FIND THE TRIGGERS FOR BED FISH
By David A. Brown
Like most who cover this great sport, I often field questions as to the personality and character of the pro anglers with whom I’m fortunate to occasionally work. The usual inquiry: “What’s he like?”
Well, when asked about Bassmaster Elite Series pro Mike Iaconelli, one word consistently leaves my lips: Passionate.
Passionate about every aspect of the game, from the competition, to the promotion and marketing, to the behind-the-scenes media work. The guy the fishing world knows as “Ike” truly cares about the industry that rewarded him with a 2003 Bassmaster Classic trophy.
Big part of that passion — teaching; Ike loves figuring out how to make fish bite and then sharing that knowledge with folks who’d like to do the same. It’s not enough the he’s learned how to catch fish in any scenario, he wants others to enjoy the same.
I saw both parts of this premise during a recent media gathering hosted by Dynamic Sponsorships, during which a handful of Elite and College Series anglers representing Toyota, Quantum and Carhartt gave us a glimpse into their tackle trays and wheel houses. Iaconelli and I covered several topics, but it was a completely random occurrence that spawned a teachable moment effervescing with infectious angling passion.
We had tucked into a little pocket off a secondary point to shoot a few casting pics, but on our departure, Iaconelli couldn’t resist easing around the back edge and peeking at the shallows. Sure enough, back by the drain, he found a buck bass guarding a nest.
We were pretty much done with the work stuff, so he grabbed a rod and made a few pitches. The fish kept moving in and out of a dark area and with the dim overcast conditions yielding minimal light penetration, he struggled to maintain visual contact.
But when you hear a guy like Mike Iaconellis whisper: “Okay, I see what you’re doing,” you get your camera ready. Essentially, by watching the fish — at times, perched atop his trolling motor mount — he identified the fish’s line of movement and set up his presentations accordingly.
Iaconelli wasn’t immediately successful, as the fish played hard-to-get. But, as you’ll see in the accompanying video, he was able to interpret responses to his various presentation strategies, deduce the necessary adjustments and eventually close the deal.
That made Ike happy.
From beneath that flat bill Toyota cap, unfiltered intensity radiated from the face of a guy who just digs this stuff. Iaconelli did a great job of breaking down what he calls the “triggers” that made this bass bite. Speed and color were the keys here, but taking a holistic view of whatever scenario you face and then picking apart each element typically reveals the magic formula.
Notably, the same principle applies well beyond bed fishing. Maybe it’s bringing your squarebill past the other side of a stump, or skipping the opposite side of the dock, or pitching to the upcurrent edge of a laydown after working the downcurrent side.
In any case, banish complacency, put on your thinking cap and explore every variable at your disposal. In just about every case, fate rewards diligence — often with a bent rod.
JACKSONVILLE’S BRAGG WINS T-H MARINE FLW BASS FISHING LEAGUE BAMA DIVISION EVENT ON LAKE EUFAULA PRESENTED BY NAVIONICS
Georgia’s Walden Claims Co-angler Title
EUFAULA, Ala. (May 1, 2017) – Josh Bragg of Jacksonville, Alabama, caught a five-bass limit weighing 22 pounds, 13 ounces to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bama Division tournament presented by Navionics on Lake Eufaula. Bragg pocketed $4,266 for his efforts.
Bragg said he spent his day fishing main-lake ledges between the takeoff ramp and Cheneyhatchee Creek. He said he rotated through about 20 brush piles as the day progressed.
“I started out on some shallow ledges, in 3 to 6 feet of water, throwing a crankbait,” said Bragg, who earned his first career-win in FLW competition. “Some shad were spawning and the fish were up feeding on them, so I hit as much as I could until the spawn slowed down.”
Bragg utilized both Sexy Shad- and Citrus-colored Strike King 5XD Crankbaits, which he cited as his most productive lure of the tournament. He also threw a Carolina-rigged green pumpkin-colored Zoom Brush Hog and a Texas-rigged plum-colored Zoom ‘Ol Monster Worm. He said he ended up catching 15 keepers throughout the event.
“After the wind picked up I started throwing the Carolina rig and the worm,” said Bragg. “The fish were ready to feed. It was one of those deals where if you pulled up and didn’t get a bite in ten minutes, you might as well move on to the next one. My Lowrance electronics and Minn Kota Ultrex trolling motor were what really got me the win. The Spot-Lock feature on the Ultrex allowed me to focus on fishing rather than battling the wind.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Josh Bragg, Jacksonville, Ala., five bass, 22-13, $4,266
2nd: Bryan Brown, Cataula, Ga., five bass, 17-14, $2,083
3rd: Cole Burdeshaw, Newville, Ala., five bass, 17-11, $1,256
4th: Mark Stillwell, Salem, Ala., five bass, 17-5, $879
5th: Ken Greene, Lumpkin, Ga., five bass, 16-7, $753
6th: Winston Steen, Wellington, Ala., five bass, 16-6, $790
7th: Robert Pelt II, Montgomery, Ala., five bass, 16-2, $628
8th: Jade Keeton, Florence, Ala., five bass, 16-0, $565
9th: Mike Cavender, Phenix City, Ala., five bass, 14-13, $470
9th: Michael Smith, Andalusia, Ala., five bass, 14-13, $470
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Bragg also caught a bass weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $500.
Emory Walden of Newnan, Georgia, won the Co-angler Division and $2,333 Saturday after bringing a five-bass limit totaling 18 pounds, 1 ounce to the scale.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Emory Walden, Newnan, Ga., five bass, 18-1, $2,333
2nd: Keith Lynch, River Falls, Ala., four bass, 10-8, $992
3rd: Heath Martin, Fyffe, Ala., five bass, 10-2, $627
4th: James Wooddell, Columbus, Ohio, three bass, 9-4, $439
5th: Justin Girdner, Wetumpka, Ala., five bass, 8-13, $377
6th: Ferlin Weeks, Trinity, Ala., four bass, 8-10, $345
7th: Thomas Gore, Guntersville, Ala., five bass, 8-7, $314
8th: Kevin Johnson, Grady, Ala., three bass, 8-3, $282
9th: Arthur Lee Matthews III, Marietta, Ga., four bass, 7-14, $251
10th: Lew Moore, Roanoke, Ala., four bass, 7-13, $220
Walden also caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a fish weighing 6 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $250.
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 Wheeler Lake in Decatur, Alabama. 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.
MONTEAGLE’S ROLLINS WINS T-H MARINE FLW BASS FISHING LEAGUE MUSIC CITY DIVISION TOURNAMENT ON TIMS FORD RESERVOIR
Alabama’s Davenport Grabs Co-angler Title
WINCHESTER, Tenn. (May 1, 2017) – Greg Rollins of Monteagle, Tennessee, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Music City Division tournament on Tims Ford Reservoir after weighing five bass Saturday totaling 15 pounds, 15 ounces. Rollins pocketed $3,426 for his win.
According to post-tournament reports, Rollins targeted postspawn smallmouth bass on both ends of the lake, keying on pea gravel with a Carolina rig.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Greg Rollins, Monteagle, Tenn., five bass, 15-15, $3,426
2nd: Tony Eckler, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 15-14, $1,427
2nd: Hunter Bouldin, McMinnville, Tenn., five bass, 15-14, $1,427
4th: Brent Sain, Manchester, Tenn., five bass, 15-1, $999
5th: Bill Darby, Fayetteville, Tenn., five bass, 14-13, $685
6th: William Merrick, Mount Juliet, Tenn., five bass, 13-13, $628
7th: Adam Wagner, Cookeville, Tenn., five bass, 13-12, $671
8th: Jerry Reagan, Byrdstown, Tenn., five bass, 13-2, $514
9th: Matt Stanley, Alexandria, Tenn., five bass, 12-15, $457
10th: Kenneth Smith, Tullahoma, Tenn., five bass, 12-8, $400
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Timothy Minton of Smiths Grove, Kentucky, caught a bass weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $215.
John Davenport of Huntsville, Alabama, won the Co-angler Division and $1,873 Saturday after bringing a five-bass limit totaling 12 pounds even to the scale.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: John Davenport, Huntsville, Ala., five bass, 12-0, $1,873
2nd: Bill Bruce, Hendersonville, Tenn., five bass, 11-3, $834
3rd: Larry Goss, Hartsville, Tenn., four bass, 8-11, $558
4th: Brice McMaster, Antioch, Tenn., three bass, 7-9, $389
5th: Craig Allen, Kingston Springs, Tenn., three bass, 7-4, $334
6th: Robert Harris, McEwen, Tenn., three bass, 7-0, $306
7th: Corey Poss, Smithville, Tenn., three bass, 6-13, $278
8th: John Wilkerson, Nashville, Tenn., three bass, 6-8, $450
9th: Gaylon Calahan, Winchester, Tenn., three bass, 6-2, $222
10th: Josh Bates, Pulaski, Tenn., three bass, 6-0, $245
Davenport also caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a fish weighing 4 pounds, 9 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $205.
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 Wheeler Lake in Decatur, Alabama. 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.
MINNESOTA’S LAUFENBERG WINS T-H MARINE FLW BASS FISHING LEAGUE GREAT LAKES DIVISION OPENER PRESENTED BY NAVIONICS ON MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Illinois’ Overton Takes Co-angler Title
LA CROSSE, Wis. (May 1, 2017) – Cade Laufenberg of Winona, Minnesota, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Great Lakes Division opener presented by Navionics on the Mississippi River Saturday after weighing five bass totaling 22 pounds, 3 ounces. For his victory, Laufenberg took home $6,016.
Laufenberg said he split his day between two areas he had found in practice – one on the north end of Pool No. 8, and the other on the south end. He said he put around 20 pounds of bass in the boat on the lower end within 30 minutes, including a 3-pounder on his first cast.
“I was fishing a wing dam near a spawning area,” said Laufenberg, a former standout YETI FLW College Fishing angler who now has four career-victories in FLW competition. “There was a special spot in there that you had to pinpoint with your cast. It was about as big as my boat deck. There was some sand that created a current seam and I was focusing right where the current met the slackwater.
“The location was crucial,” continued Laufenberg. “Any fish that were in that spawning area were pulled out because of a cold front that had passed through.”
Laufenberg said he caught everything he weighed in on a 5-inch Pearly Shad-colored Big Bite Baits Suicide Shad swimbait on a 1/8-ounce Gamakatsu Superline Swimbait Head. He said he caught 30 to 40 bass throughout his day, and that his limit that he brought to the scale consisted entirely of smallmouth.
“I finished out the event in the mouth of a small spawning pocket on the north end where two points came together,” said Laufenberg. “The fish were positioned right between them. I just rolled the swimbait through and ended up culling out three more fish. It was incredible.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Cade Laufenberg, Winona, Minn., five bass, 22-3, $6,016
2nd: Mike Brueggen, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 18-6, $2,523
3rd: Fernando Lobato, Sparta, Wis., five bass, 16-2, $1,682
4th: Nathan Huss, Elkhart Lake, Wis., five bass, 15-15, $1,177
5th: Ron Taylor, Chicago, Ill., five bass, 15-10, $1,009
6th: Kevin Ruh, Onalaska, Wis., five bass, 15-9, $1,025
7th: Dan Mohn, Lansing, Iowa, five bass, 15-8, $841
8th: Jim Caulum, Rockland, Wis., five bass, 15-4, $757
9th: Travis Brueggen, Cashton, Wis., five bass, 15-3, $673
10th: Bob Oines, Galesville, Wis., five bass, 15-2, $889
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Laufenberg also caught a bass weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $770.
Shawn Overton of Coal Valley, Illinois, won the Co-angler Division and $2,623 Saturday after bringing a five-bass limit totaling 15 pounds, 1 ounce to the scale.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Shawn Overton, Coal Valley, Ill., five bass, 15-1, $2,623
2nd: Donald Roscovius, Tomah, Wis., five bass, 13-15, $1,262
3rd: Bryan Bergman, Monona, Wis., five bass, 13-14, $891
4th: Chad Smith, Davenport, Iowa, four bass, 12-8, $589
5th: Jared Greninger, Byron, Ill., four bass, 12-6, $697
6th: Rollie Truehl, DeForest, Wis., five bass, 11-9, $463
7th: Alan Bernicky, Joliet, Ill., five bass, 11-6, $399
7th: John Pliwko, Plover, Wis., four bass, 11-6, $399
9th: Tim Willihnganz, Madison, Wis., five bass, 11-5, $336
10th: Josh Mohn, Lansing, Iowa, five bass, 11-4, $294
Tom Zenanko of Prior Lake, Minnesota, caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a fish weighing 4 pounds, 13 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $192.
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 Barren River in Scottsville, Kentucky. 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.
DAY ONE OF COSTA FLW SERIES EVENT ON LAKE CHICKAMAUGA CANCELED DUE TO STRONG WINDS
DAYTON, Tenn. (May 3, 2017) – Day One of the Costa FLW Series event on Lake Chickamauga presented by Lowrance, scheduled to start Thursday, has been canceled due to strong winds.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for the Dayton region, forecasting 15- to 30 mile-per-hour winds with gusts over 50 miles-per-hour. There is also a small craft advisory in effect for Lake Chickamauga.
The tournament will resume Friday and Saturday with the full field fishing each day. The pro and co-angler winners will be determined by the cumulative weight of two days of competition instead of three.
The full field will take off from the Dayton Boat Dock, located at 175 Lakeshore St. in Dayton at 6:30 a.m. EDT Friday and Saturday. Weigh-ins will be held at the marina beginning at 2:30 p.m. each day. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The event is hosted by the Rhea Economic & Tourism Council.
In Costa FLW Series regular-season competition, payouts are based on the number of participants competing in the event. At Lake Chickamauga, pros will fish for as much as $50,000 and a Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard if Ranger Cup qualified. Co-anglers will cast for a Ranger Z175 boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude outboard and an additional $1,250 if Ranger Cup qualified.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five U.S. divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2017 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 2-4 on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tennessee.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Costa FLW Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2017 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 274 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.
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Carhartt Countdown to Blastoff - SE Preview May 6-7, 2017
Sportsmans Warehouse Fishing Associate CJ Freeman gives us a heads up preview of several of the tournaments happening in the SE this weekend and what he expects them to be won on.
Carhartt Countdown to Blastoff - Scott Gordon and the BIG BASS TOUR!
Back for the 8th Year in a row, the Big Bass Tour hits Lake Norman this weekend with 70 Daily payouts and hourly winners and the Grand Prize of a new Nitro Z19 and Mercury Marine Package! Here Emcee Scott Gordon tells us more about it.
HydroWave Renews Partnership with the ACA and Cabela’s Collegiate Bass Fishing Series
The Association of Collegiate Anglers has announced that HydroWave, makers of the electronic fish attractor, has renewed its partnership and sponsorship with the Cabela’s Collegiate Bass Fishing Series.
HydroWave, manufactured in Huntsville, Alabama by TH Marine has had a long standing relationship with college anglers in providing an electronic device that helps imitate the natural, audible underwater sounds of baitfish and fish-feeding activities. The first HydroWave was created with the help of numerous top-level professionals in bass fishing, including Jeff Kriet and Kevin VanDam. Built on fishing science, the HydroWave sends out reverberations to a predatory fish’s lateral line, sounds that help to trigger a fish’s feeding instinct.
"T-H Marine and our HydroWave brand are excited to continue our support of Cabela's Collegiate Bass Fishing Series. Our HydroWave electronic feeding stimulator is used by virtually all of the fishing pros, along with our other brands. These Collegiate fishing enthusiasts are our fishing sport's future and our brands' future as well. We are happy to help them pursue their dreams!" said Jeff Huntley, President of TH Marine.
Since the Original HydroWave, HydroWave has branched out from just the bass fishing world to now include walleye, catfish, crappie and inshore saltwater fishing. They have also created the HydroWave Mini, which is a portable version of the full-size unit.
“We are excited to have HydroWave continuing their support of the Cabela’s Collegiate Bass Fishing Series. The HydroWave is a product that you find on many of our anglers’ boats, as well as top pros everywhere, and their support of college fishing is great to see,” said Wade Middleton, Director of ACA and President of CarecoTV.
Collegiate anglers this year will have a unique opportunity to work with HydroWave to purchase their electronic fish attractor units as part of a discount purchase program created jointly between the Association of Collegiate Anglers and HydroWave. For more information on that program, collegiate anglers are urged to contact college@carecotv.com or go online at http://www.collegiatebasschampionship.com and visit the Discount and Incentives page.
As part of their support of the ACA events this year, HydroWave will be on-site during the 2017 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Cabela’s, as well at several ACA events during the 2018 season, where college anglers will have a chance to visit with staff from HydroWave personally. HydroWave units are available in major retailers, and hundreds of independent stores throughout the country. To find out more visit Hydrowave.com.
How Dustin Connell Conquered "The Rez"
Vance McCullough / Photos Courtesy of BASS
At 1:55 Monday afternoon Dustin Connell laid down his rod and decided it was over.
He had done all he could and now it was time to find out if the Bassmaster Elite Series rookie would win his first big blue trophy in his first season on Tour.
As he idled along a rock jetty, a postfrontal sun strobed across Ross Barnett Reservoir’s rippled surface just as doubt flashed across the young man’s mind.
“I didn’t think I had it won. I really didn’t. I thought I had left the door open.
“If you do your best, absolutely the best you can do . . . and I thought I fell short still.
“It was a weird feeling. I kept my cool all day long and I made that last cast and I said, ‘that’s it’. I pulled my trolling motor up. I started idling back. And I just let loose of all my emotions. I couldn’t hold back anymore.”
When he reached the weigh in stage Connell saw that the last angler sitting between him and a career-defining moment was Kevin VanDam who occupied the ‘hot seat’ as the current leader.
If Connell was to take the title, he was going to have to earn it against the most feared competitor in bass tournament history.
“My goal for that day - I said, ‘I need to catch 13 pounds’. Somehow, some way I caught 12 pounds, 15 ounces. That was what I needed.”
The day’s effort ran Connell’s 4-day total winning weight to 64-13 and gave him a margin of 2-03 over VanDam.
How does that feel?
“I can’t explain it man,” says Connell. “It’s starting to sink in. I drove home last night and I was just tired. I went to bed and I woke up this morning and went, ‘wow, did this whole week really just happen?’. I don’t know how to explain it except, it’s surreal. It’s one of those deals that you dream of your whole life and when it finally happens it’s almost bittersweet. You can’t believe it at all.”
The week did really happen. 108 other Elite Series pros remember the challenges it brought. So does Connell. “Thursday was the best day of fishing. The weights were high, the fish were biting. That was before they got really beat up.
