Nashville’s Markus Takes Co-Angler Title

ROGERSVILLE, Ala. (March 18, 2019) – Boater Eddie Jewell of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 21 pounds even to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Choo Choo Division tournament on Wheeler Lake. Jewell earned $3,747 for his efforts.

Jewell said he primarily ran chunk rock banks and gravel bars on the lower end of the lake near First and Second creeks, and caught the majority of his fish in 4 to 6 feet of water. He described his main area as a chunk rock and gravel point heading into a pocket off of the main river.

“I struggled early – it was probably 8 [a.m.] by the time I found my fish,” said Jewell, who earned his first win in FLW competition. “On Monday in practice I’d found a couple fish on a spot with gravel and chunk rock, and when I went to it Saturday, they were loaded on it. I pretty much stayed there all day.”

Jewell said he used a chartreuse and white-colored custom vibrating jig with a white Zoom Super Fluke Jr. trailer and a crawfish-colored Strike King 1.5 KVD Rattling square-billed crankbait to catch his fish. He estimated that he caught 15 fish on the vibrating jig, with three largemouth and one smallmouth reaching the scale, and six or seven fish on the crankbait, with one smallmouth topping off the limit.

“I started off with the vibrating jig, and went to the crankbait every once in a while,” said Jewell. “In clear water I went with the crankbait, and when it was stained I used the vibrating jig.”

During the final 90 minutes of his day, Jewell said he made a “milk-run” through some “big-fish” spots, eventually landing the heaviest bass of the tournament in the Boater Division – a 6-pound, 3-ouncer.

“The fish was on big chunk rock offshore and there was a boat sitting right on top of it. I waited for the boat to leave, then threw up  there and caught it on the vibrating jig,” said Jewell. “It was out in 12 feet of water.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^sT:         Eddie Jewell, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., five bass, 21-0, $3,747

2^nd:         Lavoyd Lemmond, Decatur, Ala., five bass, 18-12, $1,868

3^rd:          Rick Williams, Decatur, Ala., five bass, 18-2, $1,112

4^th:          Donny Beck, Killen, Ala., five bass, 16-10, $779

5^th:          Tony Harvey, Rogersville, Ala., five bass, 16-7, $667

6^th:          Jimmy Mason, Rogersville, Ala., five bass, 16-6, $612

7^th:          Ricky Parpolowicz, Decatur, Ala., five bass, 16-1, $556

8^th:          Chaz McMahan, Leoma, Tenn., five bass, 16-0, $501

9^th:          Jett Loach, Chickamauga, Ga., four bass, 15-11, $545

10^th:        Trey Gamble, Helena, Ala., five bass, 15-5, $369

10^th:        Kenneth Smith, Tullahoma, Tenn., five bass, 15-5, $369

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Jewell’s 6-pound, 3-ounce bass also earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $410.

Zach Markus of Nashville, Tennessee, won the Co-angler Division and $1,873 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 18 pounds even.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Zach Markus, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 18-0, $1,873

2^nd:         Cody Davis, Hico, Texas, four bass, 15-3, $834

3^rd:          Tony Hill, Chatsworth, Ga., five bass, 14-5, $658

4^th:          Charles   Billingsley, Huntsville, Ala., five bass, 13-12, $361

4^th:          Audie Aultman, Knoxville, Tenn., five bass, 13-12, $361

6^th:          Jeff Morgan, Kennesaw, Ga., five bass, 13-11, $356

7^th:          Shane Jewell, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., three bass, 13-4, $278

8^th:          Raymond Hanlon, Chattanooga, Tenn., five bass, 13-1, $250

9^th:          Randall Wiggins, Birmingham, Ala., five bass, 13-0, $222

10^th:        Ethan Flack, Cullman, Ala., three bass, 11-10, $195

Markus also caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $205.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five winners in each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 10-12 BFL Regional Championship on Lake Seminole in Bainbridge, Georgia. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard.

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. The 2019 BFL All-American will be held May 30-June 1 at the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland, and is hosted by the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism and the Commissioners of Charles County. 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.