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CHARLES COUNTY, Md. (June 1, 2019) – Boater Brennon McCord of West Frankfort, Illinois, won the 36^th annual T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) All-American tournament on the Potomac River presented by General Tire Saturday, capping off the event with a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 3 ounces. McCord’s three-day cumulative total of 15 bass weighing 45-11 was enough to edge second-place angler Joseph Thompson of Coatesville, Pennsylvania – who led the event for the first two days – by 1 pound, 4 ounces. For his win, McCord netted $100,000 and an invitation into the world championship of bass fishing – the FLW Cup.

“This win means a lot. I grew up listening to my dad talk about this tournament and my grandpa talk about it – about how they always wanted to get here, but never made it. My dad has fell short a couple of times. Those two guys taught me everything know I about this sport. It’s an unbelievable feeling and it’s going to take a while to sink in, for sure.”

McCord said 14 of the 15 fish that he weighed this week came using a 3/8-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait Jack Hammer, in Spot Remover or black and blue, with either a Strike King Rage Tail Menace Grub or a Zoom Z-Hog Jr. trailer.

“I was fishing in Mattawoman Creek – I never left,” said McCord, who earned his second win in FLW competition. ”There was about a 200-yard stretch of milfoil that I found that had a little of bit of hydrilla mixed in with it and I think that was the key. Nobody fished it either, except for today. There was a local tournament going on.”

After working the area Thursday, McCord said he fished another spot in the same stretch of grass Friday. He noted that he actually caught his first fish flipping a laydown near the bank with a blacklight-colored Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver with a 5/16-ounce tungsten weight on 25-pound-test Seaguar line, and then proceeded to do the rest of his work with the Jack Hammer.

Saturday, McCord said his day got off to a slow start at the grass stretch, prompting him to make some changes. With one good one and a keeper in the boat, he made another stop, but again, couldn’t get anything going. “I pulled in to the back of the creek and started skipping my ChatterBait up underneath the pads and caught a good one, right up on the spatter-docks,” continued McCord. “Three of my best fish ended up coming from underneath the lily pads today. I went to a patch of milfoil in the middle of the creek back there that I had a weird feeling about, and I ended up catching a big one at it. I got lucky and had four good bites today.”

The top 10 boaters on the Potomac River finished:

1^st:          Brennon McCord, West Frankfort, Ill., 15 bass, 45-11, $100,200

2^nd:         Joseph Thompson, Coatesville, Pa., 15 bass, 44-7, $21,100

3^rd:          Bryan New, Belmont, N.C., 15 bass, 42-2, $20,000 + $8,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

4^th:          Chris Martinkovic, Hamilton, Ohio, 15 bass, 41-7, $14,500 + $7,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

5^th:          Troy Morrow, Eastanollee, Ga., 15 bass, 40-13, $13,000 + $6,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

6^th:          Doug Ruster, New Palestine, Ind., 14 bass, 39-13, $12,000 + $5,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

7^th:          Robert Walser, Lexington, N.C., 15 bass, 39-11, $12,500 + $4,500 Ranger Cup Bonus

8^th:          Seth Davis, Harrison, Tenn., 15 bass, 39-2, $10,000

9^th:          Ronnie Baker, Providence Forge, Va., 13 bass, 35-2, $9,000

10^th:        Moo Bae, West Friendship, Md., 13 bass, 34-13, $8,000 + $3,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Overall, there were 45 bass weighing 112 pounds, 7 ounces, caught by the final 10 boaters Saturday. The catch included seven five-bass limits.

Ben Dacey of Chesterfield, Virginia, won the Co-angler Division and $50,000 Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 38 pounds, 2 ounces, followed by Todd Blakeman of Chatham, Illinois, in second place with 14 bass weighing 36-15, good for $16,950.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1^st:          Ben Dacey, Chesterfield, Va., 15 bass, 38-2, $50,250

2^nd:         Todd Blakeman, Chatham, Ill., 14 bass, 36-15, $15,150 + $1,800 Ranger Cup Bonus

3^rd:          Jeff Rikard, Leesville, S.C., 13 bass, 35-12, $6,000

4^th:          Levi Crossway, Jacksonville, Fla., 14 bass, 34-9, $5,000

5^th:          Frank Godwin Jr., Bainbridge, Ga., 11 bass, 30-5, $4,500

6^th:          Zach Barnes, Chickamauga, Ga., 11 bass, 28-9, $4,000

7^th:          Willis Kennedy III, Flomaton, Ala., 12 bass, 27-8, $3,500 + $1,300 Ranger Cup Bonus

8^th:          Michael Bahnweg, Union Dale, Pa., 10 bass, 26-15, $3,000

9^th:          James Moore Jr., Lampasas, Texas, 11 bass, 25-4, $2,500

10^th:        Tristen Trull, Mt. Holly, N.C., 10 bass, 24-8, $2,000

Overall, there were 30 bass weighing 73 pounds, 4 ounces, caught by the final 10 co-anglers Saturday. The catch included four five-bass limits.