“Then you had the wind blowing 30-to-40 miles an hour for two days. Not only did that affect the fishing, it affected the navigating. It’s stressful knowing you’ve got to leave 45 minutes early just to get back in time and it’s only, like, a 20-minute run. It cut my fishing time. Then you’re worrying about your boat and trying to get back safe. Mentally, it was tough.”
Late Saturday evening there was speculation that, due to dangerous weather, Sunday’s finale would be postponed until Monday. Connell, with a lead of about 6 pounds, had the most to lose if heavy rains muddied his fishing spots up the river. And the upper reaches of the lake would be the first places to feel the change.
Championship Sunday indeed became Championship Monday.
But the delay benefited Connell in a couple of ways. Though there were 4 tornado warnings and a lot of lightning in the area, only about an inch of rain fell into the watershed. His area was largely unchanged.
“The only thing I was worried about was that water rising and getting muddy. But it didn’t do it as bad as I thought. The front came in though and slowed things down. I was getting 3 or 4 bites an hour and then the front came in and I got, like, 1 bite every 2 hours the final day.”
The biggest difference maker, though, was the rest Connell was able to catch up on. “I didn’t realize how tired I was until Sunday rolled around and I woke up at 6:00 and I was like, ‘oh man, I’m so tired’. I got a little rest that day and I was ready to go on Monday.”
Though he’s 26-years-old and in good shape, Connell’s exhaustion is understandable. “I’ve been on the water for about 24 days straight. I’m still tired. I was on the lake for 7 days straight, for which I’m very, very happy now.”
Connell shared with AnglersChannel.com in a recent interview that he very much likes to get away from the crowd. It was key to his win this past week on ‘The Rez’.
“The biggest thing that helped me was I didn’t have any company. I had the whole river to myself. I could run up the river, catch a couple and then save some fish. I didn’t really hammer down on them. I didn’t have any competition. You don’t see that often.
“But that’s how you win. You’ve got to separate yourself. If you can ever connect and do that . . . I mean, sometimes you make that run and it’s a long drive back if you don’t catch one, but when you do connect like that, it can payoff big time.”
As for his pattern: “I was fishing any kind of matted up stuff on the main river. It didn’t matter what it was. If it was a log jam, or trash mats or grass mats piled up in trees. Trees were a big factor. I was fishing trees that had mats pushed up in them. That’s just what those big fish live in on those river banks. I’m sure a lot of them live on stumps and stuff like that, but they want to get underneath something.”
He whacked them on a swim jig during Thursday’s opening round. That changed on Friday when Connell found ‘the pattern within the pattern’.
“I kind of got dialed-in after Friday; after I started catching them flipping. I found out that a lot of them were directly in the middle of those mats, in the middle of the tree in the shade. Eventually, I just went around flipping right in the middle of them. That was a big deal for me.”
“I was fishing the top 2 or 3 feet of the water column right under the mat. A lot of times as I was shaking the lure, trying to get through the mat, they would come lift the mat up and I would be like, ‘there’s a big one under there!’. Finally, I’d get it in there and they’d bite and be a 4-or-5-pounder.”
Water depth beneath a given mat did not matter.
“They were just sitting right up underneath it, in that little 2-foot column up there.”
Connell also weighed-in a couple of fish the final day that he caught on a frog. “Early in the morning I’d sneak around in one or two of those pockets just trying to get a little bonus bite. After that I had all day to go catch 3 more fish. That’s what I did. And I caught one big one.”
Connell said the bass he caught were actually eating the occasional real life bull frog, some of which jumped off the mats when he approached.
They were also eating some very big shad. “I did catch one 5-and-a-quarter-pound bass and it spit up a giant shad in my livewell – like a big super shad. It might have been 10 inches long.”
Connell used stout gear to pull big river bass out of mats.
Swim jig setup: 65 lb. braid on an ALX Hammer 7 rod with a 3/8 oz. shad-colored 6th Sense Divine Swim Jig with a Net Bait Baby Paca Craw trailer.
Frog: Spro Bronze Eye on 65 lb. braid.
Flipping setup: Two rods rigged with 70 lb. Samurai Braid with ounce-and-a-half and 2 oz. weights, respectively. Black/blue/purple punch skirt, Net Bait Paca Slim in the 4-inch size in black/blue or green pumpkin/blue. “As long as it was a darker color they were going to bite it.”
FLW WILL FISH FOR KIDS CHARITY TOURNAMENT CROSSES $1 MILLION DONATION MARK TO ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Honorary Chairperson FLW Tour pro James Watson Leads Charge To Raise More Than $60,000 in 2017 Event
Link to photo gallery from Event
ROGERS, Ark. (May 2, 2017) – Every year the FLW Tour makes an annual trek to northwest Arkansas to visit Beaver Lake. However, the action doesn’t stop after the tournament is finished. The FLW Will Fish for Kids (WFFK) Bill Kerr Memorial Charity Tournament Lake, presented by Quaker State, took place on Beaver Lake Monday following the conclusion of the Beaver Lake Tour stop.
Once the final count had been tallied, the 2017 event raised a total of $60,703 for the Dental Clinic at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Since 2005, WWFK has raised a grand total of $1,001,297 for the clinic.
“This money is going directly to our dental unit at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock,” said Elizabeth Sullivan, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital senior development officer, annual gifts. “For the pros to stick around a few extra days to help raise money for our community – it’s just special and a really great event. Everyone has so much fun and it’s for such a great cause. We’re truly excited and thankful for FLW and Walmart for this event.”
FLW Tour pro James Watson of Lampe, Missouri, was the WFFK honorary chairperson this year. Entry fees paid by pro contestants and Walmart employees, as well as corporate boat sponsorships, were collected prior to the tournament. That money was combined with funds raised at Sunday night’s banquet and silent auction and the check for more than $60,000 was delivered on-stage to Sullivan.
The fishing tournament was won by FLW Tour pro Scott Martin and David Hunter. The duo had a fantastic day on Beaver Lake, catching a five-bass limit that weighed 14 pounds, 14 ounces – larger than any limit that crossed the scale Sunday during the final day of the FLW Tour event. Though the charity tournament was not nearly as strenuous or stressful as the FLW Tour event, catching a solid limit on a muddy Beaver Lake was still quite a feat.
“We had a lot of fun today, but at the end of the day this is all for a really great cause,” said Martin, the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup champion and 2015 FLW Angler of the Year. “My hat is off to FLW and Walmart for all of the money that they raise for the Children’s Hospital. It is an honor to be a part of this. My partner David is a great fisherman and I hope we get to do this again.”
The top 10 teams finished the tournament:
1st: Scott Martin and David Hunter, five bass, 14-14, $3,000
2nd: Jeremy Thomas, five bass, 13-12, $2,000
3rd: Old Spice pro Greg Bohannan and Jason Adams, five bass, 13-7, $500
3rd: Jim Moynagh and Milton Polk, five bass, 13-7, $500
5th: Yamamoto Baits pro Larry Nixon and Jeff George, five bass, 12-14
6th: General Tire pro Mark Rose and Jim Enneking, five bass, 12-12
7th: Jason Sanders and Brian Gripe, four bass, 12-6
8th: Shane Michele and Bobby Dennis, five bass, 11-15
8th: Keith Daffron and Ronnie Davidson, five bass, 11-15
10th: Ben Fulcher and Don Herbert, five bass, 11-14
A complete list of results can be found at WillFishForKids.com.
The Will Fish for Kids charity auction and tournament was started in 1992. In 2015, the tournament was renamed to the Will Fish for Kids - Bill Kerr Memorial Charity Tournament in memory of the late Bill Kerr.
Kerr lived most of his life in Bentonville and worked for Walmart Stores Inc. for over 25 years. For the last several years Kerr had been with Outdoor Cap, Inc. He also served on the board of Igloo Corporation. Bill enjoyed fishing and was a constant and enthusiastic supporter of the Will Fish for Kids tournament and Arkansas Children's Hospital.
All the money donated through this event goes to the Dental Clinic at the Arkansas Children's Hospital. Dental problems are the number one reason for children missing school and if a child has dental problems, it has a direct effect on their overall health.
The Dental Clinic at the Arkansas Children's Hospital also provides pediatric dental care for children with significant medical and/or developmental problems.
.For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. To learn more about the Dental Clinic at the Arkansas Children's Hospital visit ARChildrens.org.
Deakins & Gregory Dominate ABA Ram 100% Tour on Guntersville with over 23 pounds!
The team of Marshall Deakins and Bryan Gregory won the Ram 100% Plus Team Tour event on April 28, 2017 at Lake Guntersville. Deakins and Gregory brought in the winning five fish limit weighing 23.31 pounds to win a new 2017 Triton Boats 17TX with a Mercury 60hp four stroke outboard, Garmin Echomap units, Motorguide trolling motor, and a host of T-H Marine products valued at $20,000. They also entered the High Stakes Option Pot and took home and additional $1,100.
“We threw spinner baits and crankbaits today. We caught our fish in the morning in about 4-6 foot of water. We found shad spawning and that is what helped us catch our fish today. After lunch time things slowed down for us,” stated Deakins.
Derek Remitz and Casey Martin finished second with 22.21 pounds, anchoring their bag with a 6.71-pound bass to take home a check for $2400.
“We caught our fish on a shad spawn around deep boat docks. We caught them using a white Zman Chatterbait with a fluke style trailer. We had our fish by 8:30 this morning,” Martin said.
In third place was James Leary and Steve Hatfield. They brought in a 21.37-pound bag with a 7.48-pound kicker and took home $1500 for their efforts. They also entered the option pot and took home an additional $600.
“We caught our fish early today, throwing spinnerbaits on shallow points. We were fishing a shad spawn in 2-5 foot of water. After that, we started throwing a Carolina Rig in 8-10 foot of water. We had our fish by 8 this morning,” Leary stated.
4 –Tony Butts & Ricky Butts - 20.63 pounds & 6.63 kicker
5 – Benjie Allen & Danny Buckner – 20.54 pounds
The Big Bass of the tournament was caught by the team of Andy Parkinson and Mitch Oliver. The bass weighed 8.64 pounds and they took home $610 for their efforts.
The team of Hensley Powell and Robbie Dickerson took home the TH Marine Prize Pack for coming in first place out of the money.
American Bass Anglers, Inc. is supported by Ram Trucks, Triton Boats, Mercury Outboards, Carlisle Tires, GEICO, Berkley, Abu Garcia, T-H Marine, Hydrowave, Livingston Lures, Best Western Hotels, Maui Jim, Power Pole, Garmin, Simms, LIT Coolers. American Bass Anglers, Inc. can be contacted at (256) 232-0406 or by visiting www.americanbassanglers.com.
Wiley wins ABA RAM Trucks Open on Sinclair with over 15 pounds!
Jason Wiley of Soperton, Ga won the American Bass Anglers Ram Truck Open Series Georgia Division tournament, held April 29th on Lake Sinclair.
Running out of Little River Park in Milledgeville, GA Jason caught five bass weighing 15.64 pounds. He anchored his win with a bass weighing 4.68-pounds. For the Boater Division victory, took home a check for $5000.
“I was fishing mid-lake down. I was fishing grass and docks. I caught two off a Pop-R, one on a frog, and two on a shaky-head worm. The better bites came around the grass.” Wiley said.
In second for the boaters, Frank Kitchens III of Oxford, GA landed a five-bass tournament limit going 15.59 pounds. He collected $1250 for his catch.
“I caught all my fish flipping shallow docks mid-way up the Oconee river. I didn’t lose any fish today.” Kitchens said.
James R. Golden of Covington, GA caught five bass weighing in at 15.25 pounds including a 5.98-pound big bass. For the third-place finish, he took home a check for $900, and an additional $670 for the boater big bass. Golden also caught his big bass on an Abu Garcia Revo reel and was awarded a new Abu Garcia Revo SX spinning reel for that lunker bass.
“I caught my fish flipping shallow docks. My fish didn’t turn on until after 10:00am this morning. I caught the big bass around 10:30am on a shallow dock as well, with a Revo bait casting reel.” Golden said.
Finishing fourth, Jason Mitja of Phenix City, AL landed a five-bass limit for 13.41 pounds.
Tim Howell of Ball Ground, GA rounded out the top five boaters with five bass at 13.07 pounds.
In the Co-Angler Division, Jeffrey Payne of Danville, GA won with three bass weighing in at 7.70 pounds. For the Co-Angler Division victory, he took home a check for $1200.
“I caught one on a chatter-bait, one on a spinnerbait, and one on a shaky-head down the lake. We started out in the grass today and I want to thank my boater, Jason Mitja, for putting me around fish. I have fished eight tournaments and I’m glad to have finally won one. I really enjoyed this event.” Payne said.
Taking second for the co-anglers, Michael Mincey of Zebulon, GA brought in a three-bass division limit weighing 6.98 pounds anchored by a 4.76-pound bass. He collected $400 for the effort and an additional $185 for the big bass.
“I caught my big fish on a shallow crankbait around 10:30am around shallow cover. I threw a black and blue tackle box at them. (laughing) My boater, Tim Greene, put me on them today and he was a great guy.” Mincey said.
Ray Holloway of Eatonton, GA placed third among the co-anglers with three bass going 6.82 pounds. He earned $350 for his catch.
“I caught everything I weighed today on a 1/4oz shaky-head with a Zoom trick worm off the grass beds, not in the grass. The better fish came later in the day.” Holloway said.
In fourth place among the co-anglers, Buck Hilliard of Peachtree City, GA brought in three bass for 5.69 pounds.
Tim Adams of Powder Springs, GA finished in fifth place with three bass at 5.23 pounds. Tim Adams was also the Co-Angler Champion at the 2017 Ray Scott Championship a few weeks ago at Old Hickory in Hendersonville, TN.
Slated for June 17th, the next tournament will be held on Lake Oconee out of Sugar Creek Marina in Buckhead, GA. At the end of the season, the best anglers from across the nation advance the 2018 Ray Scott Championship, to be held on the Red River in Bossier City, LA.
For more information on this tournament, call Billy Benedetti, tournament manager, at 256-230-5632 or ABA at 256-232-0406. On line, see www.ramopenseries.com .
About American Bass Anglers: American Bass Anglers is committed to providing low cost, close to home tournaments for the weekend angler and at the same time offer each competitor an upward path for individual angler progression. For more information about American Bass Anglers, the Ram Truck Open Series, the American Fishing Tour or the American Couples Series, visit www.americanbassanglers.com.
Jones Wins T-H Marine BFL on Lake Gaston with over 16 pounds!
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:
1st: Raymond Jones III, Statesville, N.C., five bass, 16-11, $5,473 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus
2nd: James Blankenship, Siler City, N.C., five bass, 16-10, $2,936
3rd: Jeffrey Thomas, Broadway, N.C., five bass, 16-8, $1,756
4th: Jerry Davis, Lexington, N.C., five bass, 15-5, $1,230
5th: Ryan Harrell, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., five bass, 15-0, $1,155
6th: Burley Langford, South Chesterfield, Va., five bass, 14-12, $967
7th: Chris Daves, Spring Grove, Va., five bass, 14-4, $879
8th: Ryan Powroznik, Prince George, Va., five bass, 14-3, $791
9th: Cavin Young, Prince George, Va., five bass, 14-2, $703
10th: Josh Wagy, Dewitt, Va., five bass, 13-15, $584
10th: 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:
1st: Michael Davis, New London, N.C., five bass, 16-7, $2,836
2nd: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 13-13, $1,318
3rd: Donald Talbard, Ringgold, Va., four bass, 9-12, $879
4th: Arthur Clark, Cary, N.C., three bass, 9-2, $665
5th: Hank Cooke, Emporia, Va., three bass, 9-1, $527
6th: Stephen Kocell, Waxhaw, N.C., five bass, 8-14, $483
7th: Brian Transon, Sherrills Ford, N.C., four bass, 8-9, $439
8th: Lewis Brown, Asheboro, N.C., three bass, 8-7, $395
9th: Larry Freeman Jr., La Crosse, Va., three bass, 7-10, $352
10th: 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.
YETI FLW COLLEGE FISHING SOUTHERN CONFERENCE EVENT ON FORT GIBSON LAKE RESCHEDULED DUE TO FLOODING
WAGONER, Okla. (May 1, 2017) – Fishing League Worldwide (FLW) announced today that the YETI FLW College Fishingtournament scheduled for Fort Gibson Lake on Saturday, May 6 has been rescheduled for Oct. 14, 2017 due to the flooding and dangerous conditions currently wreaking havoc in the Ozark region.
All previously published information regarding takeoff and weigh-in locations remains unchanged.
Anglers will take off and weigh in at Taylors Ferry North Recreation Area in Wagoner, at 7:30 a.m. CDT Saturday, Oct. 14. Weigh-in will be held at the launch ramp beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public. The event is hosted by the Wagoner Area Chamber of Commerce.
Schools are allowed to register up until the morning of the tournament. Entries may be made either by phone or at FLWFishing.com.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Additional teams will qualify for the National Championship if the field size in regular-season events exceeds 100 boats.
College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club that is recognized by their school.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishingand on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit FLWFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.
The Burns brothers win big on Lake Fork at Bass Champs, catching TWO over the slot
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Bass Champs North Region teams hit Lake Fork for their third event of the season on April 29, 2017. It was a rocking weekend with a whopping 102% payback of over $65,000. Anglers faced many challenges both above and below the water, with mother nature moving in making her presence known. Mike and Rob Burns brought in the only sack weighing over 20 pounds to win over $21,000!
