GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (March 2, 2026) – Boater Drew Morgan of Murray, Kentucky, caught a total of five bass weighing 23 pounds, 10 ounces, to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Kentucky-Barkley Lake. The tournament was the first of five events of the season for the BFL LBL Division. Morgan earned $3,530 for his victory.
“During practice I did a bunch of looking around, practicing for not being able to use forward-facing sonar the whole day,” Morgan said. “So, I was going around marking exactly where my boat needed to be set up. And I was waypointing what I was actually casting at, whether it was a stump, rock pile, brush or a school of fish still in that winter schooling action that’s still going on. I found a handful of spots that had a good population of fish in an area, and a lot of it had to do with the current and the fish setting up correctly.”
Morgan said he hit his first spot and left his forward-facing sonar off to see if he could catch fish without it. He caught three on a swimbait right off the bat then relocated to his second spot and turned on his Garmin LiveScope. After about 45 minutes of fishing, he had boosted his weight to about 22 pounds.
Morgan said he fished from Paris Landing to the dam and threw a crankbait as well as an Alabama rig during his non-scope time purely for the fish-drawing power of the A-rig. He tried a 4.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbait both with and without the aid of LiveScope. His main producer, however, was a ¼-ounce jighead and a Rapala Crush City Freeloader . Morgan said when he reached 22 pounds he thought he might have a chance at winning the tournament but still felt someone would have a 23-pound bag.
“At 10:45 I caught a 4¾-pound fish that put me at 23-10, and then I didn’t catch a fish the rest of the day,” Morgan said. “Fishing without the ’Scope for about an hour I knew it was over for me. I had done about all I could do. All I could do was get on them fast and catch what I could catch. It was almost like it was a three-hour tournament for me.”
The win is Morgan’s second BFL win, with the first coming on Kentucky-Barkley Lake in April 2024.
“To win here is a pretty special feeling,” Morgan said. “Especially with the competition in the LBL division. It’s pretty stout.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Drew Morgan, Murray, Ky., five bass, 23-10, $3,530
2nd: Noah Morgan, Russellville, Ky., five bass, 21-3, $1,770
3rd: Harlan Thomas, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 18-8, $890
4th: John Rediess, Smiths Grove, Ky., five bass, 18-2, $710
5th: B.J. Fitzgerald, Whitesville, Ky., five bass, 17-11, $1,130 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
6th: Marty Sisk, Evansville, Ind., five bass, 17-6, $540
7th: Stephen Barga, Benton, Ky., five bass, 16-13, $520
8th: Connor Deweese, Evansville, Ind., five bass, 16-8, $490
9th: Mason Woley, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 16-6, $470
10th: Dustin Vaal, Farmington, Ky., five bass, 16-4, $550
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Brian Futch of Herrin, Illinois, earned the Big Bass Boater award after landing a 7-pound, 4-ounce bass worth $200. Doug Ruster of New Palestine, Indiana, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,865 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 4 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Doug Ruster, New Palestine, Ind., three bass, 11-4, $1,865
2nd: Phillip Altice, Springfield, Tenn., three bass, 10-10, $885
3rd: Adam Lucas, Cape Girardeau, Mo., three bass, 10-8, $495
4th: Marcus Mann, Benton, Ky., three bass, 9-15, $455
5th: Jerry North II, Three Way, Tenn., three bass, 9-0, $315
6th: Barrett Washburn, Hardin, Ky., three bass, 7-9, $270
7th: Maddox Stamper, Fancy Farm, Ky., three bass, 7-2, $260
8th: James Harper, Palmersville, Tenn., three bass, 6-5, $245
9th: Corey Green, Paducah, Ky., two bass, 6-4, $240
10th: Jeff Johnston, Nashville, Tenn., three bass, 6-3, $187
10th: Hayden Swain, Tamaroa, Ill., two bass, 6-3, $187
Doug Ruster of New Palestine, Indiana, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 4-pound, 11-ounce bass worth $100.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-kentucky-barkley-3226.html
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