Hot Springs’ Sutton Wins Co-angler Division

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (April 15, 2019) – Boater Randall Clark of Little Rock, Arkansas, caught a five-bass limit Saturday weighing 15 pounds, 11 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Arkie division event on Lake Hamilton presented by Geared. Clark earned $3,901 for his efforts.

Clark said that he fished for spawning fish mid-lake, targeting 15 specific bass that he had found during his practice period on Friday and saved for the tournament. He was able to put three of those marks in the boat, including the big bass of the tournament at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. He added a couple of more keepers from the same areas to fill out his limit.

“I tried a bunch of stuff – I had 10 rods on my deck – but I couldn’t get bit on anything other than a Texas-rigged black Yamamoto Senko,” Clark said. “The pollen had really darkened the water up. It had color – almost muddy – but it wasn’t muddy, it was the pollen.

“Really, the key for me winning was catching the big fish,” Clark continued. “You couldn’t see them, but I was blind casting to the areas that I knew that they were in. During my practice on Friday I had shook that fish off, and I knew right where it was. It was my second stop during the tournament and I put her in the boat within five minutes of getting there.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Randall Clark, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 15-11, $3,901

2^nd:         Lance Pyle, Sherwood, Ark., five bass, 14-3, $1,733

3^rd:          Garry Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-11, $1,155

4^th:          Chase Mitchell, Umpire, Ark., five bass, 13-8, $809

5^th:          Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $835

5^th:          Shannon Pierce, Rison, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $1,135

5^th:          Josh Ray, Alexander, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $835

8^th:          Ben Blaschke, Roland, Okla., five bass, 12-10, $620

9^th:          Cody Kemp, Donaldson, Ark., five bass, 12-9, $462

10^th:        Chris Darby, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 12-8, $404

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Clark’s big fish of the day was a 6-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass, which also was the tournament’s biggest bass of the day and also earned him the Boater Big Bass award of $435.

Ethan Sutton of Hot Springs, Arkansas, won the Co-angler Division and $1,950 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 13 pounds, 8 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Ethan Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-8, $1,950

2^nd:         Robert Bogard Jr., Conway, Ark., five bass, 11-8, $866

3^rd:          Andrew Wooley, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 11-2, $577

4^th:          Cody McEntire, Walnut Ridge, Ark., five bass, 9-12, $504

4^th:          Randy Bridges, Quitman, Ark., five bass, 9-8, $347

6^th:          Jody Jones, Harvey, Ark., five bass, 9-4, $353

7^th:          John McCullar, Benton, Ark., five bass, 9-4, $303

8^th:          Matt Russell, Prairie Grove, Ark., four bass, 9-3, $260

9^th:          Tony Reynolds, Austin, Ark., five bass, 9-1, $231

10^th:        Stan Cullipher, Malvern, Ark., five bass, 8-12, $202

Sutton also caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $217.

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. 24-26 BFL Regional Championship on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. 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.