BFL Regional Roundup: Mix Of Presentations Gets The Job Done

It's that time of year again – when Major League Fishing's Bass Fishing League reaches its playoff season. Five two-day regional tournaments were held last weekend around the midwest and southeast with berths in the 2026 BFL All-America on the line. Here's a recap of how the winners caught their fish at some of the best-known tournament lakes in the country:

Douglas Lake

Divisions: Mountain, Music City

Field Size: 72 boats

Winner: Hunter Bouldin (McMinnville, Tenn.)

Winning Weight: 30 pounds, 12 ounces

Breakdown: Boulding caught a 3-pounder right away on day 1 with a topwater and he was off and running from there.

“I kept fishing around and had a bit of bad luck when I broke two off back-to-back,” Bouldin said. “While I was throwing the topwater I was looking for brush, because I didn’t see any evidence of a good floating-bait bite.”

A jig thrown to brush produced a 3-pounder for Bouldin, so he changed his tactics and the day picked up for him. However, on the second day he didn’t stick to the jig early in the day.

“I fished some schools and some topwater to start out with, and something wasn’t feeling right,” Bouldin said. “Then I went to a brush pile and lost three good ones out of it. I felt like I had blown my opportunity right there. Four fish out of one brush pile, and I only landed one of them.”

Bouldin said he then ran the lake looking for schooling fish but ended up returning to the brush pile. The brush pile didn’t produce for him, but a nearby rock outcropping held a 4-pounder that ended up being the largest bass Bouldin weighed.

“So, I just stayed in that one holler and fished that brush, and for whatever reason that one little holler was just loaded with good, healthy fish,” Bouldin said.

Moving on: Along with Bouldin, runner-up Tim Smiley and third-place finisher Cody Mackie qualified for the 2026 BFL All-American.

Grand Lake

Divisions: Ozark, Okie

Field Size: 113 boats

Winner: Joshua Teply (Harrah, Okla.)

Winning Weight: 38 pounds, 14 ounces

Breakdown: Boat malfunctions limited Teply’s practice time on Grand, but he didn’t let that hamper his chances for the tournament.

“Everybody is on Grand this time of the year,” Teply said. “I had an idea of what was going on. Fishing is pretty simple to me right now, and I caught a lot of fish each day.

“For the most part I stayed in the mid-lake region and covered a ton of water,” Teply added. “Once I found fish I stayed put for as long as I kept catching fish.”

Teply, who mentioned he was very adept with forward-facing sonar, said he concentrated his efforts offshore and fairly deep in 25 feet of water. He said the rest of the field seemed to be focusing on shallow water, and he had the depths to himself during the tournament.

“I look for whatever looks good when I’m fishing with the sonar,” Teply said. “Sometimes it’s rocks, sometimes it’s trees that have floated in, sometimes it’s brushpiles or schools of fish. I just look for anything that looks good. I tell everybody, ‘Look for stop signs for bass.’ I look for places with not a lot of cover. But then when you do find a piece of cover, it is a key piece of cover with a group of fish on it.”

Teply said he doesn’t use sonar to pick out individual fish on his electronics. Rather, he uses it as a tool to locate structure, then approaches the fish with a self-described ‘old-school’ technique.

“I throw a big 3/4-ounce brown and purple Destroyer jig and a big worm,” Teply said. “I like a redbug Zoom Magnum Ol Monster or a Zoom Magnum Trick Worm, with a 1/2-ounce tungsten unpegged weight and a big, heavy flippin’ hook on 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon. Big rod, big line, big hook, big bait. Just set the hook and flip ‘em in the boat - none of this netting stuff.

“I caught fish shaking a minnow this week, but they weren’t the right ones,” Teply added. “I just couldn’t catch the right ones on it. The bait had to be fished on the bottom and fished very slowly. I had to quit looking at that screen and just drag that bait.”

Moving on: Teply, Derek Felton and Brandon Ackerson punched their tickets to the 2026 BFL All-American.

Kentucky-Barkley Lakes

Divisions: Mississippi, Hoosier

Field Size: 82 boats

Winner: Justin Berger (Murray, Ky.)

Winning Weight: 41 pounds

Breakdown: Berger entered the Regional event just weeks after winning the BFL Super Tournament on Kentucky Lake on Sept. 6-7.

“My goal during practice was to find topwater fish,” Berger said. “This time of year, if you can find a couple of places that’s got them, you can win. Period. So, if I could find one spot per day, it would have been the best practice ever. And in five days, I got seven bites. Which was not good.”

Berger said the first day of the tournament provided ‘super cold’ air temperatures and no wind, but he did not abandon his topwater approach for winning fish.

“I was not feeling good at all going into this tournament,” Berger said. “I was just going to have fun. I went through all five of my best topwater spots and never had a bite the first day. So I went to different subsurface baits, and still nothing. A complete ghost town.”

Berger said he moved the boat a couple of hundred yards away from one of his topwater spots and made some Scoping casts to clear his mind and gather his thoughts. He hooked into a couple of 4-pounders in a matter of 15 minutes. Another move provided a 17-inch keeper and a 4 1/4-pound bass. Yet another relocation provided another 17-incher.

