Abbeville’s Hillman Wins Co-angler Division

EUFAULA, Ala. (Sept. 30, 2019) – Boater Josh Stracner of Vandiver, Alabama, brought a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale weighing 35 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the two-day T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bama Division super-tournament on Lake Eufaula Sunday. Stracner earned $6,694 for his efforts.

“It was really tough fishing, but I actually caught some fish out deeper than I thought I was going to catch them,” said Stracner, who earned his fifth career win in BFL competition and locked up the Bama Division Angler of the Year points title. “I caught them pretty deep – which you usually don’t this time of year – but it was the only way I could get a bite. Some of the places had brush and some of it was natural timber, and I was catching them from 15 to 25 feet deep.”

For baits, Stracner kept things pretty simple. A Strike King 6XD crankbait and Zoom Magnum Trick Worm did most of the work for him over the two days. The biggest key to his win was running new water and doing his homework ahead of time.

“I put in the time and I spent the weekend before this tournament doing nothing but idling, and I’ve really got to credit my Humminbird Helix electronics,” continued Stracner. “I spent a lot of time idling trying to look for fish. I got one good bite on Friday before the event, and I spent the rest of the day looking for more of it. I really think that’s what won it for me.”

Though Stracner’s game plan was solid, the tournament nearly slipped through his fingers. In a game where lost fish usually haunt an angler, Stracner was fortunate this time that things all worked out.

“They actually bit a little better and earlier on Sunday, it was just poor execution on my part. The first fish I hung was a 4½-pounder, and it came up and jumped and came off. I lost another good one about an hour later and I really thought I had blown it. I was fortunate to have just enough.

“I went [to Eufaula] to just try and fish and win the Angler of the Year title,” Stracner went on to say. “I was leading coming into the tournament and I just wanted to go catch a decent limit and not worry about my finish too much, but I wound up doing better than I thought.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Josh Stracner, Vandiver, Ala., 10 bass, 35-12, $6,694

2^nd:         Ryan Ingram, Phenix City, Ala., 10 bass, 34-5, $2,441

3^rd:         Shane Powell, Dothan, Ala., 10 bass, 32-7, $1,562

4^th:         Casey O’Donnell, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 30-2, $1,092

5^th:         Wesley Rushing, Eufaula, Ala., 10 bass, 29-9, $936

6^th:         Jeff Kitchens, Auburn, Ala., 10 bass, 28-11, $858

7^th:         Mark Stillwell, Salem, Ala., 10 bass, 28-7, $780

8^th:         Terry Tucker, Gadsen, Ala., 10 bass, 27-1, $702

9^th:         Ethan Greene, Eufaula, Ala., 10 bass, 26-15, $624

10^th:       Jeff Cannon, Douglasville, Ga., 10 bass, 26-10, $546

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Stracner caught a 5-pound, 7-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the event’s Boater Big Bass award of $562.

Abbeville, Alabama’s Curtis Hillman won the Co-angler Division and $2,402 Sunday after catching a two-day total of seven bass weighing 27 pounds, 12 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Curtis Hillman, Abbeville, Ala., seven bass, 27-12, $2,402

2^nd:         Mark Hebert, Lineville, Ala., nine bass, 25-10, $1,081

3^rd:         Wayne Kilgore, Attalla, Ala., 10 bass, 22-6, $723

4^th:         Daniel Buswell Jr., Fayetteville, Ga., seven bass, 22-0, $505

5^th:         Robert Hays, Elmore, Ala., nine bass, 21-11, $432

6^th:         Thomas Robbins, Jackson, S.C., nine bass, 18-10, $596

7^th:         Mike Grose, Salem, Ala., nine bass, 17-1, $410

8^th:         Lew Moore, Roanoke, Ala., five bass, 15-5, $324

9^th:         William Jackson, Sharpsburg, Ga., five bass, 12-1, $288

10^th:       Emory Walden, Newnan, Ga., six bass, 10-4, $252

Hillman also caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 13 ounces. The catch earned him the event’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $240.

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bama Division super-tournament on Lake Eufaula was hosted by the Eufaula Barbour County Chamber of Commerce.

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. 17-19 BFL Regional Championship on Lake Guntersville presented by Mercury Marine in Guntersville, Alabama. 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 2020 BFL All-American will be held April 30-May 2 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina, and is hosted by Visit Anderson. 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.