ANDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (March 11, 2024) – Boater Jimmy Neece, Jr., of Bristol, Tennessee, caught a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 2 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by TH Marine on Norris Lake. The tournament is the first event of the season for the BFL Volunteer Division. Neece earned $4,720 for his victory.
Early spring in East Tennessee is Damiki rig season. This is the perfect time to hook big prespawn smallmouth bass with small minnow-shaped soft plastics in deep, clear water. And that’s how Neece got his winning limit of smallmouths.
“The fish I catch are prespawn and hanging out in the mouths of pockets and spawning areas,” said Neece, who owns a construction company.
“I really looked for the shad and I looked for the stripers,” he added. “There’s a ton of stripers in that lake. And if I saw stripers, the smallmouth were in close quarters. You’ve been in some places and there’s nothing — no trash fish and nothing swimming. If you’ve been in a place with a lot of stripers congregating, the smallmouth are in close quarters.”
Neece said the fish in his best spots actually slipped a few hundred yards from where he found them on Friday. He was able to move them using the Garmin LiveScope, which he used to catch all the fish he weighed.
“(It was) throwing Damiki at them one by one,” he said. “That’s right. You have to spend a lot of time trolling the motor.”
Neece used a Damiki Armor Shad on a homemade jighead. He fished the rig with a 6-foot, 8-inch, medium-action G. Loomis IMX Pro spinning rod, a 2500-size Shimano Vanford spinning reel, 10-pound-test braided line and a 7-pound-test that Sunline Super Leader FC Sniper Fluorocarbon. He kept three identical combos on his deck, each one lined with different colored soft plastic.
“I varied between lighter and darker colors, and my fish were anywhere from the surface to 20 feet of water,” Need said. “If you get it close to one, he’ll come for it.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Jimmy Neece, Jr., Bristol Tenn., five bass, 17-2, $4,720
2nd: Joseph Tallent, Knoxville, Tenn., five bass, 16-2, $2,360
3rd: Seth Barton, Middlesboro, Ky., five bass, 15-13, $1,574
4th: Trent Adkins, East Bernstadt, Ky., five bass, 15-10, $1,101
5th: Hunter McClaskey, Elizabethton, Tenn., five bass, 15-7, $944
6th: Zack Long, Clinton, Tenn., five bass, 15-6, $865
7th: John Napier, Middlesboro, Ky., five bass, 15-0, $747
7th: Riley Faulkner, Jacksboro, Tenn., five bass, 15-0, $747
9th: Seth Fricke, Oxford, Ohio, five bass, 14-12, $629
10th: Tim Saylor, Johnson City, Tenn., five bass, 14-11, $551
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Dalton Noble of Hazard, Kentucky, caught a bass weighing 4 pounds, 5 ounces, earning the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $695.
Steve Farris of Lily, Kentucky, won the Strike King co-angler division and $1,088 on Saturday, after bringing in five bass weighing a total of 14 pounds, 2 ounces.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:
1st: Steve Farris, Lily, Ky., five bass, 15-1, $2,175
2nd: Scott Pittman, Powell, Tenn., five bass, 14-2, $1,088
3rd: Travis Malone, Wartburg, Tenn., five bass, 13-10, $976
4th: Cody Stokes, Ooltewah, Tenn., five bass, 12-14, $507
5th: Josh Smith, Siler, Ky., five bass, 11-13, $435
6th: Konnor Sweet, Abingdon, Va., five bass, 11-10, $399
7th: John Henley, Kingston, Tenn., five bass, 11-8, $344
7th: Ransom Boone, Marshall, NC, five bass, 11-8, $344
9th: TJ Blakely, Kingsport, Tenn., five bass, 11-5, $290
10th: Shane Bowman, Caryville, Tenn., five bass, 11-2, $254
Rob Welsh of Berea, Kentucky, took the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $307, catching a bass weighing 3 pounds, 11 ounces – the biggest co-angler catch of the day.
The next event for BFL Volunteer Division anglers will be held on April 20, at South Holston Lake in Bristol, Tennessee. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.
The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the October 17-19 BFL Regional tournament at Clarks Hill Lake in Appling, Georgia. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200 -horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.
The 2024 Phoenix BFL Presented by TH Marine is a 24-division circuit geared toward weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 45 boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they compete to finish in the top six, which will qualify them for one of the longest running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by TH Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury , Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, TH Marine, Toyota 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 on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