“I had salvaged my day by 1:30, and I told my co-angler I had enough weight to give myself a chance for the second day,” Berger said. “So, for the next 2 1/2 hours I fished new water just trying to find something for the next day, and never got another bite. I had five keeper bites on Friday and boated them all.”

The second day of competition provided warmer weather, and Berger said he wanted to run his same topwater spots in hopes that bite would pay off.

“On the very first spot my co-angler caught a 3 1/2-pound fish,” Berger said. “It just demolished his topwater bait. So, I took that as a good sign.”

Berger’s topwater spots put two 3 1/2-pound bass in the livewell and boosted his confidence. Berger soon boated a 3-pounder, and a smallmouth he estimated to be 5 1/2 to 6 pounds followed. Berger said he wanted one more bass to fill his limit for a chance to make a strong showing in the tournament and secure an All-American berth.

“Not five casts later I caught a 5 1/2-pound largemouth,” Berger said. “At 10 a.m. I had a really good bag. I couldn’t have scripted it any better. I knew I was going to the All-American at that point. That’s all I wanted. I wanted to go back to the All-American. It is such a cool event and I’m so excited that I will be there again next year.”

Moving on: Berger, Matteo Turano and Gary Singleton all qualified for the 2026 BFL All-American.

Logan Martin Lake

Divisions: Bama, Choo Choo

Field Size: 97 boats

Winner: Zeke Gossett (Pell City, Ala.)

Winning Weight: 27 pounds, 6 ounces

Breakdown: Gossett said he approached Logan Martin with three key baits. Early in the day Gossett said he fished a Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg topwater and a black buzzbait down seawalls and docks in 2 to 3 feet of water. Later in the day Gossett switched to an electric shad-colored 3.75-inch Strike King Rage Swimmer swimbait, targeting rock piles in 10 feet of water.

“The first morning I had a really good start and a little over 12 pounds, which as tough as it’s been fishing, that’s a good start for this lake,” Gossett said. “Then I went through a big lull from 10 o’clock to 1 o’clock, but I made a key cull late in the day – a 3-pounder.

“Day 2 was just about the same story,” Gossett went on to say. “Then, around 2:30, I made back-to-back casts and caught a 2 1/2-pounder and a 3 1/4 for two last-minute culls on the swimbait on a rock pile.”

Gossett said his home-lake experience led him to think that 30 pounds would be needed to win the two-day Regional.

“This lake has had a lot of pressure lately, so I knew it was going to fish tough,” Gossett said. “I didn’t think I had enough for the win, I thought I needed at least one more good bite each day. So this is surprising, but it feels really good to get this done on my home lake. I put in a lot of work for this tournament and practiced very hard. I knew I had to keep my head down, and I usually do better in grinder tournaments, anyway, so this one felt really good to come out on top.”

Moving on: Gossett, James Willoughby and Tom Frink are now qualified for the 2026 BFL All-American.

Lake Murray

Divisions: North Carolina, Savannah River

Field Size: 101 boats

Winner: Landon Lawson (Jonesborough, Tenn.)

Winning Weight: 47 pounds, 7 ounces

Breakdown: Lawson practiced for the Lake Murray tournament for two days and said he caught 16 or 17 pounds a day but wasn’t really on the bass well enough to be confident. On the first day of competition, he asked his co-angler if there were any spots he wanted to try fishing.

“We ran to his place, and the wind was blowing on it,” Lawson said. “I had never fished this spot on Lake Murray. I had fished around it and on both sides of it but had never fished this spot. I just took off Scoping, and there were big ones swimming everywhere.

“I hadn’t caught anything in practice before 10 o’clock, but on Day 1 I caught 22 pounds before 9:30,” Lawson added. “Every fish wasn’t big, but every one out of five would be a big one.”

Lawson said he rotated baits on the mid-lake spot between a Rapala Crush City Freeloader and a drop-shot rig, fished in 15 to 30 feet of water. After his early limit, he spent the rest of his day searching for other areas that might be productive for the tournament. Lawson said he didn’t find anything of interest to him that had the potential of his Day 1 spot – he couldn’t seem to catch a bass that weighed more than 3 1/2 pounds.

“On Day 2 I hunkered down in that same spot and just sat,” Lawson said. “I just let the wind blow me and fished as many cane piles and brush piles as I could.

“I know that lake is full of big ones, and a 27-pound bag can be had there,” Lawson went on to say. “This time of year it’s a little tougher. On the second day, around 3 o’clock, I had a 3.60-pound fish in the livewell along with a 5-pounder and a couple of 4-pounders to go with them. I ended up hooking one that jumped four feet in the air, and it was as thick as a basketball. I looked at my co-angler and said, ‘This is her. This is the ballgame.’ I landed her and she weighed 5-something. It was incredible.”

For his victory, Lawson now qualifies to compete in the 2026 Phoenix BFL All-American.

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