HENDERSON, N.C. (April 21, 2025) – Boater Kaden Buchmann of Troutman, North Carolina, caught a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 2 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Kerr Lake. The tournament was the second event of the season for the BFL Shenandoah Division. Buchmann earned $4,182 for his victory. Buchmann is off to a roaring start this spring. He won the North Carolina Division tournament on Lake Norman on March 1, finished runner-up at Smith Mountain Lake in the Piedmont Division on March 30, finished second again in the North Carolina Division on April 12 at High Rock Lake and now has win No. 2 on the season with his victory at Kerr Lake.
“If you want me to put in into one word, it would be confidence,” said Buchmann, a junior business major at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina, when reflecting on his success. “Every time I’ve put my boat in the water this year, I’ve felt like I had a chance to win.
“I think it’s a combination of I’ve figured out how I like to fish, what I like to fish, and I feel like I’ve figured out the fish a little bit more than I previously have.”
This is only Buchmann’s second season fishing the BFLs, and really, it’s his first full season. Last year, he only entered one event, finishing third at Lake Norman in the North Carolina Division Super Tournament. His worst finish in a BFL event to date: 14th at the second stop of this year’s North Carolina Division at Lake Wylie.
Buchmann’s not the only Lander angler having success. His roommate, Andrew Blanton, won the Co-angler Division at Kerr Lake on Saturday – his second top-10 finish of the season. As for the fishing at Kerr, Buchmann kept it pretty simple.
“This is my first week on the lake, pretty much,” he said. “I found a couple of stretches of bushes down the lake and kind of just soaked ’em.”
He figures the bass were starting to spawn. Though he never spotted any on beds, Buchmann said all the bass he caught were in spawning pockets. The aspiring professional angler caught his winning fish from as shallow as 6 inches of water and from some deeper bushes, with one coming on a jig and the rest on a wacky-rigged worm.
“It started quick because I lost a couple big ones,” Buchmann added. “But I caught a small limit right off the get-go. And I just kind of caught one every hour, hour and a half, two hours. I just had to weed through the males.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Kaden Buchmann, Troutman, N.C., five bass, 17-2, $4,182
2nd: Adam Lester, Huddleston, Va., five bass, 16-4, $2,291
3rd: Ben Dalton, Bracey, Va., five bass, 15-10, $1,362
4th: Raymond Jones III, Mocksville, N.C., five bass, 15-8, $952
5th: Daniel Weber, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 15-6, $816
6th: Jackson Pleasant, Four Oaks, N.C., five bass, 14-14, $748
7th: Tyler Trent, Nathalie, Va., five bass, 14-5, $680
8th: Wesley Cashwell, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., five bass, 14-1, $1,172
9th: Kelly Robinette, South Chesterfield, Va., five bass, 14-0, $1,044 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
10th: Michael Birr, Franklinton, N.C., five bass, 13-15, $476
Wesley Cashwell of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $560. Andrew Blanton of Chesnee, South Carolina won the co-angler division and $2,041 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 10 pounds, 6 ounces.
The top 11 co-anglers finished:
1st: Andrew Blanton, Chesnee, S.C., three bass, 10-6, $2,041
2nd: Craig Wheeler, Avenue, Md., three bass, 8-15, $1,021
3rd: Richard Williams, Sutherland, Va., three bass, 8-8, $683
4th: Ryan Spivey, Fairfax, Va., three bass, 8-6, $476
5th: Lew Jenkins, Waldorf, Md., three bass, 8-3, $408
6th: David Rosenbaum, Leesburg, Va., three bass, 8-2, $637
6th: Douglas Washburn, Bracey, Va., three bass, 8-2, $357
8th: Nelson Bailey, Virginia Beach, Va., three bass, 8-1, $306
9th: Victor Cuevas, Supply, N.C., three bass, 7-14, $272
10th: Brent Allison, Littlestown, Pa., three bass, 7-13, $276
10th: James Wade, Loris, S.C., three bass, 7-13, $226
David Rosenbaum of Leesburg, Virginia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $280, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 9 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After two events, Broderick Luckey of Lynchburg, Virginia, now leads the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 490 points, while Jason Hinger of Timberlake, North Carolina, leads the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 479 points.
The next event for BFL Shenandoah Division anglers will be held May 17, at the Potomac River out of Marbury, Maryland.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-kerr-42125.html
BFL News Archive