Davis Claims Co-angler Title

BRACEY, Va. (May 1, 2017) – Raymond Jones III of Statesville, North Carolina, took top honors at the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Piedmont Division tournament on Lake Gaston Saturday after bringing a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 11 ounces to the scale. For his win, Jones pocketed $7,473.

 

“The Piedmont Division is really strong so I’m very fortunate to come out with a win,” said Jones, who earned his first career-victory in BFL competition. “In practice I was able to find some water that wasn’t clear, but wasn’t completely muddied up either. It was mid-lake, and that’s where I ended up spending my day.”

Jones said he lost three solid bass in the morning, but was able to grind out a limit by 10 a.m.

“I had a milk run that we followed until lunchtime,” said Jones. “We’d catch them in that mid-lake stained water and then leave it alone to replenish. I had plenty of bites the rest of the day, but only caught eight keepers.”

Jones said he used a homemade spinnerbait and two soft-plastics to catch his fish.

“The spinnerbait was the reaction bait,” said Jones. “I covered a lot of water with it, and then worked them over with the soft-plastics. It was a one-two punch with the soft-plastics. Sometimes I had to rotate body-style, and their colors, to trigger bites.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Raymond Jones III, Statesville, N.C., five bass, 16-11, $5,473 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

2^nd:         James Blankenship, Siler City, N.C., five bass, 16-10, $2,936

3^rd:          Jeffrey Thomas, Broadway, N.C., five bass, 16-8, $1,756

4^th:          Jerry Davis, Lexington, N.C., five bass, 15-5, $1,230

5^th:          Ryan Harrell, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., five bass, 15-0, $1,155

6^th:          Burley Langford, South Chesterfield, Va., five bass, 14-12, $967

7^th:          Chris Daves, Spring Grove, Va., five bass, 14-4, $879

8^th:          Ryan Powroznik, Prince George, Va., five bass, 14-3, $791

9^th:          Cavin Young, Prince George, Va., five bass, 14-2, $703

10^th:        Josh Wagy, Dewitt, Va., five bass, 13-15, $584

10^th:        Kenny Beale Jr., Blairs, Va., five bass, 13-15, $584

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

George Lambeth of Thomasville, North Carolina, caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 12 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $830.

Michael Davis of New London, North Carolina, won the Co-angler Division and $2,836 Saturday after bringing a five-bass limit totaling 16 pounds, 7 ounces to the weigh-in stage.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Michael Davis, New London, N.C., five bass, 16-7, $2,836

2^nd:         David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 13-13, $1,318

3^rd:          Donald Talbard, Ringgold, Va., four bass, 9-12, $879

4^th:          Arthur Clark, Cary, N.C., three bass, 9-2, $665

5^th:          Hank Cooke, Emporia, Va., three bass, 9-1, $527

6^th:          Stephen Kocell, Waxhaw, N.C., five bass, 8-14, $483

7^th:          Brian Transon, Sherrills Ford, N.C., four bass, 8-9, $439

8^th:          Lewis Brown, Asheboro, N.C., three bass, 8-7, $395

9^th:          Larry Freeman Jr., La Crosse, Va., three bass, 7-10, $352

10^th:        Chris Teague, Lincolnton, N.C., three bass, 7-8, $308

Hubert Roman of Lexington, North Carolina, caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a fish weighing 5 pounds, 7 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $415.

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. 12-14 BFL Regional Championship on the James River in Williamsburg, Virginia. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.

The 2017 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. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the BFL on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.