LEESBURG, Fla. (March 24, 2025) – Boater Joey Bloom of Winter Springs, Florida, caught a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 14 ounces, Sunday to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on the Harris Chain of Lakes. The tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Gator Division. Bloom earned $4,584 for his victory. The Gator Division fished a doubleheader this weekend, starting with a regularly scheduled event on Saturday. They fished again on Sunday in what was actually a makeup event for a tournament that was previously postponed.
Bloom finished fifth in Saturday’s tournament with 19 pounds, 5 ounces. The difference in his win on Sunday was all about conditions.
“Today was good,” he said. “I started off just fishing around, and I ended up catching a quick limit for about 8 pounds, just fishing shallow Kissimmee Grass around docks. The biggest thing for me today on why I did so good was the wind. The wind ended up pushing all the bait up all the way to the bank. I was able to throw a Senko and a little swim jig and ended up catching some pretty decent fish and culled all the way to 19 pounds. Then I ended up leaving an area and pulled up to another Kissimmee Grass stretch and caught a 7-pounder flipping. And that brought me up to almost 25 pounds.”
In Saturday’s event, the lack of wind had the bait and the bass scattered. It also affected another critter that Bloom keyed on to dial in the areas with the most bait.
“There was a shad spawn that happened during practice, and I knew that there were some bigger fish eating the shad,” Bloom said. “So I just keyed in on the areas where I saw all the white birds. Wherever I saw the white birds is where it really seemed to be going down for me. Yesterday (Saturday), the white birds were scattered all over the place. They weren’t really eating anything. They were just kind of sitting in the bushes. Today they were standing in the water eating all the bait, and the bass were coming up. I was able to get some bigger bites on the swim jig and flipping.”
Bloom’s key baits were a white Dirty Jigs No-Jack Swim Jig, a Yamamoto Senko and a Rapala Crush City Bronco Bug.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Joey Bloom, Winter Springs, Fla., five bass, 24-14, $4,584
2nd: Jessie Mizell, Myakka City, Fla., five bass, 21-10, $2,292
3rd: Kennie Steverson, Umatilla, Fla., five bass, 20-8, $2,029 (includes $500 Phoenix Bonus)
4th: Dylan Quilatan, Windermere, Fla., five bass, 19-11, $1,070
5th: Josh Hubbard, Dunnellon, Fla., five bass, 19-3, $1,592
6th: Reid Heard, Bainbridge, Ga., five bass, 18-13, $840
7th: Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., five bass, 18-5, $764
8th: Santana Moretto, Leesburg, Fla., five bass, 18-0, $688
9th: Bryan Moore, Leesburg, Fla., five bass, 17-8, $611
10th: Tanner Seabolt, Okeechobee, Fla., five bass, 17-6, $535
Sunday’s event also marked the first Bass Fishing League division to enjoy the Abu Garcia “Fishing 4 FREE!” promotion. Every angler competing Sunday in the fourth Gator division event of the season received an Abu Garcia gift pack valued at $230 for boaters and $180 for co-anglers – a value that exceeded the entry for the tournament. Anglers received their Abu Garcia gift boxes at the event, and in addition also received a code for 25% off an order at AbuGarcia.com.
Josh Hubbard of Dunnellon, Florida, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $675.
Tanner Scarborough of Winter Haven, Florida, won the co-angler division and $2,292 Sunday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 13 pounds, 12 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Tanner Scarborough, Winter Haven, Fla., three bass, 13-12, $2,292
2nd: Preston Williams, Tallahassee, Fla., three bass, 13-1, $1,146
3rd: Benton Peoples, Bardstown, Ky., three bass, 12-15, $765
4th: Evrett Hunter, Nokomis, Fla., three bass, 11-3, $535
5th: Christopher Freeman, Eustis, Fla., three bass, 11-1, $458
6th: Nathan Haystead, Saint Cloud, Fla., three bass, 10-14, $420
7th: Danny Hinton, Saint Cloud, Fla., three bass, 10-9, $363
7th: Steve Cornell, Crestview, Fla., three bass, 10-9, $363
9th: Robert Linthout, Cape Coral, Fla., three bass, 10-7, $306
10th: David Jones, Umatilla, Fla., three bass, 10-2, $243
10th: Marlei Hunt, Wesley Chapel, Fla., three bass, 10-2, $243
10th: Deantre Burch, High Spring, Fla., three bass, 10-2, $243
Christopher Freeman of Eustis, Florida, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $337, catching a bass that weighed in at 8 pounds, 15 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After four events, Dylan Quilatan of Windermere, Florida, now leads the Fishing Clash Gator Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 990 points, while Preston Williams of Tallahassee, Florida, leads the Fishing Clash Gator Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 935 points.
The next event for BFL Gator Division anglers will be held Sept. 27-28, at the St. Johns River in Palatka, Georgia.
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Bass Fishing League (BFL) News