Lake Fork is a slot lake, where only fish measuring under 16” and fish over 24” can be retained. All bass in-between those measurements cannot be kept, and must be released immediately. It is not easy to release 5, 6 and 7-pound bass instead of adding them to your creel but the top three teams each caught kickers over the slot, anchoring their winning finishes. Brothers Mike & Rob Burns didn’t practice for the tournament, but had found some good areas during the Mega Bass tournament that they were going to go back to. “We targeted shallow water, in areas we thought there would be a shad spawn,” Mike explained. Using shad colored crank baits, they found the fish biting right away. “We caught a lot of fish first thing, several white bass as well as black bass,” he continued. They put two ‘unders’ in the boat, then Mike landed one over the slot. “We decided to try a different spot, and find more decent unders to finish our limit.” Thirty minutes later, Rob caught another bass over the slot even bigger than the one before! “We decided to go ahead and bring those two in so they could be weighed and released.” Their biggest weighed 9.11 pounds, and the weight of their two big bass was 17 pounds. After weighing those two in, they went back out to try to improve the remainder of their limit. “The bite slowed down quite a bit after that, but we stayed with the same pattern for the most part the rest of the day. We did try fishing deep some, and caught one, and we caught one on a frog as well. The rest was off that shad crank bait.” At the end of the day, adding their best three to finish their limit, their total weight was 21.17 lbs, winning the tournament by a big margin. “I’ve been fishing with Bass Champs since they first began. They run great tournaments and I really enjoy fishing with them.” Mike recalls winning the very first championship event. “I had fished the season last year with my son who is 13 years old. This year my brother and I teamed up, but my son is ready to fish it with me again next year!” Bass Champs presented them the guaranteed 1st place $20,000 purse then they won another $1,000 for Big Bass. They also won the Costa Del Mar and Sure Life Bonuses to finish their day. 2nd place winners David Horton & Preston Smith had a starting spot in mind, but when they got there it was just too windy to stay on it. “We headed to another area, a long cove with grass, that was more protected from the wind,” Preston said. “There were already seven other boats in there, but we squeezed on in and started fishing. We started catching bass immediately.” They were using a white Spro popping frog. “We probably caught seven or eight in the slot, and another three that were under first thing off.” Around 8:30, David caught a small bass on a bed. Preston threw right back in the same spot and got a big bite. “She came up out of the water enough where I could see her huge mouth. I told David to get the net! There was a lot of grass wrapped around her, so it probably helped to keep her in the water and not have too much fight.” She weighed in at 8.60 pounds! “The other boats eventually left the area. The bite stayed real good until around 11:00 then slowed way down, but we stayed in there all day.” They culled up three times before their day was done to a final weight of 15.38 lbs. Bass Champs presented them a check for $5,000 and they won the Lowrance Gen3 bonus. “Bass Champs always does a really good job with these tournaments. Bad weather was heading in during the weigh in, and their staff amped it up to keep things rolling quickly to get finished before it hit. We really enjoy fishing with them, and look forward to the next tournament!” They would like to thank a few sponsors who help them out, including Texas Name Plate, Hooper Plumbing and Dobyns Rods. Rounding out the top 10 teams: Fun & Sun awarded $100 to the first team out of the money, Cody Burdine and Bobby Pointer having 7.96 lbs. Several other teams also enjoyed more winnings from these sponsors: Jason Riedel and Daniel Herring caught the second Sportsmans Auto Network bonus reeling in another $1,000 to their winnings. Eric Elder and Tim Wilcoxon cashed in on the Skeeter Double Money bonus, adding another $1,075 to their day, as well as another $500 from the Fun N Sun Bonus. Going into the final round in the Angler of the Year race for the North Region, the top five teams are: There are still a few tournaments left to go with a couple of specialty events as well. Every tournament except the Team Championship is open to anyone who would like to fish. Sign up now for these remaining chances to win:
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LAKE CHICKAMAUGA SET TO HOST COSTA FLW SERIES SOUTHEASTERN DIVISION FINALE
DAYTON, Tenn. (April 25, 2017) – As many as 450 pros and co-anglers are set to compete May 4-6 in the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division finale on Lake Chickamauga. The tournament, presented by Lowrance, is the final regular-season event of 2017 scheduled in the Southeastern Division. Pros will be competing for a top award of up to $50,000 in cash and a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.
“There’s going to be a lot of bass and a lot of big limits caught in this event,” said FLW Tour pro Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tennessee, who won the FLW Tour event at Lake Chickamauga in 2015. “There should be a lot of fish heading offshore right now because the spawn is just about over. I would say it’s going to be a postspawn deal, but there could be a twist. This week we’ve had a lot of rain and we are supposed to get more.”
Wooley said that following a lot of rain, the river runs high and bass seek protection in creeks from the strong current. With that in mind, competitors who originally planned to fish solely offshore may need to make adjustments.
“It’s only a forecast though, so nothing is guaranteed,” said Wooley. “If we do get the rain docks will be a big player, as well as grass up the river. In grassy areas, I’d use a ChatterBait or any kind of soft-plastics. On the docks, I’d flip a jig or maybe even throw a wacky-rigged worm.”
Wooley said that areas near Chester Frost Park will be a good bet for anglers who choose to target offshore bass.
“Chester Frost Park is a really prime area for catching offshore bass,” said Wooley. “I won the Tour event near there and the dam in 2015. If I were competing, I’d throw a big swimbait – they’ll eat it up – or a (Strike King) 6XD or 10XD crankbait.”
The Tennessee pro said a three-day cumulative weight of 70 pounds should be enough to take home top honors.
Anglers will take off from the Dayton Boat Dock, located at 175 Lakeshore St. in Dayton at 6:30 a.m. EDT each day. Weigh-ins will be held at the marina beginning at 2:30 p.m. each day. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The event is hosted by the Rhea Economic & Tourism Council.
In Costa FLW Series regular-season competition, payouts are based on the number of participants competing in the event. At Lake Chickamauga, pros will fish for as much as $50,000 and a Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard if Ranger Cup qualified. Co-anglers will cast for a Ranger Z175 boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude outboard and an additional $1,250 if Ranger Cup qualified.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five U.S. divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2017 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 2-4 on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tennessee.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Costa FLW Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
Elite Series Rookie Dustin Connell Clinches First Elite Series Win on"The Rez!"
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EAST ROWAN HIGH SCHOOL WINS FLW HIGH SCHOOL FISHING NORTH CAROLINA OPEN AT HIGH ROCK LAKE
SALISBURY, N.C. (May 1, 2017) – The East Rowan High School duo of Hunter Harwood of Gold Hill, North Carolina, and Paiton File of Salisbury, North Carolina, brought three bass to the scale Saturday weighing 13 pounds even to win the 2017 FLW High School Fishing North Carolina Open tournament on High Rock Lake. The win advanced the team to the 2017 High School Fishing National championship, held June 27-July 1 at Pickwick Lake in Florence, Alabama.
According to post-tournament reports, the duo caught their fish targeting muddy water in coves with a spinnerbait.
A field of 18 teams competed in the tough, no-entry fee, tournament which launched from Tamarac Marina and Campground in Salisbury. Nine of the 18 teams competing managed to bring a keeper bass to the scale. In FLW/TBF High School Fishing competition, the top 10-percent of teams competing advance to the High School Fishing National Championship.
The top team on High Rock Lake that advanced to the 2017 High School Fishing National Championship was:
1st: East Rowan High School, Salisbury, N.C. – Hunter Harwood, Gold Hill, N.C., and Paiton File, Salisbury, N.C., (three bass, 13-0)
The other teams that brought fish to the scale were:
2nd: East Rowan High School, Salisbury, N.C. – Colton Carico and Lucas Hedrick, both of Salisbury, N.C., (three bass, 12-2)
3rd: Bandys High School, Catawba, N.C. – Jacob Smith, Newton, N.C., and Logan Anderson, Catawba, N.C., (three bass, 7-3)
4th: West Rowan High School, Mount Ulla, N.C. – Lane Adkins, Cleveland, N.C., and Zeb Burns, Salisbury, N.C., (two bass, 6-11)
5th: Gilmer High School, Ellijay, Ga. – Isaac Colwell and Grant Ledford, both of Ellijay, Ga., (two bass, 5-13)
6th: West Rowan High School, Mount Ulla, N.C. – Austin Wike, China Grove, N.C., and Alex Williams, Cleveland, N.C., (two bass, 5-8)
7th: Sheets Memorial Christian School, Lexington, N.C. – Trevor Benfield, Archdale, N.C., and Austin Martinez, Lexington, N.C., (three bass, 5-2)
8th: East Rowan High School, Salisbury, N.C. – Teddy Drew, Gold Hill, N.C., and Cole Mabry, Richfield, N.C., (one bass, 3-13)
9th: Bunker Hill High School, Claremont, N.C. – Dylan Lamm and Garrett Poovey, both of Claremont, N.C., (one bass, 2-2)
Complete results from the event and photos of the top five teams can be found at FLWFishing.com.
The 2017 FLW High School Fishing North Carolina Open was a two-person (team) event for students in grades 7-12, open to any Student Angler Federation (SAF) affiliated high school club in the United States. The top 10 percent of each Challenge, Open, and state championship field will advance to the High School Fishing National Championship. The High School Fishing national champions will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.
In addition to the High School Fishing National Championship, all High School Fishing anglers nationwide automatically qualify for the world’s largest high school bass tournament, the 2017 High School Fishing World Finals, held in conjunction with the National Championship. At the 2016 World Finals more than $60,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded.
Full schedules and the latest announcements are available at HighSchoolFishing.org and FLWFishing.com.
Burgess & Riley weigh over 30 pound limit to win Carolinas Bass Challenge on Santee!
| Place | Team Name | Team # | Fish Weighed | Net Weight | Big Fish | Points | Winnings | Skeeter Bonus | Big Fish | Total Winnings | |
| 1 | Nathan Burgess - Brent Riley | 86 | 5 | 30.680 | 7.580 | 610 | $10,000 | $10,000 | |||
| 2 | Bryan cook - Steve Harmon | 69 | 5 | 29.520 | 7.690 | 608 | $4,675 | $4,675 | |||
| 3 | Ben Lee - Lex Costas | 35 | 5 | 24.130 | 0.000 | 606 | $3,175 | $3,175 | |||
| 4 | Clark Gibbs - Freddie Gibbs | 1 | 5 | 22.210 | 8.470 | 604 | $2,075 | $2,075 | |||
| 5 | Scott Farmer - Ross Burns | 45 | 5 | 22.000 | 0.000 | 602 | $1,575 | $1,575 | |||
| 6 | Doug Evans - Frederick Clements | 122 | 5 | 21.680 | 0.000 | 600 | $1,100 | $1,100 | |||
| 7 | J.w. Smith - Jeffery Gallick | 120 | 5 | 21.530 | 0.000 | 598 | $850 | $850 | |||
| 8 | Robert Ross - Lee Morris | 54 | 5 | 21.300 | 0.000 | 596 | $775 | $775 | |||
| 9 | jason barrett | 81 | 5 | 21.020 | 0.000 | 594 | $700 | $700 | |||
| 10 | Barry Holloman - Joey Bramlett | 101 | 5 | 20.990 | 0.000 | 592 | $650 | $4,000 | $4,650 | ||
| 11 | Terry Thomas - David Kneece | 143 | 5 | 20.820 | 0.000 | 590 | $550 | $3,000 | $3,550 | ||
| 12 | Scott Martin - Cole Winn | 78 | 5 | 19.370 | 0.000 | 588 | $475 | $475 | |||
| 13 | Mark Hutson - gary elsey | 51 | 5 | 19.220 | 0.000 | 586 | $445 | $445 | |||
| 14 | Sean Skey - Tim Harmon | 25 | 5 | 19.110 | 7.220 | 584 | $420 | $2,000 | $2,420 | ||
| 15 | Thomas Hardwick - Tommy Williams | 153 | 5 | 19.060 | 0.000 | 582 | $385 | $1,000 | $1,385 | ||
| 16 | Curt Causey - Zach Causey | 106 | 5 | 18.930 | 8.650 | 580 | $360 | $1,000 | $1,360 | ||
| 17 | Jamie Glasscock - Jim Smoak | 47 | 5 | 18.870 | 6.320 | 578 | $330 | $330 | |||
| 18 | Lonnie Jones - Jonathan Gowdy | 107 | 5 | 18.740 | 0.000 | 576 | $315 | $315 | |||
| 19 | JESS WHITE - Brian Crenshaw | 41 | 5 | 18.670 | 7.070 | 574 | $300 | $300 | |||
| 20 | Larry Moss - Michelle McLain | 66 | 5 | 18.600 | 0.000 | 572 | $290 | $290 | |||
| 21 | Alan Fletcher - Donald Hinson | 125 | 5 | 18.560 | 0.000 | 570 | $270 | $270 | |||
| 22 | Allan Collins - Marcus Deese | 85 | 5 | 18.430 | 0.000 | 568 | $250 | $250 | |||
| 23 | Brent Waynick - Emmett McCauley | 44 | 5 | 18.260 | 0.000 | 566 | $225 | $225 | |||
| 24 | Wade Grooms | 6 | 5 | 18.050 | 0.000 | 564 | $210 | $210 | |||
| 25 | Mike Phipps - Robert Clarke | 89 | 5 | 18.030 | 5.390 | 562 | $200 | $200 | |||
| 26 | brad schwartz - Brad Schwartz | 82 | 4 | 18.010 | 6.730 | 560 | |||||
| 27 | Chuck Howard - Ken Ellis | 139 | 5 | 17.770 | 0.000 | 558 | |||||
| 28 | michael fuller - Chris Morris | 4 | 5 | 17.760 | 0.000 | 556 | |||||
| 29 | Ryan Bowles - Deron Heimerdinger | 110 | 5 | 17.700 | 0.000 | 554 | |||||
| 30 | Chris Epting - Johnny Mayer | 24 | 5 | 17.630 | 0.000 | 552 | |||||
| 31 | Josh McGregor - Randall Driggers | 111 | 5 | 17.610 | 0.000 | 550 | |||||
| 32 | Stan Gunter - Josh Anderson | 108 | 5 | 17.390 | 0.000 | 548 | |||||
| 33 | Sean Anderson - George Berry | 148 | 5 | 17.210 | 0.000 | 546 | |||||
| 34 | Billy Bledsoe - Brian McDonald | 11 | 5 | 17.080 | 0.000 | 544 | |||||
| 35 | Bo Chappell - Jeffrey Borne | 150 | 5 | 16.980 | 6.900 | 542 | |||||
| 36 | Tim Hilton - Jake Mullinax | 76 | 5 | 16.530 | 5.980 | 540 | |||||
| 37 | Mike Watson - Craig McFadden | 130 | 5 | 16.270 | 0.000 | 538 | |||||
| 38 | Todd Gambrell - Brandt Tumberg | 39 | 5 | 16.150 | 0.000 | 536 | |||||
| 39 | Audie Brantley - Hunter Ciccio | 34 | 5 | 15.960 | 0.000 | 534 | |||||
| 40 | Todd Walters - Patrick Walters | 53 | 5 | 15.900 | 0.000 | 532 | |||||
| 41 | Wayne Marlow - Scott Peavy | 5 | 5 | 15.850 | 0.000 | 530 | |||||
| 42 | Mack Cook - Patrick Cook | 141 | 5 | 15.570 | 0.000 | 528 | |||||
| 43 | Joseph Buddin - Joe Buddin | 68 | 5 | 15.410 | 0.000 | 526 | |||||
| 44 | Jonathan Brindel - David Grooms | 13 | 5 | 15.360 | 5.420 | 524 | |||||
| 45 | Randall Miller - Mack Altman | 73 | 5 | 15.300 | 0.000 | 522 | |||||
| 46 | Todd Olds - Jason Riley | 65 | 5 | 15.280 | 0.000 | 520 | |||||
| 47 | Jeff Norris - jacob norris | 2 | 4 | 15.040 | 6.940 | 518 | |||||
| 48 | Jason Miles - Spencer McNeill | 10 | 5 | 14.280 | 0.000 | 516 | |||||
| 49 | Micah Bennett - Wayne Clifton | 146 | 5 | 14.020 | 0.000 | 514 | |||||
| 50 | Alan Richardson - Timmy Squires | 80 | 5 | 13.950 | 0.000 | 512 | |||||
| 51 | Jeff Faircloth - Kyle Mcmillin | 40 | 5 | 13.900 | 0.000 | 510 | |||||
| 52 | Billy Dean Jacobs - Mark Cummings | 9 | 5 | 13.710 | 0.000 | 508 | |||||
| 53 | Sandy Oliver - John Crisp | 132 | 4 | 13.510 | 7.820 | 506 | |||||
| 54 | Dwayne McVicker - Eddie Burgess | 36 | 5 | 13.410 | 0.000 | 504 | |||||
| 55 | Jimmy Leshock - Chris Baumgardner | 49 | 5 | 13.390 | 0.000 | 502 | |||||
| 56 | Mark Krengel - ron wood | 79 | 5 | 13.180 | 0.000 | 500 | |||||
| 57 | Kevin Fulmer - Clay Riddle | 90 | 5 | 13.020 | 0.000 | 498 | |||||
| 58 | Ron Brown - Bobby Brown | 116 | 5 | 12.980 | 0.000 | 496 | |||||
| 59 | Wayne Frierson - Ronnie Mueller | 131 | 5 | 12.500 | 0.000 | 494 | |||||
| 60 | Robert. ( Mitch) Drew - Kenny Drew | 26 | 5 | 12.330 | 0.000 | 492 | |||||
| 61 | Donald Poteat - Johnny Allen | 18 | 5 | 12.000 | 0.000 | 490 | |||||
| 62 | Chad Gainey - William Gainey | 61 | 5 | 11.610 | 0.000 | 488 | |||||
| 63 | John Sturkie - Blake Strickland | 57 | 5 | 11.530 | 0.000 | 486 | |||||
| 64 | Lonnie Marchant - Jeffrey Hutto | 7 | 5 | 11.370 | 0.000 | 484 | |||||
| 65 | Gary Michaud - Doc McDaniel | 50 | 5 | 11.290 | 0.000 | 482 | |||||
| 66 | Deron Donohoo - Davey Thomas | 95 | 4 | 10.970 | 0.000 | 480 | |||||
| 67 | Sammie Grier - David Strickland | 97 | 4 | 10.660 | 0.000 | 478 | |||||
| 68 | Christopher Hopkins - Hunter Hoffemeyer | 20 | 5 | 10.560 | 0.000 | 476 | |||||
| 69 | Craig Jurgonski - Jack Belt | 137 | 3 | 10.510 | 7.120 | 474 | |||||
| 70 | Juddie Revels - David Oxendine | 136 | 4 | 10.170 | 0.000 | 472 | |||||
| 71 | BRENT bartman - Ben Smith | 103 | 5 | 9.930 | 0.000 | 470 | |||||
| 72 | Wayne King - Jason Morse | 48 | 4 | 9.820 | 0.000 | 468 | |||||
| 73 | Greg Prescott - Michael Cox | 58 | 4 | 9.440 | 0.000 | 466 | |||||
| 74 | Mike Edge - Casey Warren | 59 | 4 | 9.250 | 0.000 | 464 | |||||
| 75 | Matthew Goheen - Terry Goheen | 140 | 2 | 9.190 | 7.260 | 462 | |||||
| 76 | Winkey Watford - scotty mixon | 43 | 3 | 8.800 | 0.000 | 460 | |||||
| 77 | Bryan Holmes - Mike Ware | 37 | 2 | 8.540 | 6.710 | 458 | |||||
| 78 | Robert Mclaughlin - Steve McGary | 42 | 4 | 8.240 | 0.000 | 456 | |||||
| 79 | Kiel Kelly - justin tingen | 21 | 4 | 7.870 | 0.000 | 454 | |||||
| 80 | Toby Keisler - Bill Wilson | 119 | 3 | 7.510 | 0.000 | 452 | |||||
| 81 | Andy Wicker - Steve Wicker | 8 | 4 | 7.490 | 0.000 | 450 | |||||
| 82 | Kyle Austin - jimmy austin | 29 | 1 | 6.800 | 0.000 | 448 | |||||
| 83 | Michael Murphy - Kevin Sanders | 31 | 2 | 6.560 | 0.000 | 446 | |||||
| 84 | Sam Hopkins - Craig Matthews | 100 | 3 | 6.510 | 0.000 | 444 | |||||
| 85 | Tim Slice - Mark Richardson | 98 | 1 | 6.480 | 0.000 | 442 | |||||
| 86 | Rick Akers - là rry Mckissick | 113 | 1 | 6.260 | 0.000 | 440 | |||||
| 87 | Wesley Cashwell - Shane Doughtie | 138 | 1 | 5.580 | 0.000 | 438 | |||||
| 88 | gerald bennett - Ronnie Prosser | 149 | 2 | 5.520 | 0.000 | 436 | |||||
| 89 | Kevin Ashley - Brandon Temples | 32 | 1 | 4.820 | 0.000 | 434 | |||||
| 90 | Rusty Bullard - Eric Martin | 74 | 2 | 4.320 | 0.000 | 432 | |||||
| 91 | Paul Selle - Bryan Hall | 96 | 1 | 3.180 | 0.000 | 430 | |||||
| 92 | Alton Rockett - Robert Kale | 56 | 1 | 2.190 | 0.000 | 428 | |||||
| 93 | Mark Lane - Duke Bone | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Mike King - Mike Traynum | 12 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Thomas King - Clayton King | 14 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Ray Walsh - Marc Deschenes | 15 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Jeff Murray - Derrick Murray | 16 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Johnny Player - Craig Hall | 17 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Butch Williams - David Etheridge | 19 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | jonathan sims - kreig Griffin | 22 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Sean Hall - Travis Parrish | 23 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | David Gilson - Jeremiah Jensen | 27 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Michael Allen - Michael Allen | 28 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | J. Weinberg - Morgan Strange | 30 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Ronnie McCoy - Jason McCoy | 33 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Steven Walker - Jimbo Powers | 38 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Marty Quesada - Steven Story | 46 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Gary Elenbark - Curtis Williams | 52 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Shane Abbott - Mark Abbott | 55 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Robert Wood - John Lundeen | 60 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Bunn Tyson - Thad Driggers | 62 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Larry Parker - Glenn Altman | 63 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Pete Brantley - Jerry Arnett | 64 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Chad Cook - tony cook | 67 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Matt Mollohan - Kyle McElveen | 70 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Perry Holloway - Danny Lowery | 71 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Shannon Jordan - Shawn Jordan | 72 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Tim Chapman - Marcus Leech | 75 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Gill Bruton - Hank Taylor | 77 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Jamie Partee - Donnie McCord | 83 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Max Terry - Walker (Son) Terry | 84 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Tim Jones - john jones | 87 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Caanan Woriax - Christian Locklear | 88 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Chris McDuffie - Greg Creech | 91 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Mike Goodman - Gary Avery | 92 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Mike Byrd - Chris Moody | 93 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Andrew Boykin - Chris Anderson | 94 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Jeff Knight - Joey Caskey | 99 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Daniel Cook - Carl Smith | 102 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Randy Hall - Vernie Haltiwanger | 104 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | CJ Johnston - Matt Stanley | 105 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Greg Davis - Dennis Parks | 109 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Harold Turner - Cameron Kaihara | 112 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Dustin Compton - Jonathan strickland | 114 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | James Bond - Chris Daugherty | 115 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Johnathan Crossland - Burgess Jordan | 117 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | jason bateman - Michael Richardson | 118 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | MATTHEW ARMS - Zach Blair | 121 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Robert Whaley - Randy Gibson | 123 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Greg Sigmon - Tracy pope | 124 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | grady allen - Calvin Hewitt | 126 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Larry Avins - Joe Avin | 127 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Brian Tyler - Chase Tyler | 128 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Eric Bozeman - Max Shuman | 129 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Gregg Kessler - Gregg Kessler II | 133 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Cecil Wolfe - Ray Winans | 134 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Fred Corn - Rick Corn | 135 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | David Arnold - Billy Collins | 142 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Casey Padgett - Lance Rodgers | 144 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Greg Willimon - Chris Tinsley | 145 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Andy Rutledge - Andy Rutledge | 147 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | Bernie Dreher - Les Westbury | 151 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 | |||||
| 93 | John Liles - Jamie Ethridge | 152 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 426 |
Williams, Roger slow down to take Texoma title
California, Arizona Qualify Teams For High School Championship
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ALABAMA’S MCCOMBS WINS FLW TOUR AT BEAVER LAKE PRESENTED BY GENERAL TIRE
Pro Angler Earns Title in His Return Season to Tour after 14-year Hiatus
Link to HD video of Johnny McCombs’ Winning Moment On-Stage
ROGERS, Ark. (April 30, 2017) – Pro Johnny McCombs of Morris, Alabama, weighed in just two bass totaling 5 pounds, 4 ounces Sunday, but it was enough to win the $100,000 prize at the FLW Tour event at Beaver Lake presented by General Tire. McCombs earned the win by 2-pound, 6-ounce margin over second place pro Jason Reyes of Huffman, Texas, in the four-day event hosted by Visit Rogers, that featured a field of 161 of the world’s best bass-fishing professionals competing in one of the most challenging tournaments in recent FLW history.
