Co-Angler Title Goes to Tamaroa’s Swetland

SHELBYVILLE, Ill. (June 10, 2019) – Boater Wayne Shaw of Urbana, Illinois, weighed five bass Saturday totaling 13 pounds, 7 ounces, to win T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Illini Division tournament on Lake Shelbyville. Shaw pocketed $4,071 for his day on the water.

“The morning started off slow. My co-angler had four keepers in the boat and I didn’t have any until around 11 [a.m.],” said Shaw, who earned his third career win in BFL competition – second on Lake Shelbyville. “I switched from a jig to a worm, and that’s what caught all five of them. It was like someone turned on a light switch.”

Shaw said he targeted fisheon deeper points on the south end of the lake in 12 to 15 feet of water. He used a 10-inch, Texas rigged plum-colored Berkley PowerBait Power Worm and caught six keepers total.

“I was dragging it slow along the bottom,” said Shaw. “I fished five to seven different spots, hitting anything that had a good drop close to the main-river channel.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Wayne Shaw, Urbana, Ill., five bass, 13-7, $4,071

2^nd:         Clay Reeves, Lane, Ill., five bass, 13-4, $1,735

3^rd:          Travis Wilson, La Harpe, Ill., three bass, 12-9, $1,024

4^th:          Robert Neff, Roodhouse, Ill., four bass, 12-7, $816

5^th:          Michael Black, Toledo, Ill., five bass, 12-6, $738

5^th:          Jeremy Mull, Pawnee, Ill., five bass, 12-6, $838

7^th:          Bobby McMullin, Pevely, Mo., five bass, 12-3, $512

8^th:          Shane Haslett, Beecher City, Ill., five bass, 12-1, $435

8^th:          Ray Arning Jr., Walnut Hill, Ill., five bass, 12-1, $435

10^th:        Luke Budde, St. Louis, Mo., four bass, 12-0, $358

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Greg James of Carterville, Illinois, caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 3 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $360.

Mike Swetland of Tamaroa, Illinois, won the Co-angler Division and $1,885 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 12 pounds, 8 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Mike Swetland, Tamaroa, Ill., five bass, 12-8, $1,885

2^nd:         Andrew Blunier, Roanoke, Ill., five bass, 10-15, $768

3rd:         Mario Rossi Jr., Granite City, Ill., five bass, 10-6, $563

4^th:          Adam Kunkel, Red Bud, Ill., four bass, 9-3, $358

5^th:          Luke Epplin, Collinsville, Ill., four bass, 9-2, $307

6^th:          Scott Bradley, Greenup, Ill., five bass, 9-0, $381

7^th:          Drew Cress, Highland, Ill., five bass, 8-8, $256

8^th:          James Jarvis, West Frankfort, Ill., three bass, 8-6, $230

9^th:          Jacob Greco, Edwardsville, Ill., four bass, 7-2, $205

10^th:        Floyd Carder, Litchfield, Ill., three bass, 6-10, $179

David Workman of Harrisburg, Illinois, caught the heaviest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing 4 pounds, 6 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $180.

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 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.