ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. (Feb. 26, 2024) – Boater Kyle Dorsett of Springville, Alabama, caught a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 12 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) Tournament on Lake Martin. The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Bama Division. Dorsett earned $4,009 for his victory.
“My day started off kind of slow,” Dorsett said. “I found an area that had some fish in it Thursday in practice, so I ran 20 minutes down the lake and hunkered down and fished.
“Lake Martin can be a weird lake to fish,” Dorsett added. “They can be here today, gone tomorrow. But they hung around and I kept catching them. The wind blew 30 miles an hour, and when you get weather like that on Martin, the fish tend to bite.”
Dorsett said he relied on a Garmin LiveScope to target fish and presented both a jerkbait and a Damiki rig to larger bass staying close to balls of baitfish. Dorsett said he knows Martin “fairly well” and has spent a good amount of time fishing there in January and February for the past three or four years.
“I’ve spent quite a bit of time on Martin this time of year,” said Dorsett. “It took 16 pounds to win a local tournament there the weekend before the BFL. So, when I had 14 pounds at 12 o’clock, I thought I had a shot at winning.
“I was pretty excited to win this,” Dorsett said. “I’ve won some big events on the Coosa lakes, but never one this big on Martin. I’ve never even done that well there, to be honest.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Kyle Dorsett, Springville, Ala., five bass, 16-12, $4,009
2nd: Stihl Smith, Alexander, Ala., five bass, 14-4, $2,555
3rd: James Willoughby, Gulfport, Miss., five bass, 13-5, $1,336
4th: Donald Griffith, Robertsdale, Ala., five bass, 12-7, $935
5th: Marty Giddens, Eclectic, Ala., five bass, 11-13, $802
6th: Blake Tomlin, Greenville, Ga., five bass, 11-4, $701
6th: Carson Maddux, Hoover, Ala., five bass, 11-4, $701
8th: Connor Jacob, Peoria, Ill., five bass, 11-1, $568
8th: Blake Davenport, Jemison, Ala., five bass, 11-1, $568
10th: Tim Ferguson, Pelham, Ala., five bass, 11-0, $468
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Stihl Smith of Alexander, Alabama, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $550. Jeff Huddleston of Anniston, Alabama, won the co-angler division and $2,005 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 10 pounds, 4 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Jeff Huddleston, Anniston, Ala., five bass, 10-4, $2,005
2nd: Jeffery McCoy, Montgomery, Ala., five bass, 9-12, $1,277
3rd: Gary Marlowe, Montgomery, Ala., five bass, 9-6, $768
4th: Colt Hinson, Andalusia, Ala., five bass, 9-2, $468
5th: Derek Wood, Albertville, Ala., five bass, 8-15, $401
6th: Zac Smith, Demopolis, Ala., five bass, 8-11, $368
7th: Randall Norton, Ashland, Ala., five bass, 8-10, $334
8th: Caleb Gwaltney, Athens, Ala., five bass, 8-7, $284
8th: Thomas Eyler, Ashford, Ala., five bass, 8-7, $284
10th: Mason Bryan, Carrollton, Ga., five bass, 8-6, $234
Jeffery McCoy of Montgomery, Alabama, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $275, catching a bass that weighed in at 3 pounds, 9 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.