bay Springs, Miss., five bass, 11 – 07 $654 7th: Kyle Glasgow, Guin, Ala., five bass, 10-15, $478 7th: Kevin Nicely, Ethelsville, Ala., five bass, 10-15, $478 9th: Gene Brown, West Point, Miss., four bass, 10-14, $403 10th: Jeffery Davis, Steens, Miss., five bass, 10-7, $352 Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com. Tommy Robinson of Florence, Alabama, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 5 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $345.  Jonathan Goodman of Ethelsville, Alabama, won the co-angler division and $1,511 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 8 pounds, 4 ounces. The top 11 co-anglers finished: 1st: Jonathan Goodman, Ethelsville, Ala., three bass, 8-4, $1,511 2nd: Andy Lockhart, Amory, Miss., three bass, 7-9, $755 3rd: Gary Stripling, Kennedy, Ala., three bass, 7-1, $504 4th: Travis Culbreth, Pearl, Miss., three bass, 6-7, $352 5th: Richard Baker, Jackson, Tenn., three bass, 6-5, $302 6th: Chance Starnes, Louisville, Miss., three bass, 5-14, $277 7th: Takaaki Kojima, Temecula, Calif., three bass, 5-12, $252 8th: Allen Swedenburg, Columbus, Miss., two bass, 5-9, $227 9th: Lance Jackson, Starkville, Miss., three bass, 5-8, $201 10th: Brandon Mast, Mathiston, Miss., three bass, 5-2, $167 10th: Jeffery Reece, Guys, Tenn., two bass, 5-2, $167 Craig Perrigin of Gordo, Alabama, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $172, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 11 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day. After three events, Luke Glasgow of Guin, Alabama, now leads the Fishing Clash Mississippi Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 714 points, while Steve Hammack of Caledonia, Mississippi, leads the Fishing Clash Mississippi Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 694 points. The next event for BFL Mississippi Division anglers will be held June 7, at Ross Barnett Reservoir out of Ridgeland, Mississippi. 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 Kentucky-Barkley Lakes out of Paris, Tennessee. 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 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. |
