ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. (March 7, 2022) – Boater Blake Tomlin of Greenville, Georgia, caught five bass Saturday weighing 21 pounds, 11 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Tournament on Lake Martin. The tournament was the season-opener for the Bass Fishing League Bama Division. Tomlin earned $5,911 for his victory.
“We started out fishing the shoals and caught a few fish pretty quick,” said Tomlin. “I caught two 3-pounders back-to-back on my first stop, and then it was really slow after that until about 9:30 when I caught my second- and third-biggest fish within 15 minutes of each other on a Z-Man Original ChatterBait.”
Tomlin said after he had four fish in the livewell he relocated to fill out his limit. He said he waited for the water to warm up and went back to the spot where he caught his two big fish at 9:30. The move resulted in his largest bass of the day that fell for a flipping jig. Tomlin said he then moved back down the lake to get close to the ramp.
“I thought I had 18, maybe 19 pounds, and I thought I had a pretty good chance at that point to win,” Tomlin said. “I finished out the last hour fishing around there and ended up catching a 3½-pound spotted bass on a swimbait.”
Tomlin said the win was special to him because he struggled in competition for a couple of years and didn’t cash a tournament check.
“I knew I could better than what I was doing,” Tomlin said. “I wasn’t even catching decent bags. I had a rough go at it for a couple of years. So, I took a year off and then started back again and did pretty good in a Regional Championship and pretty decent in the All-American, and that kind of lit my fire and I have been really wanting to win.
“I’ve only fished Lake Martin four times,” Tomlin added. “I thought Martin would be a good lake to have a chance to win, because you can get lucky and catch some decent ones and have a shot whether you know the lake really well or not.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Blake Tomlin, Greenville, Ga., five bass, 21-11, $5,911
2nd: Timothy Hatcher, Trussville, Ala., five bass, 15-0, $2,561
3rd: Brady Vernon, Birmingham, Ala., five bass, 14-13, $1,705
4th: Lucas Lindsay, Opelika, Ala., five bass, 14-12, $1,195
5th: Tommy Gunn, Cusseta, Ala., five bass, 14-9, $1,024
6th: Rob Cruvellier, Auburn, Ala., five bass, 12-10, $896
6th: Dusty Robinson, Eclectic, Ala., five bass, 12-10, $896
8th: Hunter Davidson, Reform, Ala., five bass, 12-9, $768
9th: Charles Davis, Wetumpka, Ala., five bass, 12-7, $683
10th: Mark Stewart, Ashville, Ala., five bass, 12-5, $598
Tomlin had a 5-pound, 7-ounce largemouth that was the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division and earned the day’s Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $790. Cameron Petras of Biloxi, Mississippi, won the Strike King Co-angler Division and $2,561 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 11 pounds, 12 ounces.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers were:
1st: Cameron Petras, Biloxi, Miss., five bass, 11-12, $2,561
2nd: Mike L. Hardin Sr., Robertsdale, Ala., five bass, 11-4, $1,280
3rd: Scott Bussey, Hayden, Ala., four bass, 10-12, $1,249
4th: Darrell Eller, Montgomery, Ala., five bass, 10-4, $598
5th: Thomas Eyler, Ashford, Ala., five bass, 10-3, $512
6th: William Yoerg, Springville, Ala., five bass, 10-2, $669
7th: Justin Foster, Zebulon, Ga., five bass, 9-15, $405
7th: Randall Norton, Ashland, Ala., five bass, 9-15, $405
9th: Michael Ward, Dadeville, Ala., five bass, 9-5, $341
10th: Daniel Buswell Jr., Fayetteville, Ga., five bass, 9-1, $299
Bussey caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 3 pounds, 15 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Berkley Big Bass Co-angler award of $395.
https://dev.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-martin-3722.html
BFL News Archive