Another round of severe thunderstorms swept through northwest Arkansas Saturday night, bringing water levels up an estimated 4 or 5 feet overnight. The muddy water that greeted the final 10 anglers Sunday proved to be an extreme challenge, as only two anglers were able to bring a five-bass limit to the scale. McCombs only managed two keepers, but they were enough to earn the Alabama angler the victory in his first season back on Tour after a 14-year hiatus.
“I still can’t believe it,” said McCombs, a three-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier who earned his first career victory. “This one probably won’t sink in for a while, but it was a long time coming. It’s so awesome to be back out here and doing what I love again and this 100 thousand will go a long way.”
McCombs said that he caught most of his fish – including the tournament-best 18 pound, 15 ounce limit Saturday – fishing grass and bushes in flooded pockets. His bait of choice was a white and chartreuse-colored War Eagle Buzzbait with a Zoom Horny Toad. He said all of the fish that he weighed in this week came via the buzzbait except for one, when he followed up on a missed strike to the buzzbait with a jig.
“I just kept working my way down the bank and trying to keep my bait in the strike zone for as long as I could,” McCombs said. “I was fishing the flooded bank – grass, people’s front yards and lawns, boat docks – anything that looked good. The water got too high today, and that’s why I didn’t get many bites. I missed a couple and I probably should have weighed in 14 pounds, but I just couldn’t hook them up today. Luckily I caught the two that I needed.”
The top 10 pros on Beaver Lake finished:
1st: Johnny McCombs, Morris, Ala., 17 bass, 47-1, $100,000
2nd: Jason Reyes, Huffman, Texas, 18 bass, 44-11, $30,000
3rd: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 20 bass, 43-3, $25,000
4th: Keith Bryan, Novato, Calif., 20 bass, 42-14, $20,000
5th: Cody Meyer, Auburn, Calif., 18 bass, 40-10, $19,000
6th: Quaker State pro Scott Canterbury, Odenville, Ala., 18 bass, 39-8, $18,000
7th: Mud Hole Custom Tackle pro John Cox, DeBary, Fla., 16 bass, 38-7, $17,000
8th: Christopher Brasher, Longview, Texas, 18 bass, 37-8, $16,000
9th: Brandon McMillan, Clewiston, Fla., 16 bass, 36-0, $15,000
10th: Dean Alexander, Georgetown, Texas, 16 bass, 34-5, $14,000
Complete results for the entire field can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Overall there were 28 bass weighing 55 pounds, 2 ounces caught by pros Sunday. Two of the final 10 pros weighed in five-bass limits.
Charley Slaton of Valliant, Oklahoma, won the co-angler division and $20,000 Friday with a two-day total of nine bass weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces, followed by Billy Messer of Spartanburg, South Carolina, who finished in second place with 10 bass weighing 17 pounds, 14 ounces, worth $7,550.
In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field of 322 anglers competed Thursday and Friday. Co-angler competition concluded following Friday’s weigh-in, while the top 20 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advanced to Saturday. Only the top 10 pros continued competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition.
Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of professional bass fishing. The 2017 Forrest Wood Cup will be on Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, Aug. 11-13.
The FLW Tour at Beaver Lake presented by General Tire was hosted by Visit Rogers. The next event for FLW Tour anglers will be the FLW Tour at the Mississippi River presented by Evinrude, May 18-21 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Television coverage of the FLW Tour at Beaver Lake presented by General Tire will premiere in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) June 18 from 6 a.m.-7 a.m. EDT. The Emmy-nominated "FLW" television show airs on NBCSN, the Pursuit Channel and the World Fishing Network and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
347 Boats, Over 24 pounds for the winners and a 10-11 BIG Fish Cap off Record setting day for BASS High School Event on Chickamauga!
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Another record that fell was the largest bass ever caught during a B.A.S.S. high school event. Chase Carter and Adam Sansom of the North West Georgia Anglers established a new mark — one that will be hard to top in the future — with a largemouth that weighed 10-11.
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Severe Weather Forces Postponement Of Final Day Of Bassmaster Elite At Ross Barnett
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2017
RIDGELAND, Miss. — Due to unsafe weather conditions, the final round of the 2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett has been postponed until Monday, May 1.
Trip Weldon, B.A.S.S. tournament director, announced the decision after extended communication with the National Weather Service of Jackson, Miss.
“After discussing the threat of severe weather with the National Weather Service, and with the safety of our anglers as our top concern, we felt postponing the final day was the best decision,” Weldon said. “These storms contain significant lightning among other severe weather factors, and it's not worth the risk.”
According to the National Weather Service, the storms are predicted to arrive by 9 a.m. and continue through the afternoon. They currently contain significant lightning, also “damaging wind gusts, hail and a few tornadoes will be possible.”
Dustin Connell of Alabama owns a comfortable lead of 5 pounds, 6 ounces over his nearest competitor, Keith Poche, also of Alabama. The event began Thursday with 109 Elite anglers, but only the Top 12 compete in the championship round.
Those 12 anglers will resume competition on Monday, May 1, at 6 a.m. CT, and will launch from Madison Landing. The weigh-in will begin at 2 p.m. CT at Old Trace Park.
The tournament is hosted by the Ridgeland Tourism Commission.
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors: Shell Rotella, Humminbird, Nitro Boats, Mercury, Skeeter Boats, Minn Kota, Power-Pole, Yamaha, Berkley, Huk, Triton Boats
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors: Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels, Lowrance Phoenix Boats, T-H Marine, Shimano, Advance Auto Parts, Livingston Lures, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Carhartt
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Costa Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.
Elite Rookie Connell widens lead heading into Championship Sunday in the BASS Elite on Ross Barnett
Dustin Connell of Clanton, Ala., maintains the lead on the third day of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett, bringing 15 pounds, 7 ounces to the scales on Saturday for a three-day total weight of 51-14.
Photo by Seigo Saito/B.A.S.S.
April 29, 2017
Alabama’s Connell Widens Lead In Bassmaster Elite At Ross Barnett
RIDGELAND, Miss. — For the second day in a row, Alabama native Dustin Connell is leading the fourth Bassmaster Elite Series event of his life. The 26-year-old rookie is closing in on his first victory and the $100,000 first-place prize at the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett.
The weather forecast for Ridgeland, Miss., is predicting strong thunderstorms and heavy rain for Championship Sunday, which could impact whether the tournament concludes on schedule or gets postponed until Monday.
Connell’s pattern produced 15 pounds, 7 ounces of largemouth bass for a three-day total of 51-14, which is just over 6 pounds ahead of second place.
“I’m fishing up in the Pearl River,” Connell said. “And if we get heavy rain, the potential flood waters could wash out my spots. If that happens, I may have to revert to plan B and pick up a frog. I’m hoping we’ll dodge a bullet and be able to fish on Sunday.”
Connell mentioned that he’s so confident in his fishing spots that if the weather holds off, he believes he can win.
“I’m trying to not focus on the what if’s right now, rather I’m focusing on what I need to do tomorrow to win, provided we get to fish,” he said. “I have been flipping 35 to 40 spots with lots of vegetation this week. The water in that part of the river is starting to stabilize, and fishing seems to be getting better. If we can avoid the rain, I think I could catch the biggest limit of my week.”
The young angler said he caught 12 or 13 fish during the day, and he missed several big bites that could have added to his lead.
“I’m happy to have a 6-pound lead, which on this lake will go a long way,” he said. “If the weather does hit, a 6-pound cushion will play to my advantage. At the very least, it’ll help me sleep tonight.”
Another Alabamian is also in contention for the win. Keith Poche caught 15-6 on Saturday’s semi-final round, pushing his total to 46-8.
“I really don’t know how this is going to end up,” Poche said. “The forecasted weather is a huge variable. I know I’m around some big fish, maybe even the winning fish, but several inches of rain will definitely change things — and if it does I will be starting over.”
Rounding out the Top 12: Kevin VanDam (46-6), Jonathon VanDam (45-15), Brent Chapman (44-13), Mark Menendez (44-13), Fred Roumbanis (44-12), Matt Herren (44-4), Ish Monroe (44-2), Dave Lefebre (44-1), Bobby Lane (43-10) and Skeet Reese (42-11).
Lester remains in the lead for the Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award thanks to the 7-2 largemouth bass he caught during Thursday’s opening round.
Due to impending weather conditions for Ridgeland, Miss., Bassmaster tournament officials are in regular communication with the National Weather Service. They will make a decision about the final round of competition Saturday evening or early Sunday morning.
According to Bassmaster Elite Series rules, if Championship Sunday is canceled, the tournament will resume on Monday with a projected 6 a.m. CT takeoff and a final weigh-in at 2 p.m.
Connell won the Livingston Lures Day 2 Leader Award of $500 for leading the tournament on Friday’s second day of competition.
The event is hosted by the Ridgeland Tourism Commission.
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors: Yamaha, Berkley, Huk, Shell Rotella, Humminbird, Nitro Boats, Mercury, Skeeter Boats, Minn Kota, Triton Boats, Power-Pole
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors: Carhartt, Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels, Lowrance, Phoenix Boats, T-H Marine, Shimano, Advance Auto Parts, Livingston Lures, Academy Sports + Outdoors
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Costa Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.
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2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett 4/27-4/30
Ross Barnett Reservoir, Ridgeland MS.