Hosted by the Charles County Board of Commissioners and Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism, the T-H Marine BFL All-American featured a field of the top 98 boaters and co-anglers from across the 24-division BFL circuit competing for a grand prize of up to $120,000 in the Boater Division and $60,000 in the Co-angler Division. The top boater now receives an invitation to compete for bass fishing’s most coveted prize – the 2019 FLW Cup – Aug. 9-11 on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Television coverage of the 2019 BFL All-American on the Potomac River will premiere in the fall of 2019. The Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show airs each Saturday night at 7 p.m. EST and is broadcast to more than 63 million cable, satellite and telecommunications households in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean on the World Fishing Network (WFN), the leading entertainment destination and digital resource for anglers throughout North America. FLW television is also distributed internationally to FLW partner countries, including Canada, China, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Zimbabwe.

The 2019 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

About FLW

FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2019 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct more than 290 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Zimbabwe. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

BRANSON, Mo. (May 31, 2019) – One week after the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour field rewrote the league’s record books with an astounding display of fish-catching efficiency on Table Rock Lake, Jacob Wheeler was at it again.

Fishing the first tour-level afternoon/evening competition day in recent years – a noon-to-8 p.m. game day – Wheeler wrote his name in the MLF record books twice: Once for most weight caught in a single day of competition, and one for most scorable bass landed in a day.

By the time lines came out for Friday’s Shotgun Round at the Bad Boy Mowers Stage Seven Presented by Covercraft, Wheeler had racked up 88 fish for 129 pounds, 14 ounces, a 17-pound cushion over Shin Fukae in second place (112-4) and the most productive day in the league’s young history.

“Unbelievable,” Wheeler said simply as he strapped his rods down after the day. “Just unbelievable.”

Wheeler Never Slowed Down

For the better part of the day, Fukae appeared to have the round under control, grabbing the lead early in the second period and becoming the first angler to break the 100-pound mark early in the third period. But Wheeler stayed within range of Fukae, and eventually overtook Fukae in the final hour.

While Fukae slowed noticeably – he weighed only three fish in the final 90 minutes of competition – Wheeler put 20 fish on SCORETRACKER® in the same twilight-hours time frame, almost all of them on a swimbait.

“I grew up fishing weeknight tournaments: I fished a Tuesday-nighter, a Wednesday-nighter, a Thursday-nighter, and sometimes a Friday-nighter, every week. That’s where I started. Some of my favorite memories are those evening tournaments. The fish bit pretty well for me today, and I enjoyed that noon-to-8 schedule.”

Wheeler’s first-place finish in the Group A Shotgun Round is the fourth time in the 2019 season that he’s finished atop a Bass Pro Tour round.

Fukae Flip-Flops

If you needed proof about how differently a lake can perform for an individual angler from one week to the next, look no farther than Fukae. The Mercury pro not only hammered Table Rock for over 112 pounds, he completely flip-flopped his results from a week ago in the Stage Six event on Table Rock.

Fukae weighed in just 28-5 in his Stage Six Shotgun Round and weighed in 51-9 for the entire event, finishing 75th in the 80-man field. In Friday’s return to Table Rock, though, Fukae beat that weight in one period. After a productive first period in which he weighed in 27-9, Fukae stacked 51-10 on SCORETRACKER in Period 2 on Friday, connecting with 29 largemouth and one spotted bass (all on a drop-shot).

Second Shotgun Round Ahead

A new group of 40 anglers, Group B, roll out onto Table Rock Saturday at 12 p.m. CT for Shotgun Round 2, under very similar conditions as their Group A counterparts. Table Rock is still slightly rising but stabilizing – it’s risen just under a foot in three days – and has gained one degree of water temperature, up to 76 degrees.

Looking Ahead

The field will carry their Shotgun Round weights into Elimination Rounds on Sunday and Monday. The Top 20 anglers from each of those Elimination groups will advance to a 40-angler Knockout Round on Monday, June 3 – weights will be zeroed, making the Knockout a one-day scramble. The Top 10 anglers in the Knockout Round will advance to the Championship Round on Wednesday, June 5.

How, When, Where to Watch

The Group B competition begins Saturday at 12 p.m. CT, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! live stream begins at 11:55 a.m. CT for coverage of Period 1, with Steven “Lurch” Scott and Rob Newell calling the live action. Full coverage continues at 2:30 when Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone and Natalie Dillon pick up the commentary and analysis until lines out at 8 p.m. There will be no Berkley Postgame Show until the Championship Round.

Today’s Results

For Group A results in Shotgun Round 1, and to follow cumulative results throughout the competition days, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com and click “results.”