Murphy Wins Bass Fishing League Tournament at Lake Guntersville

February 12, 2024
BFL News Archive

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (Feb. 12, 2024) – Boater Charlie Murphy of Columbia, Tennessee, caught a five-bass limit weighing 31 pounds, 6 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Lake Guntersville . The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Choo Choo Division. Murphy earned $6,000 for his victory.

“The fish got active for me from 8 o’clock until 11,” Murphy said. “I was able to get to my spot and get a good limit, and I just kept upgrading from there.”

Murphy remained very tight-lipped about his technique but said he used a Garmin LiveScope to fish deep in Guntersville and caught about 30 bass during the day. He added that he tried fishing shallow toward the end of the day, but that tactic produced no quality bass.

“I underestimated my weight,” Murphy said. “I thought I had between 25 and 30 pounds, so I felt pretty good about it.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

                1st:        Charlie Murphy, Columbia, Tenn., five bass, 31-6, $6,000
                2nd:       Stephen McAvoy, Springville, Ala., five bass, 28-2, $4,000
                3rd:       Fisher Anaya, Eva, Ala., five bass, 26-1, $2,500 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
                4th:        Hayden Marbut, Birmingham, Ala., five bass, 25-11, $1,400
                5th:        Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., five bass, 24-11, $1,200
                6th:        Cole Logsdon, Brownsville, Ky., five bass, 24-3, $1,100
                7th:        Mickey Beck, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 23-2, $1,000
                8th:        Dan Ehmen, Rockford, Ill., five bass, 23-1, $900
                9th:        Matt O’Connell, Brooks, Ga., five bass, 23-0, $1,100
                10th:     David Steadman, Jr., Tullahoma, Tenn., five bass, 22-7, $700

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Stephen McAvoy of Springville, Alabama, caught a bass that weighed 8 pounds even and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $1,000.

Terry Holsapple of Greenup, Illinois, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,000 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 21 pounds, 6 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

                1st:        Terry Holsapple, Greenup, Ill., five bass, 21-6, $3,000
                2nd:       Todd Mowery, Madison, Ala., five bass, 18-7, $1,500
                3rd:       Cason Sanchez, Fayetteville, Tenn., five bass, 17-11, $1,000
                4th:        Chad Menard, Rogersville, Ala., five bass, 17-5, $700
                5th:        Josh McCool, Henegar, Ala., five bass, 17-1, $600
                6th:        Jose Serna, Albertville, Ala., five bass, 16-8, $550
                7th:        Ron Creasy, Florence, Ala., five bass, 16-7, $500
                8th:        Mike Swetland, Tamaroa, Ill., five bass, 16-0, $600
                9th:        Isaac Brown, Lexington, Ala., five bass, 15-14, $400
                10th:     Jacob Policka, Twin Lake, Mich., five bass, 15-8, $350

Brian Futch of Herrin, Illinois, and Dalynn Teeftaller of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, each caught a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces to split the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $500.