(PROFESSIONAL) Standings Day 3
Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$
1. Dustin Connell Clanton, AL 15 51-14 110 $500.00
Day 1: 5 19-12 Day 2: 5 16-11 Day 3: 5 15-07
2. Keith Poche Pike Road, AL 15 46-08 109
Day 1: 5 20-02 Day 2: 5 11-00 Day 3: 5 15-06
3. Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI 15 46-06 108
Day 1: 5 10-15 Day 2: 5 17-00 Day 3: 5 18-07
4. Jonathon VanDam Kalamazoo, MI 15 45-15 107
Day 1: 5 15-13 Day 2: 5 15-01 Day 3: 5 15-01
5. Brent Chapman Lake Quivira, KS 15 44-13 106
Day 1: 5 18-01 Day 2: 5 10-14 Day 3: 5 15-14
6. Mark Menendez Paducah, KY 15 44-13 105
Day 1: 5 17-00 Day 2: 5 17-11 Day 3: 5 10-02
7. Fred Roumbanis London, AR 15 44-12 104
Day 1: 5 15-14 Day 2: 5 13-14 Day 3: 5 15-00
8. Matt Herren Ashville, AL 15 44-04 103
Day 1: 5 14-06 Day 2: 5 15-03 Day 3: 5 14-11
9. Ish Monroe Hughson, CA 15 44-02 102
Day 1: 5 14-07 Day 2: 5 16-02 Day 3: 5 13-09
10. Dave Lefebre Erie, PA 15 44-01 101
Day 1: 5 18-04 Day 2: 5 15-10 Day 3: 5 10-03
11. Bobby Lane Jr. Lakeland, FL 15 43-10 100
Day 1: 5 20-14 Day 2: 5 11-10 Day 3: 5 11-02
12. Skeet Reese Auburn, CA 15 42-11 99
Day 1: 5 14-08 Day 2: 5 12-01 Day 3: 5 16-02
13. Chad Morgenthaler Reeds Spring, MO 15 41-08 98 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 13-13 Day 2: 5 15-11 Day 3: 5 12-00
14. Bradley Roy Lancaster, KY 15 41-03 97 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 14-05 Day 2: 5 14-11 Day 3: 5 12-03
15. Stephen Browning Hot Springs, AR 15 41-01 96 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 15-13 Day 2: 5 12-05 Day 3: 5 12-15
16. Brandon Card Knoxville, TN 14 40-08 95 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 22-14 Day 2: 5 11-00 Day 3: 4 06-10
17. Luke Clausen Otis Orchards, WA 15 40-03 94 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 12-05 Day 2: 5 12-09 Day 3: 5 15-05
18. Brandon Palaniuk Hayden, ID 15 39-12 93 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 12-15 Day 2: 5 13-00 Day 3: 5 13-13
19. Seth Feider Isle, MN 14 39-11 92 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 16-04 Day 2: 4 08-15 Day 3: 5 14-08
20. Mark Davis Mount Ida, AR 14 38-12 91 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 20-10 Day 2: 5 11-04 Day 3: 4 06-14
21. Chad Grigsby Maple Grove, MN 15 38-12 90 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 13-01 Day 2: 5 11-04 Day 3: 5 14-07
22. Fletcher Shryock New Philadelphia, OH 15 38-10 89 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 15-15 Day 2: 5 11-14 Day 3: 5 10-13
23. Randall Tharp Port St. Joe, FL 14 38-01 88 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 12-11 Day 2: 5 13-15 Day 3: 4 11-07
24. Edwin Evers Talala, OK 15 37-15 87 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 09-13 Day 2: 5 15-02 Day 3: 5 13-00
25. Jared Lintner Arroyo Grande, CA 11 37-08 86 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 16-11 Day 2: 3 14-01 Day 3: 3 06-12
26. Tim Horton Muscle Shoals, AL 15 37-07 85 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 10-15 Day 2: 5 15-08 Day 3: 5 11-00
27. Jason Christie Park Hill, OK 15 37-04 84 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 11-03 Day 2: 5 14-15 Day 3: 5 11-02
28. Keith Combs Huntington, TX 15 37-03 83 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 12-12 Day 2: 5 13-01 Day 3: 5 11-06
29. Marty Robinson Lyman, SC 15 36-12 82 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 18-00 Day 2: 5 07-12 Day 3: 5 11-00
30. Randy Howell Guntersville, AL 14 36-12 81 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 15-07 Day 2: 5 12-03 Day 3: 4 09-02
31. Greg Vinson Wetumpka, AL 15 36-05 80 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 11-06 Day 2: 5 12-02 Day 3: 5 12-13
32. Todd Faircloth Jasper, TX 14 36-04 79 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 16-11 Day 2: 5 09-11 Day 3: 4 09-14
33. David Walker Sevierville, TN 14 36-00 78 $10,000.00
Day 1: 4 07-02 Day 2: 5 18-05 Day 3: 5 10-09
34. Casey Ashley Donalds, SC 15 36-00 77 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 11-11 Day 2: 5 14-07 Day 3: 5 09-14
35. John Crews Jr Salem, VA 15 35-12 76 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 11-01 Day 2: 5 14-05 Day 3: 5 10-06
36. Brandon Coulter Knoxville, TN 15 35-05 75 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 17-05 Day 2: 5 08-12 Day 3: 5 09-04
37. Scott Rook Little Rock, AR 15 35-02 74 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 13-07 Day 2: 5 12-01 Day 3: 5 09-10
38. Hank Cherry Jr Lincolnton, NC 13 35-00 73 $10,000.00
Day 1: 4 07-12 Day 2: 5 18-01 Day 3: 4 09-03
39. Mark Daniels Jr. Tuskegee, AL 14 34-05 72 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 14-06 Day 2: 5 12-07 Day 3: 4 07-08
40. James Niggemeyer Van, TX 15 34-02 71 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 10-04 Day 2: 5 14-01 Day 3: 5 09-13
41. Clent Davis Montevallo, AL 14 34-01 70 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 14-03 Day 2: 5 10-14 Day 3: 4 09-00
42. Greg Hackney Gonzales, LA 15 33-15 69 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 10-02 Day 2: 5 13-07 Day 3: 5 10-06
43. Clifford Pirch Payson, AZ 15 33-07 68 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 09-13 Day 2: 5 13-01 Day 3: 5 10-09
44. Cliff Crochet Pierre Part, LA 14 32-15 67 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 11-05 Day 2: 5 11-13 Day 3: 4 09-13
45. Brock Mosley Collinsville, MS 13 32-14 66 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 14-10 Day 2: 5 12-03 Day 3: 3 06-01
46. Shane Lineberger Lincolnton, NC 14 32-14 65 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 12-04 Day 2: 5 11-08 Day 3: 4 09-02
47. Brett Preuett Monroe, LA 12 32-00 64 $10,000.00
Day 1: 4 08-05 Day 2: 5 16-05 Day 3: 3 07-06
48. Darrell Ocamica New Plymouth, ID 12 31-06 63 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 14-05 Day 2: 5 13-02 Day 3: 2 03-15
49. Bill Lowen Brookville, IN 14 31-05 62 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 12-06 Day 2: 5 10-11 Day 3: 4 08-04
50. Brandon Lester Fayetteville, TN 10 29-11 61 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 19-15 Day 2: 3 06-03 Day 3: 2 03-09
51. Ott DeFoe Knoxville, TN 11 25-09 60 $10,000.00
Day 1: 5 13-03 Day 2: 5 10-08 Day 3: 1 01-14
McCombs jumps into FLW Lead on Beaver Lake heading into Championship Sunday
Six-Year Tour Veteran Seeks First Career Win, Brings 2-pound, 5-ounce Lead into Final Day
Link to photo of pro leader Johnny McCombs
ROGERS, Ark. (April 29, 2017) – The weather was the big story Saturday at the FLW Tour event at Beaver Lake presented by General Tire. After a rainy week that had seen water levels rise more than 8 feet, Mother Nature continued to challenge the FLW Tour pros with another round of heavy storms and flash flooding that forced many of the final 20 Tour pros to seek shelter during the competition day.
After starting the day in 11th place, pro Johnny McCombs of Morris, Alabama, battled through the storms and brought a five-bass limit to the scale weighing 18 pounds, 15 ounces – the heaviest limit of the tournament and seventh largest at Beaver Lake in FLW Tour history – to vault to the top of the leaderboard. The four-day competition, hosted by Visit Rogers, featured a field of 161 of the world’s best bass-fishing professionals casting for a top award of up to $125,000.
“I think the weather affected the fishermen more than the fish,” said McCombs, a three-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier. “I fished all new water today and had my weight by 8:30 a.m. It wasn’t one spot – it was one here, one there. I caught them all on one bait.”
With one day of competition remaining, McCombs was not yet ready to divulge the specifics of his bait.
“The water is flooded into the bushes, and I’m just fishing down the bank line,” McCombs said. “I’m on a pattern and I know what to look for. If I pull into a place and it doesn’t look right, I’m out of there and on to the next one.
“I actually stopped fishing a few hours early today because of the storms,” McCombs continued. “I’m excited to get back out there tomorrow and hopefully I can get the right bites that I need to win this thing.”
The top 10 advancing to the final day of competition Sunday on Beaver Lake are:
1st: Johnny McCombs, Morris, Ala., 15 bass, 41-13
2nd: Jason Reyes, Huffman, Texas, 15 bass, 39-8
3rd: Cody Meyer, Auburn, Calif., 15 bass, 35-6
4th: Mud Hole Custom Tackle pro John Cox, DeBary, Fla., 14 bass, 35-3
5th: Brandon McMillan, Clewiston, Fla., 15 bass, 34-5
6th: Quaker State pro Scott Canterbury, Odenville, Ala., 15 bass, 33-4
7th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 15 bass, 33-2
8th: Keith Bryan, Novato, Calif., 15 bass, 32-6
9th: Dean Alexander, Georgetown, Texas, 15 bass, 32-1
10th: Christopher Brasher, Longview, Texas, 15 bass, 32-0
Finishing in 11th through 20th are:
11th: Randy Blaukat, Joplin, Mo., 14 bass, 30-8, $12,000
12th: Drew Montgomery, Maiden, N.C., 15 bass, 30-8, $12,000
13th: Joseph Webster, Fulton, Miss., 15 bass, 30-6, $12,000
14th: Bradley Dortch, Atmore, Ala., 15 bass, 29-8, $12,000
15th: Nick Gainey, Charleston, S.C., 13 bass, 29-6, $12,000
16th: Daniel Kweekul, Bryant, Ark., 12 bass, 29-2, $12,000
17th: Tim Frederick, Leesburg, Fla., 13 bass, 28-12, $12,000
18th: Matt Stefan, Junction City, Wis., 14 bass, 28-11, $12,000
19th: Scott Ashmore, Broken Arrow, Okla., 11 bass, 28-3, $12,000
20th: Jeff Dobson, Bartlesville, Okla., 15 bass, 26-15, $12,000
For a full list of results visit FLWFishing.com.
Overall there were 90 bass weighing 172 pounds even caught by pros Saturday. Fourteen of the final 20 pros weighed in five-bass limits.
Charley Slaton of Valliant, Oklahoma, won the co-angler division and $20,000 Friday with a two-day total of nine bass weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces, followed by Billy Messer of Spartanburg, South Carolina, who finished in second place with 10 bass weighing 17 pounds, 14 ounces, worth $7,550.
In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field of 322 anglers competed Thursday and Friday. Co-angler competition concluded following Friday’s weigh-in, while the top 20 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advance to Saturday. Only the top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition.
Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of professional bass fishing. The 2017 Forrest Wood Cup will be on Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, Aug. 11-13.
The final 10 anglers will take off from the Prairie Creek Park Boat Ramp located at 9300 N. Park Road in Rogers at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. Sunday’s final weigh-in, originally scheduled to be held at Walmart in Rogers, has been moved lakeside to Prairie Creek Park due to inclement weather being forecast for the weekend. The final weigh-in will begin at 4 p.m.
Prior to the weigh-in Sunday, FLW will host a free Fishing Expo at Prairie Creek Park from noon to 4 p.m. The Expo is a chance for fishing fans to meet their favorite anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by FLW sponsors, and learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities.
Television coverage of the FLW Tour at Beaver Lake presented by General Tire will premiere in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) June 18 from 6 a.m.-7 a.m. EDT. The Emmy-nominated "FLW" television show airs on NBCSN, the Pursuit Channel and the World Fishing Network and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
The FLW Tour has visited Beaver Lake 18 times previously, with 2017 marking the 19th visit in FLW’s 22-year history. The total purse for the FLW Tour at the Beaver Lake presented by General Tire is more than $800,000, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division. The tournament is hosted by Visit Rogers.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
Wild and Crazy Weekend.
I can’t be the only one who enjoys watching tough-bite tourneys. When the action is slow, we learn more. Sure, it’s fun to see the pros whack ‘em and stack ‘em on legendary lakes known for producing tons of mossyback hydrilla gorillas (I mean, come on, I’m a red-blooded American after all).
But every tournament has its merits and right now there are 2 lakes that are throwing curveballs to our best professional anglers.
We will learn how to adjust when fishing a crowded lake as we watch the Elite Series pros share water at 30,000-acre Ross Barnett Reservoir. As if the confines weren’t cozy enough, high winds have put a bunch of water out of bounds, more or less.
Dustin Connell has what he calls ‘a Jacob Wheeler sneak hole’ to himself. It has provided him the lead midway through the event with 36 pounds, 7 ounces.
Dave Lefebre has been sneaky in his own right, fishing stuff he believes others have overlooked. It has put him in 4th, about two-and-a-half pounds behind Connell.
The shad spawn is playing a role for Lefebre but he says they are spawning on everything, not just the usual rocks and docks. Also, he is not using the typical weapon – a spinnerbait to trigger bass around the shad.
We’ll learn more – a lot more as the picture continues to develop over the next couple of days.
Over in Arkansas our FLW Tour pros are having their annual Beaver Lake festival. It has been mostly slow. Cody Meyer was able to retain a very slim lead today with only 12-8 for a total weight of 28-9 over the first 2 days. His lead shrunk from 6 ounces to 3 ounces.
The fishable part of the lake shrunk too. Water has risen 9 feet in the past week on Beaver. Huge floating logjams have made travel difficult south Monte Ne and even when anglers have gotten to their fishing spots upriver the water has less than an inch of visibility and is 8 degrees colder than down lake.
Somehow, John Cox managed to see and catch 4 stout largemouth from beds one Day 1. He added 5 more today and is in the Top 10. Rising water has changed things so much that most pros say they are now fishing a different lake than the one they practiced on. Yet, with an extra 9 feet of water on top of everything, Cox finds them bedding.
Again, there is much to learn this weekend.
Meyer Maintains Lead heading into Saturday's Top 20 in FLW on Beaver
Oklahoma’s Slaton Wins Co-angler Title, $20,000
ROGERS, Ark. (April 28, 2017) – Pro Cody Meyer of Auburn, California, caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 8 ounces Friday to retain his lead in the FLW Tour event at Beaver Lake with a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 28-9. He now holds a slim 3-ounce lead over second place pro Jason Reyes of Huffman, Texas, in the four-day event, presented by General Tire, that features a field of 161 of the world’s best bass-fishing professionals casting for a top award of up to $125,000.
“I started on the same spot where I got the majority of my fish yesterday and caught a limit by 10 (a.m.),” said Meyer, who has two prior top-10 finishes at Beaver Lake in FLW Tour competition. “The fishing was definitely a lot slower and the fish weren’t as big today, but I was happy to have a limit.
“I left that area and went to a spot where I had marked a bedding smallmouth in practice,” Meyer continued. “The water has come up quite a bit, so I couldn’t see her and I was just pitching to where I thought it was. I ended up catching a nice largemouth there – some good luck.”
Meyer said that he ended up catching two more fish later in the day and his five-bass limit that he brought to the scale consisted of two largemouth bass and three smallmouth. He said that the same baits that he used on Day One produced again for him on Friday – a tube, a drop-shot rig, a swimbait and a flipping rod.
“The chances of getting another limit out of my starting area is slim to none,” Meyer said. “Tomorrow I’m just going to go fish. You have to take it one day at a time here and concentrate on getting the right bites. Hopefully tomorrow I can make the right decisions and find the big ones.”
The top 20 pros that made the Buck Knives Cut and will fish Saturday on Beaver Lake are:
1st: Cody Meyer, Auburn, Calif., 10 bass, 28-9
2nd: Jason Reyes, Huffman, Texas, 10 bass, 28-6
3rd: Dean Alexander, Georgetown, Texas, 10 bass, 26-3
4th: Brandon McMillan, Clewiston, Fla., 10 bass, 24-13
5th: Nick Gainey, Charleston, S.C., 10 bass, 24-5
6th: Randy Blaukat, Joplin, Mo., 10 bass, 23-12
7th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 10 bass, 23-9
8th: Christopher Brasher, Longview, Texas, 10 bass, 23-3
9th: Mud Hole Custom Tackle pro John Cox, DeBary, Fla., nine bass, 23-2
10th: Keith Bryan, Novato, Calif., 10 bass, 23-2
11th: Johnny McCombs, Morris, Ala., 10 bass, 22-14
12th: Matt Stefan, Junction City, Wis., 10 bass, 22-13
13th: Tim Frederick, Leesburg, Fla., 10 bass, 22-10
14th: Daniel Kweekul, Bryant, Ark., nine bass, 22-5
15th: Jeff Dobson, Bartlesville, Okla., 10 bass, 22-4
16th: Drew Montgomery, Maiden, N.C., 10 bass, 22-2
17th: Quaker State pro Scott Canterbury, Springville, Ala., 10 bass, 21-10
18th: Scott Ashmore, Broken Arrow, Okla., eight bass, 21-2
19th: Joseph Webster, Fulton, Miss., 10 bass, 21-2
20th: Bradley Dortch, Atmore, Ala., 10 bass, 21-2
For a full list of results visit FLWFishing.com.
Ashmore earned the Big Bass award on the pro side Friday, weighing a 5-pound, 3-ounce largemouth to win the $500 prize.
Overall there were 651 bass weighing 1,208 pounds, 10 ounces caught by 153 pros Friday. The catch included 97 five-bass limits.
Charley Slaton of Valliant, Oklahoma, won the co-angler division and $20,000 Friday with a two-day total of nine bass weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces, followed by Billy Messer of Spartanburg, South Carolina, who finished in second place with 10 bass weighing 17 pounds, 14 ounces, worth $7,550.
The top 10 co-anglers on Beaver Lake finished:
1st: Charley Slaton, Valliant, Okla., nine bass, 17-15, $20,000
2nd: Billy Messer, Spartanburg, S.C., 10 bass, 17-14, $7,550
3rd: Ken Harp, Springdale, Ark., 10 bass, 17-11, $5,000
4th: Michael Allbright, Athens, Texas, 10 bass, 17-4, $4,000
5th: Rich Dalbey, Greenville, Texas, eight bass, 17-4, $3,000
6th: Chuck Kavros, Grass Valley, Calif., eight bass, 16-6, $2,500
7th: Mark Howard, Mesquite, Texas, eight bass, 16-3, $2,000
8th: Scott Parsons, Rogers, Ark., eight bass, 16-2, $1,800
9th: Gary Haraguchi, Redding, Calif., 10 bass, 15-5, $1,700
10th: Drew Barnes, Bella Vista, Ark., nine bass, 15-4, $1,600
Dennis Crawford of Rogers, Arkansas, earned $250 for the Big Bass award in the co-angler division with a 4-pound, 6-ounce bass.
Overall there were 325 bass weighing 552 pounds, 3 ounces caught by 125 co-anglers Friday. The catch included 19 five-bass limits.
In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field of 322 anglers competed Thursday and Friday. Co-angler competition concluded following Friday’s weigh-in, while the top 20 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advance to Saturday. Only the top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition.
Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of professional bass fishing. The 2017 Forrest Wood Cup will be on Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, Aug. 11-13.
The FLW Tour has visited Beaver Lake 18 times previously, with 2017 marking the 19th visit in FLW’s 22-year history. The total purse for the FLW Tour at the Beaver Lake presented by General Tire is more than $800,000, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division. The tournament is hosted by Visit Rogers.
Anglers will take off from the Prairie Creek Park Boat Ramp located at 9300 N. Park Road in Rogers at 6:30 a.m. each day of competition. Saturday and Sunday’s final weigh-ins, originally scheduled to be held at Walmart in Rogers, have been moved lakeside to Prairie Creek Park due to inclement weather being forecast for the weekend. They will begin at 4 p.m.
Prior to the weigh-ins Saturday and Sunday, FLW will host a free Fishing Expo at Prairie Creek Park from noon to 4 p.m. each day. The Expo is a chance for fishing fans to meet their favorite anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by FLW sponsors, and learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities.
Television coverage of the FLW Tour at Beaver Lake presented by General Tire will premiere in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) June 18 from 6 a.m.-7 a.m. EDT. The Emmy-nominated "FLW" television show airs on NBCSN, the Pursuit Channel and the World Fishing Network and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
Costa Pro and Elite Rookie leads heading into the weekend on Ross Barnett
Dustin Connell of Clanton, Ala., takes the lead on the second day of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett bringing a two-day total weight of 36 pounds, 7 ounces to the scales.
Photo by Seigo Saito/B.A.S.S.
April 28, 2017
Connell Climbs On Top Of Bassmaster Elite At Ross Barnett
RIDGELAND, Miss. — Twenty-six-year-old Bassmaster Elite Series rookie Dustin Connell took over the lead on Friday’s second round of competition at the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett.
Connell of Clanton, Ala., caught a five-bass limit that weighed 16 pounds, 11 ounces pushing his two-day total to 36-7, which is less than 2 pounds ahead of second place.
A big wind picked up during the afternoon pushing sustained speeds of 20 mph, with gusts near 30. On a relatively shallow lake like Mississippi’s Ross Barnett Reservoir, that means muddy water and big waves — something all of the competitors will have to deal with on Saturday’s semi-final round.
“The wind won’t affect my fishing spots, but it will affect my travel time to and from where I’ll be spending my day,” Connell said. “What’s concerning me is that the water level is rising and getting muddier.”
The young angler mentioned that the water conditions seemed to be worsening, but the bass were still active and willing to attack multiple presentations.
“I feel like the bass are holding tighter to the structure, which is requiring repetitive casts to the same spot,” he said. “I have a lot of locations where I know I can catch fish, and I’m confident the fish are big enough for me to stay in the lead. But, if the wind gets worse, making it back to weigh-in will be my biggest concern.”
