SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. (June 12, 2023) – Boater Isaac Peavyhouse of Jamestown, Tennessee, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 11 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Tournament on the Barren River. The tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Mountain Division. Peavyhouse earned $12,802, including the lucrative $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.
“I had maybe 20 to 25 offshore schools marked,” said Peavyhouse, who recently posted a BFL win on Dale Hollow Lake in March. “I pretty much rotated those schools all day long and got the fish I could. I ended up catching nine keepers.”
Peavyhouse said he caught all of his fish on a spoon in 10 to 15 feet of water on main-lake points. He said he had a limit by 9:20, and spent the rest of his day trying to upgrade his final weight.
“I ended up culling two times in the last 20 minutes, and that really sealed the deal,” Peavyhouse said. “I knew I needed one big one, and when I culled the last one, I called it quits.”
Peavyhouse said he hadn’t fished Barren River before 2022, when he posted a 17th-place BFL finish. He said he approached this tournament with the intention of redeeming himself.
“Things just went my way this time,” Peavyhouse said. “I threw off several fish, but that’s just part of throwing a bait like that. This feels great after what happened the last time I was here.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Isaac Peavyhouse, Jamestown, Tenn., five bass, 18-11, $12,802 (includes $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd: Blake Smith, Byrdstown, Tenn., five bass, 17-2, $2,041
3rd: Billy Parrish, Bloomfield, Ky., four bass, 17-0, $1,922
4th: Nick Ratliff, Vine Grove, Ky., five bass, 16-2, $952
5th: Eldon Newcomb, Mount Vernon, Ky., five bass, 14-15, $816
6th: Michael Bean, Bowling Green, Ky., five bass, 14-8, $748
7th: Grant Adams, Campbellsville, Ky., five bass, 14-7, $680
8th: Brian Wade, Stanford, Ky., five bass, 13-0, $612
9th: Clint Knight, Lewisburg, Ky., five bass, 12-14, $744
10th: Joe Haunert, West Chester, Ohio, five bass, 12-10, $476
Billy Parrish of Bloomfield, Kentucky, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $560. Earl Ross Jr. of Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, won the co-angler division and $2,041 Saturday, after bringing four bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 14 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Earl Ross Jr., Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., four bass, 11-14, $2,041
2nd: Zach Jefferson, Lancaster, Ky., three bass, 11-3, $1,021
3rd: Joshua Mounce, Somerset, Ky., four bass, 8-14, $683
4th: Lucas Devere, Berea, Ky., four bass, 8-11, $476
5th: Christopher Stites Sr., Lebanon, Tenn., three bass, 8-5, $408
6th: James Warren, Flat Lick, Ky., three bass, 8-2, $374
7th: Noah Morgan, Sharon Grove, Ky., three bass, 7-4, $340
8th: Mark Redman, Bowling Green, Ky., two bass, 7-3, $306
9th: John Fitzpatrick, Baxter, Tenn., two bass, 6-7, $272
10th: Billy Hughes, Eubank, Ky., two bass, 5-12, $238
Charles Smith of Bowling Green, Kentucky, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $280, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 13 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After four events, Christian Nash of Allons, Tennessee, leads the BFL Mountain Division Boater Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 953 points, while John Fitzpatrick of Baxter, Tennessee, leads the Strike King Co-Angler Division AOY race with 924 points.