| Boater winner Jason Knapp of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and co-angler winner Randall Given of Laurel, Delaware. |
| Delaware’s Given Earns Victory in Co-Angler Division PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Aug. 4, 2025) – Boater Jason Knapp of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, caught a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 14 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Champlain Presented by Lew’s. The tournament, hosted by the City of Plattsburgh and the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau, was the third event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. Knapp earned $3,756 for his victory. Knapp took the scenic route Saturday, running more than 65 miles south on Lake Champlain to secure the win. The Pennsylvania boater targeted shallow-water largemouth in overlooked areas, flipping and casting homemade jigs to isolated stretches of unpressured grass. Knapp focused on milfoil in 3 to 4 feet of water and mixed patches of arrowhead pads and reeds in as shallow as 1 to 2 feet. “My initial plan was to fish for both smallmouth and largemouth shallow,” Knapp said. “But the largemouth bite down south was too good to leave. I don’t think I saw another boat all day, I had it to myself.” Knapp relied on black 3/4- and 1-ounce homemade jigs, pairing them with a green-pumpkin Strike King Rage Craw trailer. He caught 10 to 12 fish throughout the day, including a few smallmouth early that were later culled out as he upgraded with quality largemouth from his key stretches. “The key to victory was definitely finding fish that weren’t being pressured,” Knapp said. “I had a few small stretches of grass that were holding the right ones, and being that far away from the crowd made all the difference.” The top 10 boaters finished the tournament: 1st: Jason Knapp, Uniontown, Pa., five bass, 23-14, $3,756 2nd: Noah Winslow, Naugatuck, Conn., five bass, 21-11, $1,878 3rd: Rob Cruvellier, Alburgh, Vt., five bass, 21-6, $1,253 4th: Jedediah Worthington, Morrisville, Vt., five bass, 21-2, $876 4th: Stephen Estes, Auburn, N.H., five bass, 21-1, $751 6th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, five bass, 20-4, $689 7th: Josh Kauffman, Marysville, Pa., five bass, 20-2, $626 8th: Christopher Dam, Staatsburg, N.Y., five bass, 20-0, $563 9th: Tom Balachvili, Scarsdale, N.Y., five bass, 19-12, $501 10th: Ryan Latinville, Plattsburgh, N.Y., five bass, 19-9, $438 Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com. Frank Poirier of Prince George, Virginia, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $490.  Randall Given of Laurel, Delaware, won the co-angler division and $1,840 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 11 ounces. The top 10 co-anglers finished: 1st: Randall Given, Laurel, Del., three bass, 12-11, $1,840 2nd: Joseph Amberg Jr., Hawley, Pa., three bass, 11-11, $920 3rd: Jason Grey, Amherst, N.Y., three bass, 11-10, $612 4th: Brian Brockett, Pine Bush, N.Y., three bass, 11-7, $429 5th: Jared Leicht, Millville, N.J., three bass, 11-4, $353 5th: Logan Bloomfield, East Berlin, Pa., three bass, 11-4, $353 7th: Gerald Dam, Pine Plains, N.Y., three bass, 11-3, $307 8th: Leo Perez, Rosenhan, N.J., three bass, 11-2, $276 9th: Reshawn Lowe, York, Pa., three bass, 11-1, $245 10th: Timothy Rougier, Watertown, N.Y., three bass, 11-0, $215 Reshan Lowe of York, Pennsylvania, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $240, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 2 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day. After three events, Josh Kauffman of Marysville, Pennsylvania, now leads the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 717 points, while Gerald Dam of Pine Plains, New York, leads the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 723 points. The next event for BFL Northeast Division anglers will be held Aug. 23, at Oneida Lake out of Brewerton, New York. 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. 3-4 BFL Regional tournament on the James River in Richmond, Virginia. 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. 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. |