Connell said he’s excited to be leading an event on the Elite Series during his first year as a touring pro.
“I was humbled to have several boats following me around today,” Connell said. “It wasn’t but a few years ago I was one of those guys following my heroes around. Now, I’m living that dream. It’s important for me to keep my focus and fish smart, and not worry about who’s going to win. Tomorrow, I’m just going fishing.”
Kentucky angler Mark Menendez jumped to second place by weighing in 17-11 for a total of 34-11. He said fishing in tough conditions requires intense focus.
“To be honest, I’m not sure how well my pattern will hold up tomorrow,” Menendez said. “But I know that if I focus on making the best cast possible, as often as possible, I will catch fish. The forecasted winds tomorrow will have an impact on my spots; I’m just hoping I can continue to be consistent. Ross Barnett bass are used to wind and mud, they’ll still bite.”
After weighing 11 pounds for a two-day total of 33-14, Brandon Card of Knoxville, Tenn., fell to third place on Friday after leading the derby’s opening day.
“I think the fishing pressure where I’ve started over the past couple days is taking its toll,” Card said. “The wind and muddy water that is affecting a bulk of the field won’t be as big of an issue for my initial spot. But where I’ve been fishing later in the day will most likely be blown out tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a quick limit early in the morning and build from there.”
Rounding out the Top 10: Dave Lefebre (33-14), Bobby Lane (32-8), Mark Davis (31-14), Keith Poche (31-2), Jonathon VanDam (30-14), Jared Lintner (30-12) and Ish Monroe (30-9).
Lester remains in the lead for the Phoenix Boats Big Bass award thanks to the 7-2 largemouth bass he caught during Thursday’s opening round.
Competition will resume Saturday with the Top 51 anglers taking off at 6:15 a.m. CT from Madison Landing. The weigh-in will be held at Old Trace Park at 3:15 p.m.
The event is hosted by the Ridgeland Tourism Commission.
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors: Power-Pole, Yamaha, Berkley, Huk, Shell Rotella, Humminbird, Nitro Boats, Mercury, Skeeter Boats, Minn Kota, Triton Boats
2017 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors: Academy Sports + Outdoors, Carhartt, Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels, Lowrance, Phoenix Boats, Shimano, Advance Auto Parts, Livingston Lures, T-H Marine
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Costa Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.
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Media Contact: JamieDay Matthews, 205-313-0945, jmatthews@bassmaster.com or Dave Precht, 205-313-0931, dprecht@bassmaster.com
2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett 4/27-4/30
Ross Barnett Reservoir, Ridgeland MS.
(PROFESSIONAL) Standings Day 2
Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$
1. Dustin Connell Clanton, AL 10 36-07 110 $500.00
Day 1: 5 19-12 Day 2: 5 16-11
2. Mark Menendez Paducah, KY 10 34-11 109
Day 1: 5 17-00 Day 2: 5 17-11
3. Brandon Card Knoxville, TN 10 33-14 108
Day 1: 5 22-14 Day 2: 5 11-00
4. Dave Lefebre Erie, PA 10 33-14 107
Day 1: 5 18-04 Day 2: 5 15-10
5. Bobby Lane Jr. Lakeland, FL 10 32-08 106
Day 1: 5 20-14 Day 2: 5 11-10
6. Mark Davis Mount Ida, AR 10 31-14 105
Day 1: 5 20-10 Day 2: 5 11-04
7. Keith Poche Pike Road, AL 10 31-02 104
Day 1: 5 20-02 Day 2: 5 11-00
8. Jonathon VanDam Kalamazoo, MI 10 30-14 103
Day 1: 5 15-13 Day 2: 5 15-01
9. Jared Lintner Arroyo Grande, CA 8 30-12 102
Day 1: 5 16-11 Day 2: 3 14-01
10. Ish Monroe Hughson, CA 10 30-09 101
Day 1: 5 14-07 Day 2: 5 16-02
11. Fred Roumbanis London, AR 10 29-12 100
Day 1: 5 15-14 Day 2: 5 13-14
12. Matt Herren Ashville, AL 10 29-09 99
Day 1: 5 14-06 Day 2: 5 15-03
13. Chad Morgenthaler Reeds Spring, MO 10 29-08 98
Day 1: 5 13-13 Day 2: 5 15-11
14. Bradley Roy Lancaster, KY 10 29-00 97
Day 1: 5 14-05 Day 2: 5 14-11
15. Brent Chapman Lake Quivira, KS 10 28-15 96
Day 1: 5 18-01 Day 2: 5 10-14
16. Stephen Browning Hot Springs, AR 10 28-02 95
Day 1: 5 15-13 Day 2: 5 12-05
17. Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI 10 27-15 94
Day 1: 5 10-15 Day 2: 5 17-00
18. Fletcher Shryock New Philadelphia, OH 10 27-13 93
Day 1: 5 15-15 Day 2: 5 11-14
19. Randy Howell Guntersville, AL 10 27-10 92
Day 1: 5 15-07 Day 2: 5 12-03
20. Darrell Ocamica New Plymouth, ID 10 27-07 91
Day 1: 5 14-05 Day 2: 5 13-02
21. Brock Mosley Collinsville, MS 10 26-13 90
Day 1: 5 14-10 Day 2: 5 12-03
22. Mark Daniels Jr. Tuskegee, AL 10 26-13 89
Day 1: 5 14-06 Day 2: 5 12-07
23. Randall Tharp Port St. Joe, FL 10 26-10 88
Day 1: 5 12-11 Day 2: 5 13-15
24. Skeet Reese Auburn, CA 10 26-09 87
Day 1: 5 14-08 Day 2: 5 12-01
25. Tim Horton Muscle Shoals, AL 10 26-07 86
Day 1: 5 10-15 Day 2: 5 15-08
26. Todd Faircloth Jasper, TX 10 26-06 85
Day 1: 5 16-11 Day 2: 5 09-11
27. Brandon Lester Fayetteville, TN 8 26-02 84
Day 1: 5 19-15 Day 2: 3 06-03
28. Jason Christie Park Hill, OK 10 26-02 83
Day 1: 5 11-03 Day 2: 5 14-15
29. Casey Ashley Donalds, SC 10 26-02 82
Day 1: 5 11-11 Day 2: 5 14-07
30. Brandon Coulter Knoxville, TN 10 26-01 81
Day 1: 5 17-05 Day 2: 5 08-12
31. Brandon Palaniuk Hayden, ID 10 25-15 80
Day 1: 5 12-15 Day 2: 5 13-00
32. Hank Cherry Jr Lincolnton, NC 9 25-13 79
Day 1: 4 07-12 Day 2: 5 18-01
33. Keith Combs Huntington, TX 10 25-13 78
Day 1: 5 12-12 Day 2: 5 13-01
34. Marty Robinson Lyman, SC 10 25-12 77
Day 1: 5 18-00 Day 2: 5 07-12
35. Scott Rook Little Rock, AR 10 25-08 76
Day 1: 5 13-07 Day 2: 5 12-01
36. David Walker Sevierville, TN 9 25-07 75
Day 1: 4 07-02 Day 2: 5 18-05
37. John Crews Jr Salem, VA 10 25-06 74
Day 1: 5 11-01 Day 2: 5 14-05
38. Seth Feider Isle, MN 9 25-03 73
Day 1: 5 16-04 Day 2: 4 08-15
39. Clent Davis Montevallo, AL 10 25-01 72
Day 1: 5 14-03 Day 2: 5 10-14
40. Edwin Evers Talala, OK 10 24-15 71
Day 1: 5 09-13 Day 2: 5 15-02
41. Luke Clausen Otis Orchards, WA 10 24-14 70
Day 1: 5 12-05 Day 2: 5 12-09
42. Brett Preuett Monroe, LA 9 24-10 69
Day 1: 4 08-05 Day 2: 5 16-05
43. James Niggemeyer Van, TX 10 24-05 68
Day 1: 5 10-04 Day 2: 5 14-01
44. Chad Grigsby Maple Grove, MN 10 24-05 67
Day 1: 5 13-01 Day 2: 5 11-04
45. Shane Lineberger Lincolnton, NC 10 23-12 66
Day 1: 5 12-04 Day 2: 5 11-08
46. Ott DeFoe Knoxville, TN 10 23-11 65
Day 1: 5 13-03 Day 2: 5 10-08
47. Greg Hackney Gonzales, LA 10 23-09 64
Day 1: 5 10-02 Day 2: 5 13-07
48. Greg Vinson Wetumpka, AL 10 23-08 63
Day 1: 5 11-06 Day 2: 5 12-02
49. Cliff Crochet Pierre Part, LA 10 23-02 62
Day 1: 5 11-05 Day 2: 5 11-13
50. Bill Lowen Brookville, IN 10 23-01 61
Day 1: 5 12-06 Day 2: 5 10-11
51. Clifford Pirch Payson, AZ 10 22-14 60
Day 1: 5 09-13 Day 2: 5 13-01
52. Mike McClelland Bella Vista, AR 10 22-13 59
Day 1: 5 10-06 Day 2: 5 12-07
53. Jacob Wheeler Indianapolis, IN 8 22-06 58
Day 1: 3 09-14 Day 2: 5 12-08
54. Micah Frazier Newnan, GA 9 22-03 57
Day 1: 4 07-11 Day 2: 5 14-08
55. Koby Kreiger Bokeelia, FL 10 22-02 56
Day 1: 5 12-07 Day 2: 5 09-11
56. Justin Lucas Guntersville, AL 10 22-02 55
Day 1: 5 11-08 Day 2: 5 10-10
57. Rick Clunn Ava, MO 10 22-01 54
Day 1: 5 11-05 Day 2: 5 10-12
58. Brent Ehrler Newport Beach, CA 10 21-15 53
Day 1: 5 08-13 Day 2: 5 13-02
59. Drew Benton Panama City, FL 9 21-14 52
Day 1: 5 12-06 Day 2: 4 09-08
60. Shaw Grigsby Jr. Gainesville, FL 8 21-13 51
Day 1: 3 09-10 Day 2: 5 12-03
61. Russ Lane Prattville, AL 10 21-10 50
Day 1: 5 12-14 Day 2: 5 08-12
62. Jordan Lee Grant, AL 9 21-09 49
Day 1: 5 11-13 Day 2: 4 09-12
63. Jamie Hartman Newport, NY 10 21-09 48
Day 1: 5 10-00 Day 2: 5 11-09
64. Takahiro Omori Emory, TX 9 21-07 47
Day 1: 4 11-00 Day 2: 5 10-07
65. Michael Iaconelli Pitts Grove, NJ 8 20-02 46
Day 1: 5 13-00 Day 2: 3 07-02
66. Cliff Prince Palatka, FL 10 19-15 45
Day 1: 5 10-06 Day 2: 5 09-09
67. Kelley Jaye Dadeville, AL 9 19-13 44
Day 1: 5 11-11 Day 2: 4 08-02
68. Bernie Schultz Gainesville, FL 10 19-11 43
Day 1: 5 08-09 Day 2: 5 11-02
69. Jesse Wiggins Cullman, AL 8 19-08 42
Day 1: 5 14-09 Day 2: 3 04-15
70. Brett Hite Phoenix, AZ 10 19-08 41
Day 1: 5 11-03 Day 2: 5 08-05
71. Jacob Powroznik North Prince George, VA 9 19-08 40
Day 1: 4 09-08 Day 2: 5 10-00
72. Gerald Spohrer Gonzales, LA 10 19-07 39
Day 1: 5 10-09 Day 2: 5 08-14
73. Jason Williamson Wagener, SC 8 19-04 38
Day 1: 5 11-06 Day 2: 3 07-14
74. David Mullins Mt Carmel, TN 8 19-01 37
Day 1: 4 09-04 Day 2: 4 09-13
75. Cliff Pace Petal, MS 6 18-13 36
Day 1: 1 01-13 Day 2: 5 17-00
76. Tommy Biffle Wagoner, OK 9 18-12 35
Day 1: 5 09-14 Day 2: 4 08-14
77. Britt Myers Lake Wylie, SC 9 18-11 34
Day 1: 5 08-03 Day 2: 4 10-08
78. Adrian Avena Vineland, NJ 9 18-11 33
Day 1: 5 10-07 Day 2: 4 08-04
79. Gary Klein Mingus, TX 9 18-07 32
Day 1: 5 11-01 Day 2: 4 07-06
80. Jesse Tacoronte Orlando, FL 9 18-01 31
Day 1: 5 12-00 Day 2: 4 06-01
81. James Elam Tulsa, OK 6 17-13 30
Day 1: 4 11-00 Day 2: 2 06-13
82. Alton Jones Lorena, TX 7 17-11 29
Day 1: 5 13-07 Day 2: 2 04-04
83. Gerald Swindle Guntersville, AL 8 17-11 28
Day 1: 3 06-01 Day 2: 5 11-10
84. Boyd Duckett Guntersville, AL 6 17-10 27
Day 1: 1 02-01 Day 2: 5 15-09
85. Kelly Jordon Flint, TX 8 17-10 26
Day 1: 4 09-10 Day 2: 4 08-00
86. John Hunter Jr Shelbyville, KY 8 16-12 25
Day 1: 3 05-09 Day 2: 5 11-03
87. Dean Rojas Lake Havasu City, AZ 8 16-10 24
Day 1: 5 11-01 Day 2: 3 05-09
88. Paul Mueller Naugatuck, CT 8 16-09 23
Day 1: 4 09-09 Day 2: 4 07-00
89. Matt Lee Guntersville, AL 9 16-03 22
Day 1: 4 06-06 Day 2: 5 09-13
90. Chris Zaldain Laughlin, NV 9 15-12 21
Day 1: 5 08-11 Day 2: 4 07-01
91. Brian Snowden Reeds Spring, MO 9 15-03 20
Day 1: 4 06-12 Day 2: 5 08-07
92. Aaron Martens Leeds, AL 8 15-03 19
Day 1: 4 06-15 Day 2: 4 08-04
93. David Williams Newton, NC 8 15-02 18
Day 1: 3 04-10 Day 2: 5 10-08
94. Stetson Blaylock Benton, AR 7 15-00 17
Day 1: 2 03-03 Day 2: 5 11-13
95. Josh Bertrand Gilbert, AZ 7 14-12 16
Day 1: 5 10-15 Day 2: 2 03-13
96. Jeff Kriet Ardmore, OK 6 14-07 15
Day 1: 4 09-00 Day 2: 2 05-07
97. Paul Elias Laurel, MS 7 14-07 14
Day 1: 4 08-09 Day 2: 3 05-14
98. Chris Lane Guntersville, AL 7 14-01 13
Day 1: 5 10-15 Day 2: 2 03-02
99. Andy Montgomery Blacksburg, SC 6 14-00 12
Day 1: 1 01-11 Day 2: 5 12-05
100. Alton Jones Jr. Lorena, TX 6 13-05 11
Day 1: 4 09-14 Day 2: 2 03-07
101. Morizo Shimizu Suita, Osaka JAPAN 5 11-09 10
Day 1: 1 03-04 Day 2: 4 08-05
102. John Murray Spring City, TN 5 11-05 9
Day 1: 3 05-06 Day 2: 2 05-15
103. David Fritts Lexington, NC 6 10-14 8
Day 1: 5 09-01 Day 2: 1 01-13
104. Steve Kennedy Auburn, AL 6 10-12 7
Day 1: 2 03-08 Day 2: 4 07-04
105. Terry Scroggins San Mateo, FL 6 10-11 6
Day 1: 4 06-14 Day 2: 2 03-13
106. Robbie Latuso Gonzales, LA 5 08-09 5
Day 1: 3 05-06 Day 2: 2 03-03
107. Chad Pipkens Lansing, MI 4 06-15 4
Day 1: 4 06-15 Day 2: 0 00-00
108. Tyler Carriere Youngsville, LA 4 06-02 3
Day 1: 2 03-03 Day 2: 2 02-15
109. Skylar Hamilton Dandridge, TN 3 05-04 2
Day 1: 0 -01-00 Day 2: 3 06-04
CODY MEYER LEADS DAY ONE OF FLW TOUR AT BEAVER LAKE
Oklahoma’s Slaton Leads Co-Anglers
ROGERS, Ark. (April 27, 2017) Pro Cody Meyer of Auburn, California, caught a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 1 ounce Thursday to take the lead on opening day of the four-day FLW Tour event at Beaver Lake. The event, presented by General Tire, features a field of 322 of the world’s best bass-fishing professionals and co-anglers casting for top awards of up to $125,000 cash in the pro division and up to $25,000 cash in the co-angler division.
A rainy week has brought Beaver Lake water levels up drastically – as much as 8 feet – in the last seven days. As anglers launched from Prairie Creek Park Marina they faced a very different fishery than the one that they had experienced during practice. While many competitors fished shallow water, Meyer ran into a few smallmouth in deeper water with a drop-shot rig.
“Today was awesome, but I got really lucky,” said Meyer, an eight-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier. “I pulled up on a deep spot where I had gotten a bite in practice and caught four good smallmouth. It happened really quickly. I had a limit around 13 pounds or so, and I ended up making my way back to the check-in at Prairie Creek to end my day. I ended up catching two largemouth shallow just before checking in – my two biggest of the day. It was so random, but those big ones really helped.”
Meyer’s five-bass limit consisted of two largemouth and three smallmouth bass.
"I caught them on four different baits,” he said. “I flipped a couple, threw some little swimbaits and had a couple of different drop-shot rigs.
“I’m looking forward to going back out there tomorrow, but who know what’s going to happen,” Meyer went on to say. “I’ve been here so many times that I know it is very possible to go out tomorrow and not even get a bite. I’m very happy to be where I’m at, though.”
The top 10 pros after day one on Beaver Lake are:
1st: Cody Meyer, Auburn, Calif., five bass, 16-1
2nd: Christopher Brasher, Longview, Texas, five bass, 15-11
3rd: Mud Hole Custom Tackle pro John Cox, DeBary, Fla., four bass, 14-4
4th: Johnny McCombs, Morris, Ala., five bass, 14-3
5th: Daniel Kweekul, Bryant, Ark., five bass, 13-14
6th: Jason Reyes, Huffman, Texas, five bass, 13-13
7th: Keith Bryan, Novato, Calif., five bass, 13-5
8th: Nick Gainey, Charleston, S.C., five bass, 13-4
9th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., five bass, 12-15
10th: Timmy Thompkins, Myrtle Beach, S.C., four bass, 12-10
For a full list of results visit FLWFishing.com.
John Devere of Berea, Kentucky, earned the day's $500 Big Bass award in the pro division thanks to a 6-pound, 4-ounce largemouth.
Overall there were 637 bass weighing 1,217 pounds, 11 ounces caught by 156 pros Thursday. The catch included 85 five-bass limits.
