| Boater winner Bradley Burns of Brandon, Mississippi, and co-angler winner Mitchell Bond of Collins, Mississippi. |
| Collins’ Bond Claims Co-Angler Division Title BRANDON, Miss. (Feb. 23, 2026) – Boater Bradley Burns of Brandon, Mississippi, caught a total of five bass weighing 27 pounds, 8 ounces, to notch his first career win at the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Ross Barnett Reservoir. The tournament was the first of five events of the season for the BFL Mississippi Division. Burns earned $3,160 for his victory. Burns looked at the forecast for tournament day and decided to start on the main lake in an area protected from the easterly wind, hoping to get an hour or two of productivity before the wind became a factor. When he arrived at his spot, he had the area to himself and caught four keepers to start his day. “I had three different things it came down to that I thought I could do to get some bites,” Burns said. “I just needed to look for the size I needed. “It seemed in the morning the fish were wanting to feed, and it was somewhat of an aggressive bite,” Burns continued. “I was using a black and blue jig in shallow water with a hard bottom. There’s not a lot of wood there – it came down to finding the right angle for the presentation.” Burns relocated to his second area and found the fish weren’t set up the same as they had been in practice. “I made a little adjustment and started catching fish there, but the size wasn’t right,” Burns said. “We caught a good number of fish doing what I call bombing a speed worm, which is Hail Mary casting to some really shallow water. You can’t really get up to the fish; you have to stay a long way off of them.” With a limit in the livewell, Burns moved to his third spot, a main-lake area featuring large flats, looking for big bites. “When I got there, something had changed there, as well, and I had one or two good fish, but I felt like I needed to upgrade,” Burns said. “The wind wasn’t doing what it was forecast to do. So, I made a run down the lake to unprotected water where wind hadn’t gotten on it yet. I switched up baits and ended up culling two more times and that got me the final weight I had. “I was using a bladed jig and basically getting a reaction bite with it,” Burns said. “I was just banging it off of stuff and having to figure out the right angle for how they were positioned.” Burns said he weighed in three fish caught on the black and blue jig, and two that came on the bladed jig. Burns’ biggest bass, a giant 10-pound, 6-ounce largemouth, was his fourth keeper of the day, and he caught one that was close to six pounds at 3:10, just 20 minutes away from weigh-in. “I just kept pushing and pushing for more weight,” Burns said. “I knew I had a good limit, but I wanted to keep culling, because with these one-day tournaments, anybody can have a big bag, and you never know if yours is enough.” The top 10 boaters finished the tournament: 1st: Bradley Burns, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 27-8, $3,160 2nd: Blake Daugherty, Pope, Miss., five bass, 20-3, $1,600 3rd: Dalton Steele, Cherokee, Ala., five bass, 18-4, $770 4th: Lake Norsworthy, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 17-14, $620 5th: Noel Allen Jr., Brandon, Miss., five bass, 16-5, $550 6th: Dave Russell, Tupelo, Miss., five bass, 16-4, $480 7th: Skip Howell, Okolona, Miss., five bass, 16-1, $460 8th: Heath Gilmore, Meridian, Miss., five bass, 15-12, $440 9th: Timmy Smith, Petal, Miss., five bass, 15-4, $420 10th: Jason Cordell, Pelahatchie, Miss., five bass, 14-13, $410 Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com. Burns also earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award honors with his 10-6 that was worth $200.  Mitchell Bond of Collins, Mississippi, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,490 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 13 ounces. The top 10 co-anglers finished: 1st: Mitchell Bond, Collins, Miss., three bass, 12-13, $1,490 2nd: Randy Giles, Memphis, Tenn., three bass, 9-11, $760 3rd: Donald Adcock, Richland, Miss., three bass, 9-3, $370 4th: Jason Ivy, Canton, Miss., three bass, 8-13, $300 5th: Michael Nichols, Pearl, Miss., three bass, 8-0, $265 6th: Finn Norsworthy, Brandon, Miss., three bass, 7-14, $230 7th: John Goul, Philadelphia, Miss., three bass, 7-12, $230 8th: Reggie Thornton, Columbus, Miss., three bass, 7-10, $215 9th: Philip Moore, Batesville, Miss., three bass, 7-7, $210 10th: Javen Foster, Tupelo, Miss., three bass, 7-5, $200 Bond also earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 7-pound even bass worth $100. The top 45 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. 8-10 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Eufaula in Eufaula, Alabama. 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 prize of a new Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500. The 2026 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 co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top seven, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2026 BFL All-American will take place May 28-30, at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, and is hosted by Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism. |