Campbell Wins Third BFL Event of 2019 Season – Hamilton’s Sykes Earns Co-Angler Title

FALLS OF ROUGH, Ky. (July 1, 2019) – Boater Brody Campbell of Oxford, Ohio, won the rescheduled T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Hoosier Division tournament on Rough River Lake presented by Navionics Sunday after catching four bass weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces. Campbell earned $5,703 for his win.

“I should have won the BFL tournament on Saturday as well, but I had a few dead fish penalties – it was very hot – and I finished second,” said Campbell, who earned his third BFL victory of the season on Sunday. “I went back out on a mission.

“I started the day targeting early-morning schooling fish by the dam for an hour or so, then I ran up to the North Fork area and flipped flooded willow bushes,” Campbell said. “I caught around 20 fish in that first hour, but there were a lot of little ones. North Fork was a lot tougher, and I only had three or four bites there.”

Campbell said he threw a Heddon Zara Spook and a fluke while targeting the schooling fish, then flipped a green-pumpkin-colored Strike King Rodent and a ½-ounce peanut butter and jelly-colored jig with a green-pumpkin Strike King Rage Craw trailer to the willow bushes.

“I think the key to my victory was just capitalizing on the bites that I did get,” Campbell went on to say. “I was around fish, but I only had four or five keeper bites all day. It was tough, it was hot. And it was important that I landed every keeper fish that bit.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, four bass, 7-13, $3,703 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

2^nd:         Bob Drake, Noblesville, Ind., four bass, 7-4, $1,602

3^rd:         Bryce Kalen, Greenwood, Ind., two bass, 6-10, $1,401

4^th:         Matt McCoy, Indianapolis, Ind., three bass, 6-7, $931

5^th:         Doug Ruster, New Palestine, Ind., three bass, 6-4, $641

6^th:         Chris Gable, Hopkinsville, Ky., three bass, 5-14, $646

7^th:         Jake Morris, McKee, Ky., three bass, 5-7, $451

8^th:         Marty Sisk, Evansville, Ind., three bass, 5-6, $405

9^th:         Jimmy Shepherd, Indianapolis, Ind., four bass, 5-4, $360

10^th:       Todd Hensley, New Albany, Ind., three bass, 5-3, $315

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Kalen caught a bass weighing 4 pounds, 12 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $300.

Ryan Sykes of Hamilton, Ohio, won the Co-angler Division and $1,547 Sunday after catching four bass weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Ryan Sykes, Hamilton, Ohio, four bass, 7-14, $1,547

2^nd:         Mark Dehart, Brownstown, Ind., four bass, 6-8, $674

3^rd:         Jordan Loveless, Indianapolis, Ind., three bass, 5-0, $381

3^rd:         Gary Critser, Covington, Ind., two bass, 5-0, $526

5^th:         John Young, Franklin, Ind., three bass, 4-15, $269

6^th:         Leroy Miller, Napoleon, Ohio, two bass, 4-4, $247

7^th:         Mark Redman, Pendleton, Ky., two bass, 3-15, $213

7^th:         Bo Bivins, Evansville, Ind., two bass, 3-15, $213

9^th:         Michael Dehart, Franklin, Ind., two bass, 3-11, $180

10^th:       Brant Gish, Evansville, Ind., two bass, 3-10, $157

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 presented by Evinrude on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tennessee. 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.