Charley Slaton of Valliant, Oklahoma, leads the co-angler division with four bass weighing 12 pounds, 2 ounces, followed by Rex Jaeger of Hamilton, Ohio, who weighed four bass totaling 11-0, good for second place.
The top 10 co-anglers after day one on Beaver Lake are:
1st: Charley Slaton, Valliant, Okla., four bass, 12-2
2nd: Rex Jaeger, Hamilton, Ohio, four bass, 11-0
3rd: Steve York, Bronson, Mich., five bass, 10-15
4th: Tim Cales, Sandstone, W.Va., five bass, 10-0
5th: Scotty Villines, Ponca, Ark., five bass, 9-12
6th: Wataru Iwahori, Palestine, Texas, five bass, 9-2
7th: Scott Parsons, Rogers, Ark., three bass, 9-1
8th: Scott Easter, Gentry, Ark., four bass, 8-8
9th: Don Harvey, Franklin, Tenn., four bass, 8-7
10th: Steven Meador, Bentonville, Ark., five bass, 8-6
Kevin Medine of Port Allen, Louisiana, earned $250 for the Big Bass award in the co-angler division with a largemouth weighing 6-pounds even.
Overall there were 336 bass weighing 569 pounds, 9 ounces caught by 127 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 18 five-bass limits.
In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field of 322 anglers competes Thursday and Friday. Co-angler competition concludes following Friday’s weigh-in, while the top 20 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advance to Saturday. Only the top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition.
Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of professional bass fishing. The 2017 Forrest Wood Cup will be on Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, Aug. 11-13.
The FLW Tour has visited Beaver Lake 18 times previously, with 2017 marking the 19th visit in FLW’s 22-year history. The total purse for the FLW Tour at the Beaver Lake presented by General Tire is more than $800,000, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division. The tournament is hosted by Visit Rogers.
Anglers will take off from the Prairie Creek Park Boat Ramp located at 9300 N. Park Road in Rogers at 6:30 a.m. each day of competition. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at Prairie Creek Park beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s final weigh-ins will be held at Walmart, located at 2110 W. Walnut St., in Rogers beginning at 4 p.m.
Prior to the weigh-ins Saturday and Sunday, FLW will host a free Fishing Expo at Walmart from noon to 4 p.m. each day. The Expo is a chance for fishing fans to meet their favorite anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by FLW sponsors, and learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities.
Also for youth, the FLW Foundation’s Unified Fishing Derby will be held at Lake Bentonville Park, located at 2204 SW I St., in Bentonville on Saturday, April 29, from 8:30-10:30 a.m. The event is hosted by FLW Foundation pro Cody Kelley along with other FLW Tour anglers, and is free and open to area youth 15 years of age and younger and Special Olympics athletes. Rods and reels are available for use, but youth are encouraged to bring their own if they own one.
Television coverage of the FLW Tour at Beaver Lake presented by General Tire will premiere in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) June 18 from 6 a.m.-7 a.m. EDT. The Emmy-nominated "FLW" television show airs on NBCSN, the Pursuit Channel and the World Fishing Network and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
Card in Control after Day 1 of BASS Elite Event on Ross Barnett
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About Weego
Weego is a brand of portable power products including compact, lightweight, lithium-polymer jump starters for cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, ATVs and more, complementary jump starter accessories, as well as rechargeable battery packs that charge phones, tablets, speakers, and more. Founded in 2014 by Paris Corporation, Weego has already received awards in product innovation and branding excellence in consumer electronics, auto, outdoor, marine and office supply channels. For more than 50 years, Paris Corporation has built a reputation on quality products and excellent service and support, serving more than 30 years in the food, drug, mass, consumer electronics and hardware channels. To learn more about Paris Corporation, please visit www.pariscorp.com or contact agolden@rushtongregory.com.
Navionics Platinum Sale Ends Sunday, Better Hurry!!
Save $30 on Platinum+ and HotMaps Platinum!
Carhartt Countdown to Blastoff - Ross Barnett Elite Series Event - Day 1
Alan McGuckin of Dynamic Sponsorships Previews the First Day of the Ross Barnett Elite Series Event that kicks off today!
Matt Lee and Casey Ashley Make Ross Barnett Predictions
Matt Lee and Casey Ashley both finished in the Top 12 at the most recent Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on Toledo Bend, but what will a crowded Ross Barnett Reservoir bring?
The two young guns graciously share their findings and expectations on the eve of competition at the shallow, wind-swept, reservoir near Jackson, Mississippi.
How many alligators have you seen during the 3-day practice period this week?
Matt Lee: I’d say 25 to 35.
Casey Ashley: I’d say at least 50.
What do you like best about Ross Barnett?
Matt Lee: That I get to stay at my buddy Taylor Ramey’s really cool cabin.
Casey Ashley: That I drew boat #1. I get to go out first on a fishery that’s gonna fish super crowded.
What’s the biggest challenge here at Ross Barnett?
Matt Lee: Fishing pressure, and muddy water.
Casey Ashley: Finding somewhere to fish that hasn’t already been hammered by another competitor.
Name 4 lures most pros will have tied on this week.
Matt Lee: Texas rigged plastics, a heavy Texas rigged ‘punch’ style bait, a soft plastic stick bait, and a spinnerbait.
Casey Ashley: Swim jig, frog, Texas-rigged creature bait, and a topwater.
How much weight will an angler have to average each day to make the Top 12 cut on the final day?
Matt Lee: 15 pounds a day
Casey Ashley: 15 pounds a day
‘Pots and Pans’ led VanDam to top finish at Ross Barnett 32 Years Ago
Story and Photo Courtesy of Alan Mcguckin with Dynamic Sponsorships
A lotta things change in three decades, so Kevin VanDam is putting in long practice days on Ross Barnett in preparation for this week’s Bassmaster Elite presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors, because the only time he fished the shallow reservoir previously was 32 years ago, at the age of 17.
“Back then, I was fishing team tournaments and B.A.S.S. Nation Series tournaments around home in Michigan, and my team partner Don Stevens and I qualified for an end-of-the-year tournament down here at Ross Barnett,” explains VanDam. “To be honest, I don’t even remember what trail it was.”
He may not remember what trail it was, but the southerly winds warming the air at Madison Landing boat ramp following a long day of practice seemed to spin sweet memories of 1985 at a rate equal to the revolutions the giant willow leaf blade was making beneath the swivel of the spinnerbait he was holding.
“Don and I called this spinnerbait blade combination “Pots & Pans” because those big blades clank on each other underwater and make a ton of noise like somebody banging pots and pans together,” remembers VanDam with a smile.
And in what would become a very telling tournament 32 years ago - the noisemaker worked.
“I caught a 7-pounder from a beaver hut on a big-bladed spinnerbait just like this in that tournament, and that big fish is the one that landed us a Top 10 finish,” grins VanDam.
“Other than that, I really couldn’t remember much about this place before practice started Monday,” he admits.
“I mean heck, Don and I came down here from Michigan in an 18-foot boat with a 150 horsepower engine, and nobody had GPS mapping back then, so it was pretty intimidating to try and navigate and figure out where to fish among the massive lily pad fields and underwater stumps.”
Don Stevens has since retired, and spends his days shooting trap and skeet. VanDam has figured things out just fine – to the tune of $6 Million dollars in prize money, with hopes of adding to the sum this week where good memories chime like the big blades of a spinnerbait configuration that helped launch his amazing career.
Mizzell Drops 30 pounds on the scales for third career T-H Marine BFL Win on Okeechobee!
Jessie Mizell of Sarasota, Florida, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Gator Division event on Lake Okeechobee Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 30 pounds, 4 ounces. For his win, Mizell took home $5,122.
“I began the day at my frogging hole and caught two 6-pounders,” says Mizell, who also won a Gator Division event held on Lake Okeechobee last month, for a total of three career wins. “That’s where I caught them when I won last month, but I hadn’t been back there since.”
Mizell says his hole was a 100- by 100-yard cove on the North Shore of the lake. He said it protected bass from the wind and had a good mix of lilypads and hydrilla.
“I was actually targeting the pad clumps,” says Mizell. “I used the same frog the entire day to catch my limit.”
Mizell's frog was a natural-colored Spro Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin’ 60. Around 9:30 a.m., Mizell says he originally planned on burning through some nearby schooling fish to fill out the remainder of his limit, but was unable to get anything going by 11 a.m.
“When my original plan failed, I went with Plan B and it worked,” says Mizell. “I returned to the frogging hole, and within five casts I put an 8-pound, 10-ounce bass in the boat. I had to sit down and take a drink of water because I was shaking like a leaf. It was a giant.”
The Florida stalwart added an additional 4- and 5-pounder to his livewell within another 20 casts.
“My 13 Fishing Envy Black Rod had the backbone I needed to pull them out of that cover,” says Mizell. “Without it, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to boat-flip them.”
The top 10 boaters:
1st: Jessie Mizell, Sarasota, Fla., five bass, 30-4, $5,122
2nd: Fred George, Okeechobee, Fla., five bass, 27-9, $2,236
3rd: Allen Walls, Loxahatchee, Fla., five bass, 27-3, $1,492
4th: Ronald Yentz, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., five bass, 26-7, $1,043
5th: Nicholas Hoinig, Delray Beach, Fla., five bass, 21-15, $1,094
6th: Brianne McMillan, Belle Glade, Fla., five bass, 18-13, $820
7th: Charles Bass, Felda, Fla., five bass, 18-5, $845
8th: Steve Broughton, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., five bass, 17-9, $671
9th: Donny Bass, Naples, Fla., five bass, 17-8, $596
10th: Jared McMillan, Belle Glade, Fla., five bass, 17-7, $796
10th: Doug Garner, Port St. Lucie, Fla., five bass, 17-7, $496
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Mizell’s 8-pound, 10-ounce largemouth – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – also earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $650.
Jerdan wins co-angler title
Christopher Jerdan of Cape Coral, Florida, won $2,561 and the Co-angler Division title Saturday after weighing five bass totaling 26 pounds even.
The top 10 co-anglers:
1st: Christopher Jerdan, Cape Coral, Fla., five bass, 26-0, $2,561
2nd: Jay Trudel, Boca Raton, Fla., five bass, 17-10, $1,118
3rd: Shawn York, Sarasota, Fla., five bass, 16-10, $845
4th: Grant Lasseter, Plantation, Fla., five bass, 15-10, $522
5th: Martin Gainsbrugh, Miami, Fla., five bass, 15-1, $447
6th: Jarrod Stroud, Orlando, Fla., five bass, 14-15, $410
7th: David DiMauro, Longwood, Fla., five bass, 14-13, $373
8th: Edward Wertepny Sr., Tampa, Fla., three bass, 14-12, $335
9th: James Brown, Margate, Fla., five bass, 14-6, $298
10th: Mike Morse, Plant City, Fla., five bass, 14-1, $261
Jerdan also caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a lunker bass weighing 8 pounds, 14 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $325.
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. 19-21 BFL Regional Championship on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Georgia. 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.
McGill Wins T-H Marine BFL on Lake Shelbyville with over 17 pounds!
Mike McGill of Findlay, Illinois, caught five bass Saturday weighing 17 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the first T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Illini Division tournament of 2017 on Lake Shelbyville. For his win, McGill took home $3,632.
“It was a wonderful way to start the BFL season,” says McGill, who earned his first career-win in FLW competition. “The bass were prespawn and relating to rock that was close to deep water and spawning flats. Basically, I was hitting channel swings that came up onto the flat.
“The fish were shallower than I’d thought they’d be,” McGill continues. “The wind had them up farther, and the cold front made them relate to rock more than anything else. Of the six keepers I caught, two of my biggest fish came out of less than 3 feet of water.”
McGill rotated between two lures – a ½-ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad lipless crankbait, and a Luck-E-Strike Rick Clunn Squarebill Crankbait. He said his Lew’s Custom Speed Stick Lite rod was also a major factor in his success.
“I probably hit 15 to 20 of those transition areas,” sais McGill. “The squarebill did a little better on the north end of the lake where the water was a stained, while the heavier Red Eye Shad made it possible to fish in the wind.”
The top 10 boaters:
1st: Mike McGill, Findlay, Ill., five bass, 17-12, $3,632
2nd: Anthony Balding Jr., Millstadt, Ill., five bass, 16-7, $1,816
3rd: Mike Barnes, Mackinaw, Ill., five bass, 16-5, $1,210
4th: Derek Jenkel, Pinckneyville, Ill., five bass, 16-3, $847
5th: Edward Gettys, Paris, Tenn., five bass, 14-8, $1,026
6th: Garrett McDowell, Mattoon, Ill., five bass, 14-4, $666
7th: Tim Davis, East Alton, Ill., five bass, 14-0, $605
8th: Rick Beck, Hopkinsville, Ky., five bass, 13-9, $545
9th: Chad Diedrich, Nashville, Ill., five bass, 13-5, $454
9th: Toby Corn, Calvert City, Ky., five bass, 13-5, $654
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Michael Black of Toledo, Illinois, caught a bass weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $465.
McCleery wins co-angler title
Scott McCleery of Winchester, Illinois, weighed in five bass totaling 14 pounds, 12 ounces Saturday to win the Co-angler Division and the top prize of $1,816.
The top 10 co-anglers:
1st: Scott McCleery, Winchester, Ill., five bass, 14-12, $1,816
2nd: Gage Elder, Lovington, Ill., four bass, 11-11, $908
3rd: Anthony Tatroe, Essex, Ill., three bass, 10-15, $606
4th: Ovidiu Marginean, Des Plaines, Ill., five bass, 10-6, $424
5th: Roger Massey, Bloomington, Ill., four bass, 9-15, $363
6th: Phil Santefort, Roberts, Ill., three bass, 9-10, $333
7th: Doug Miller, Peoria, Ill., four bass, 9-6, $303
8th: Aaron Arning, Walnut Hill, Ill., five bass, 9-2, $272
9th: Ross Davis, St. Elmo, Ill., three bass, 8-8, $242
10th: Marvin Cooke, Towanda, Ill., four bass, 8-3, $212
Michael Kinkade of Benton, Illinois, caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a fish weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $232.
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. 5-7 BFL Regional Championship on Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. 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.
Texas Team Trail to visit Texoma during tricky transition
TOURNAMENT DETAILS:
Registration 4-6pm on Friday - Rustico Restaurant (506 W Chestnut St, Denison, TX)
To Win as a Co-Angler - How Josh Jackson won the BASS Southern Open Co-Angler Title
Story and Images courtesy of BASS Opens Pro Luke Estel, Josh Jackson's Travel Partner
To win on the Co angler side of a B.A.S.S. Open, the key is to draw three pros that are wanting to help their co anglers. Another factor, of course, is to be around fish. That’s exactly what happened to Josh Jackson last weekend on Lake Chickamauga in Dayton Tennessee. Josh and I practiced every day in search of post spawn transition areas. We found several but only two of them had the right ingredients.
Day one Josh drew out with Louisiana angler Todd Murry. They fished shallow areas where post spawn fish were transitioning out into the main river. Josh felt comfortable with this type of fishing and caught his three bass limit that weighed a little over nine pounds putting him in 13th place after day one. On day two, as luck would have it, Josh drew myself and we went straight to our post spawn area. The previous day I caught 75 bass and weighed in 13 ½ pounds. My co angler caught three that weighed 15 ½ pounds. I knew we could catch a limit there fairly quick and Josh once again caught them. He had his limit in fifteen minutes. Throughout the day we boated over fifty bass. Josh did lose a five and a four and thought his chances of making the top twelve were over.
After the last co angler weighed in, Josh snuck into the 12th spot drawing Elite Series Pro, Justin Lucas.
The final day started out slow and by 11 o’clock neither had a fish in the box. Josh suggested they could try the post spawn are we had previously found. Once they arrived both started catching fish immediately. Josh boated three bass all weighing over five pounds.
At the weigh in Josh’s three bass tipped the scales at 15 pounds, 14 ounces. He sat in the hot seat and watched all the co anglers weigh in until it was over. He won by a two pound margin taking home 1st place.
Josh’s key bait all week was a ¾ ounce Strike King Swinging Football head tipped with a Blue Craw Rage Bug. Josh took home a Triton boat powered by a Mercury 115 four stroke engine.
SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE READIES FOR YETI FLW COLLEGE FISHING NORTHERN CONFERENCE OPENER
BEDFORD, Va. (April 18, 2017) – YETI FLW College Fishing is headed to Smith Mountain Lake April 29 for the first of three regular-season stops in the Northern Conference. A full field of college fishing clubs will be competing for $2,000 and an invitation to the 2018 College Fishing National Championship.
“Smith Mountain Lake is full of fish and this is a good time of the year to catch them,” said FLW Tour pro Billy Shelton of La Crosse, Virginia, who has two top-10 career finishes on Smith Mountain Lake in FLW competition. “Right now bass are in all three phases of the spawn. This will be one of those events where anglers are able to do whatever they want to catch a limit.
“For those anglers who have never fished Smith Mountain before, you can’t go wrong targeting docks,” Shelton continued. “There are thousands of them on the lake.Obviously, teams will have to pattern which docks bass will be on. They are usually in the backs of pockets or the mouths of pockets.”
Shelton said that finesse-type baits, wacky-rigged worms and jigs should produce some quality bites for anglers.
“Teams may also run up the Blackwater and Roanoke Rivers to find a little stained water,” said Shelton. “Crankbaits and spinnerbaits will do well in shallow-water areas, but the majority of the lake is pretty clear.”
Shelton went on to say that swimbaits may also play a role for competitors, but it will depend on weather conditions.
“If there is wind and clouds, they may be able to catch them on rocky points near the mouths of pockets,” said Shelton. “The conditions will have to be right, though. If it turns out to be a calm, bluebird sky kind of day, a wacky-rigged worm around docks will be the way to win it.”
The Virginia pro said he expects the winning team to bring a five-bass limit nearing 20 pounds to the weigh-in stage.
Anglers will take off from Parkway Marina, located at 16918 Smith Mountain Lake Parkway in Huddleston, Virginia, at 7 a.m. Saturday. Weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Schools are allowed to register up until the morning of the tournament. Entries may be made either by phone or at CollegeFishing.com.
Schools currently registered to compete in the Smith Mountain Lake tournament, which is hosted by Visit Bedford, include:
Adrian College – Caleb Taylor, Zionsville, Ind., and Nickolas Marsh, Commerce Township, Mich.
Adrian College – Dalton Breckel, Onsted, Mich., and Alex Henderson, Mooresville, Ind.
Adrian College – Jarrett Martin and Zachary Graham, both of Gallipolis, Ohio
Adrian College – John Franco, Clare, Mich., and Jack Hippe III, Davison, Mich.
Adrian College – Nicholas Czajka, Brighton, Mich., and Jacob Bayer, Westfield, Mich.
Bowling Green State University – Corey Miller, Perrysburg, Ohio, and Hunter Johnson, Monclova, Ohio
Central Michigan University – Hayden Gosen, Sanford, Mich., and Zach Nelson, Northville, Mich.
Christopher Newport University – Mariela Fuson, Dumfries, Va., and Tanner Knecht, Spotsylvania, Va.
Fairmont State University – Jacob Smith, Martinsburg, W. Va., and Corey Straight, Barrackville, W. Va.
James Madison University – Daniel Jenkins, Midlothian, Va., and Xander Bradley, Vienna, Va.
James Madison University – Spencer Selby, Loudoun County, Va., and Blake Miles, Chesterfield, Va.
James Madison University – Troy Goddard, Oakton, Va., and Scott Pohlmann, Virginia Beach, Va.
Kent State University – Zachary Asher, Sunbury, Ohio, and Christian Hylton, Deerfield, Ohio
New River Community College – Shane Chrisley, Franklin City, Va., and Mark Southern, Pulaski, Va.
Patrick Henry Community College – Hunter Altice, Glade Hill, Va., and Brandon McAlexander, Patrick County, Va.
Paul Smith's College – Jon Herrman, Oneida, N.Y., and Taylor West, Lakewood, N.Y.
Pennsylvania State University – Derek Horner, State College, Pa., and Maurice Hudson Jr., Broomall, Pa.
Pennsylvania State University – James Shank, Blakeslee, Pa., and Matt Huggler, Clarks Summit, Pa.
Pennsylvania State University – Tom Oranzi, West Grove, Pa., and Stephen Jesso, Plymouth, Pa.
Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg – Ryan Fox, Thornhurst, Pa., and Chad Burkholder, Palmyra, Pa.
Radford University – Sam Shibley, Radford, Va., and Joshua Greenberg, Montpelier, Va.
Radford University – Zack Lemaster, Bedford, Va., and Matthew Cooley, Chesterfield, Va.
Slippery Rock University – Jason Frontino, Cranberry Township, Pa., and Ryan Kozlowski, Pittsburg, Pa.
The Apprentice School – Hunter Atkins, Carrsville, Va., and Kitt Moger, Suffolk, Va.
The Apprentice School – Sean Coast, Virginia Beach, Va., and Nicholas White, Hampton, Va.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Andrew Davis, Penhook, Va., and Ethan Morrison, Gordonsville, Va.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Cantley Krafft, Christiansburg, Va., and Corey Smith, Dublin, Va.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Jacob Thompson, Moneta, Va., and Tyler Dixon, Abdington, Va.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Michael Muther, Baltimore, Md., and Garrett Jennings, Boones Mill, Va.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Robert Odum, Max Meadows, Va., and Cole Bitler, Earlysville, Va.
West Chester University of Pennsylvania – Kevin Deley, Warrington, Pa., and Thomas Arena, Carlisle, Pa.
West Virginia University – Branden Newcome, Ellamore, W. Va., and Jacob Osborne, Amherstville, W. Va.
Youngstown State University – Jonathan Creed, Youngstown, Ohio, and Jared Latone, Austintown, Ohio
Youngstown State University – Mario Chance, Youngstown, Ohio, and Stan Miketa, New Middletown, Ohio
FLW College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Additional teams will qualify for the National Championship if the field size in regular-season events exceeds 100 boats.
College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club that is recognized by their school.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit FLWFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.
Winners Interview - Alabama Bass Trail North Division - Smith Lake
Program Director Kay Donaldson and Emcee Robbie Floyd talk with Jordan Wiggins and Wesley Sams on how they won the ABT North Smith Lake Event. Check it out!
Shinn Wins ABA RAM Trucks Open on Chesapeake Bay with over 21 Pounds!
James K. Shinn of New Castle, DE won the American Bass Anglers Ram Truck Open Series Maryland tournament, held April 22nd on the Chesapeake Bay.
Running out of Anchor Boats Marina near North East, Maryland, the New Castle, Delaware angler caught five bass weighing 21.33 pounds. He anchored his bag with a 5.49 pound kicker. For the Boater Division victory, Shinn took home a check for $5,000.
“I stayed on the grass flats all day,” Shinn said. “I was fishing in 3 to 7 feet of water.” His fish were caught on a ¾ oz. rattle trap, a slow retrieve was the ticket.
In second for the boaters, Adam Janerella of Jersey Shore, PA. Adam landed a five-bass tournament limit weighing in at 21.00 pounds with a 4.24-pound kicker. He collected $1,250 for the effort.
“I was fishing the flats, slow rolling a dirty jig swim jig, black and blue with a blue trailer” Janerella said.
Timothy Reams of Morgantown, WV took third for the boaters with five bass weighing 20.48 pounds. He anchored his catch with a 4.33-pound kicker to earn $900.
Reams said “I fished the grass flats all day slow rolling a White and Chartreuse chatter bait. “
Finishing fourth, David Kovack of Lancaster, PA landed a five-bass limit for 19.94 pounds including a 5.16-pound kicker.
John Vanore of Mullica Hill, NJ rounded out the top five boaters with five bass at 17.44 pounds topped by a 6.28-pound kicker.
The biggest bass for the boaters was caught, by John Vanore of Mullica Hill, NJ that weighed 6.29 pounds. Vanore pocketed $660 for his fish.
In the Co-Angler Division, Cherif A. Zaher of Orangeville, PA won with three bass weighing 13.60 pounds. He sealed his victory with a 4.69-pound kicker to pocket a check for $1,700.
“I was slow rolling a white and blue chatter bait over the grass flats." Zaher said.
Taking second for the co-anglers, John C. Doran Jr. of Millersville, MD. Doran Jr. brought in a three-bass division limit weighing 12.62 pounds including a 4.73-pound kicker. He collected $650 for the effort.
Doran said “I was also fishing the grass flats with a black and blue chatter bait."
David T. Williams of Fredericksburg, VA placed third among the co-anglers with three bass weighing 10.98 pounds. He anchored his catch with a 5.06-pound kicker to earn $450.
Williams said “I was fishing wood with a 3/16 black shaky head and had all of my fish within the first two hours of the morning. “
In fourth place among the co-anglers, Kenneth L. Henderson of Milford, VA brought in three bass for 11.16 pounds.
Andy Jones of Pittman, NJ finished in fifth place with three bass at 10.42 pounds topped by a 6.89-pound kicker.
The biggest bass for the co-anglers was caught by: Andy Jones of Pittman, NJ that weighed 6.89 and Andy pocketed $290 for his fish.
Slated for May 13th, the next divisional tournament will be held on the Potomac river out of Smallwood state park near Marbury Maryland. At the end of the season, the best anglers from across the nation advance the 2018 Ray Scott Championship, slated for the Red River in Shreveport-Bossier Louisiana in April 2018.
For more information on this tournament, call Jeff Randall, tournament manager, at 256-777-6152 or ABA at 256-232-0406. On line, see www.ramopenseries.com .
About American Bass Anglers: American Bass Anglers is committed to providing low cost, close to home tournaments for the weekend angler and at the same time offer each competitor an upward path for individual angler progression. For more information about American Bass Anglers, the Ram Truck Open Series, the American Fishing Tour or the American Couples Series, visit www.americanbassanglers.com.
Lizards vs. Creatures. Elite Series Pro Terry Scroggins Explains Which to Cast When.
Story and Photo Courtesy of Alan McGuckin of Dynamic Sponsorships
Reptilian creatures are fast becoming a story line at the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett Reservoir in Mississippi.
Team Toyota’s Gerald Swindle posted video on his social media pages of a large alligator on the shoreline during Monday’s practice round, as did likeable California pro Chris Zaldain.
Furthermore, Swindle’s buddy and Florida Gator fan Terry “Big Show” Scroggins says he won’t leave the dock during this time of year without creatures and lizards in his boat.
Of course, Scroggins is referring to the soft plastic fishing lure variety that are proven to work wonderfully in mid-Spring, but the question is when to thread a plastic lizard on your hook, versus the equally popular and similarly-shaped ‘creature’ bait like a Brush Hog, Rage Hawg or Hawk Hawg.
“Lizards and creature baits are both hard to beat at this time of year, and they can be pretty interchangeable, but I differ a little bit as to what situations to use each of them in,” says Scroggins.
Cast Lizards, Pitch Creatures
“I mainly use creature baits when I’m pitching to heavy cover like flooded bushes that are common this time of year as a result of spring rainstorms, or if I’m punching through thick vegetation,” says Scroggins. “But I choose a lizard for just about everything else.”
By ‘everything else’ Scroggins is referring to Carolina Rigs, sight fishing for spawning bass, and swimming lizards over vegetation on a light 1/8-ounce Texas rig.
“The tail of a lizard will often get wrapped around little tree limbs and stuff when you’re pitching flooded cover, but a creature bait is a little more streamlined to help you avoid that issue,” he explains.
Creature Equipment
“If I’m puching a creature bait through heavy vegetation, I’ll Texas rig it with a weight as heavy as 1 ½ ounces. But most of the time, when I’m pitching to wood or around docks, I’ll Texas rig with a 5/16 or 3/8-ounce weight on 25-pound line,” says Scroggins.
You Don’t Need Many Colors
When asked to choose two colors of each lure configuration for the rest of his life, Scroggins didn’t hesitate. “For lizards, I always carry junebug and green pumpkin, and for creature baits, I’m picking black/blue fleck, and again, green pumpkin.”
While he may not carry a wide variety of colors – one thing’s for certain, Scroggins will never launch without lizards and creature baits in his boat at this time of year – including this week at Ross Barnett – where reptiles are a popular sight.
Matt & Emily Dean win ABA Couples Series on Lake Mitchell
Running out of Higgins Ferry near Clanton, AL, they caught 5 bass weighing 12.32 pounds. For the victory, they earned a check for $750. They caught their fish using a tube on the main lake in the middle.
Taking third place, the team of Nicky DaVico and Lauren Hagen caught 5 bass weighing 11.71 pounds and won $225.
American Bass Anglers commitment is to provide low cost, close to home tournaments for the weekend angler and at the same time offer each competitor an upward path for individual angler progression. For more information about American Bass Anglers and the American Fishing Tour, The Ram Truck Open Series, or the American Couples Series, visit www.americanbassanglers.com or call (256)232-0406.
Gross and Albert win ABA RAM 100% Plus Team Tour on Old Hickory with over 20 pounds!
The team of Keith Gross and Kelly Albert won the second divisional one day of the Ram 100% Plus Team Tour event on April 22, 2017 at Old Hickory. Launching out of Flipper’s Bait and Tackle, Gross and Albert brought in the winning limit weighing 20.43 pounds with a 5.26-pound kicker to win a new 2017 Triton Boats 17TX with a Mercury 60hp four stroke outboard, Garmin Echomap units, Motorguide trolling motor, and a host of T-H Marine products valued at $20,000. They also took home $1,100 from the High Stake Option Pot.
“We went junk fishing today and caught most of our fish throwing a ½ ounce spinner bait that I had custom made for this tournament. They are made out of North Carolina from Dave’s Tournament Tackle, we also used K9 fishing line. We had a tough day, we caught one here and one there hitting the same spots numerous times,” stated Gross.
Jeremy Walker and Kevin Warren took second with an overall weight of 18.52 with a 4.87-pound kicker. They took home $2,400 as well as $500 from the High Stakes Option Pot given them a total winning of $2,900.
“We caught some of our fish throwing a swim jig in the grass as well as throwing a homemade jig. We had a limit by 7:00. We caught anywhere from 25-30 keepers. It was a fun day, we were just a little shy of the boat but maybe next time,” Walker stated.
In third place was Josh Womack and Lance Oligschlaeger. They brought in a 17.74-pound bag with a 6.11-pound kicker and took home $1,600 for their efforts. They also took home $530 for the big bass given them a total of $2,130.
“We did a lot of running and gunning today. We threw most spinner baits, crank baits, and brush hogs. It was a slow day, we were fortunate enough to catch some fish. We were able to cull three times, the biggest fish we had came early, after that it was one here and one there,” Oligschlaeger stated.
4 –Billy Thorne & Scotty Webster– 17.66-pounds & 5.09-pound kicker
5 –Clark Cowley & Vincent Belcher – 17.65-pounds & 4.78-pound kicker
Clark Cowley and Vincent Belcher will take home an addition $500 from Triton for being the highest Triton Gold Finisher of the event. Also, the team of Brennon Binkley and John Wilkerson took home the TH Marine Prize Pack for coming in first place out of the money. The biggest bass of the event was caught by the team of Brad Kell and Michael Brown that weighed 6.31-pounds.
American Bass Anglers, Inc. is supported by Ram Trucks, Triton Boats, Mercury Outboards, Carlisle Tires, GEICO, Berkley, Abu Garcia, T-H Marine, Hydrowave, Livingston Lures, Best Western Hotels, Maui Jim, Power Pole, Garmin, Simms, LIT Coolers, and Divide It. American Bass Anglers, Inc. can be contacted at (256) 232-0406 or by visiting americanbassanglers.com.
Kyle Henderson wins T-H Marine BFL on Arkansas River with 16 pounds even, wins by 2 ounces!
Gravelly’s Rhoades Earns Co-angler Title
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (April 24, 2017) – Kyle Henderson of Sheridan, Arkansas, brought a five-bass limit totaling 16 pounds even to the scale Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Arkie Division event presented by Mud Hole Custom Tackleon the Arkansas River. For his win, Henderson took home $3,792.
“We launched out of Pool No. 6, but I locked to Pool No. 5 because it’s my home waters,” said Henderson, who earned his second career-win in BFL competition. “Unfortunately, there was a barge in the lock, so I wasn’t able to get to my main area until 8:30 a.m.
“The area I targeted was a backwater that had some clearer water in it,” continued Henderson. “The shad were spawning on a stretch of grass. I wasn’t sure if they’d still be spawning by the time I got in there but when I pulled up they were there, along with some bass. I was able to see them – even in the low-light cloudy conditions – with my Costa Sunrise Silver glasses.”
Henderson said he made three initial passes along a 100-yard stretch of grass. He said he used a different bait each time – a white custom spinnerbait, a shad-colored Z-Man ChatterBait and a Sexy Shad-colored Strike King 2.5 KVD HC Square Bill Silent Crankbait.
“I caught a couple of key fish on the ChatterBait, and a big one on the third pass with the square bill,” said Henderson. “I caught everything I weighed in within an hour.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Kyle Henderson, Sheridan, Ark., five bass, 16-0, $3,792
2nd: Chris Dennis, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 15-14, $2,256
3rd: David Summers, Mount Ida, Ark., four bass, 15-1, $1,501
4th: Larry Gragg, Pine Bluff, Ark., five bass, 14-4, $778
4th: Fred Martin, North Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 14-4, $878
6th: Hoyt Akins, Scott, Ark., five bass, 13-11, $659
7th: Danny Gwinn, Mount Ida, Ark., five bass, 13-9, $599
8th: Quincy Houchin, Mabelvale, Ark., five bass, 13-6, $539
9th: Cody Burke, Bryant, Ark., five bass, 12-14, $479
10th: Paul Browning, Morrilton, Ark., five bass, 12-5, $419
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Dennis caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 11 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $460.
Dusty Rhoades of Gravelly, Arkansas, weighed in five bass totaling 14 pounds, 13 ounces Saturday to win the Co-angler Division and the top prize of $1,896.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Dusty Rhoades, Gravelly, Ark., five bass, 14-13, $1,896
2nd: Previn Dixon, Fort Smith, Ark., four bass, 11-10, $898
3rd: Cole Allen, Stamps, Ark., four bass, 11-1, $598
4th: Stephen Simms, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 10-9, $419
5th: Michael Lucas, Forrest City, Ark., five bass, 9-14, $359
6th: Mark Stevens, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 9-12, $329
7th: Jason Wedel, Lowell, Ark., five bass, 9-8, $299
8th: Jody Jones, Harvey, Ark., five bass, 9-4, $269
9th: Robert Widger, Cabot, Ark., four bass, 9-1, $239
10th: Nicholas Bergt, Atlanta, Texas, four bass, 8-12, $210
Jonathan Wolfe of Camden, Arkansas, caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a fish weighing 5 pounds, 4 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $230.
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. 19-21 BFL Regional Championship on the Red River in Bossier City, Louisiana. 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.
B.A.S.S. Announces High School And Junior Bass Fishing Championships
April 24, 2017
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — For the fourth consecutive year, the Costa Bassmaster High School National Championship presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods will be held on Kentucky Lake at Paris, Tenn., B.A.S.S. announced today.
The prestigious national championship will take place June 22-24.
In addition, the Junior Bassmaster Championship will be held June 20-21, on Carroll County’s 1,000 Acre Recreational Lake in nearby Huntingdon, Tenn. That event includes teams of youngsters aged 7 to 13 representing state organizations within the B.A.S.S. Nation. The Junior Bassmasters qualify to fish the national championship through one of three regional fish-offs of the Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan.
“We are elated to have the 2017 Bassmaster Junior Championship back at the Carroll County 1,000 Acre Recreational Lake,” said Brad Hurley, president of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce. “This is a great opportunity to showcase Carroll County to people from more than 25 states”.
High School anglers will compete on Kentucky Lake, an extremely popular bass fishery straddling the Tennessee-Kentucky border. Four regional High School Opens — Central, Midwestern, Western and Southern — qualify student anglers for the national championship. Top competitors from state high school championships and from sanctioned team trails also earn invitations to compete in the high school championship.
The high school championship’s full field will compete on the first two days, after which the field will be cut to the Top 10 on the final day.
The daily takeoffs and first two days’ weigh-ins will take place at Paris Landing State Park, with the final day weigh-in being held in downtown Paris.
“The Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, Bethel University and the Henry County Alliance have welcomed us for another great event,” said Hank Weldon, B.A.S.S. College and High School Series senior manager. “And with the Costa Bassmaster High School program continuing to grow, we are expecting an even larger field at this year’s tournament.”
“We are excited to once again host the Costa Bassmaster High School National Championship on Kentucky Lake,” said Henry County Tourism Authority CEO David Hamilton. “Our community looks forward to this tournament each year.”
With more than 5,500 student athletes representing 600 schools in 45 states, the Bassmaster High School program is one of the fastest-growing initiatives within B.A.S.S.
Both the High School and Junior National Championships will kick off with an official welcome party for all contenders hosted by Bethel University on June 19.
“We are all honored to be a part of such a wonderful and prestigious event,” said Dale Kelley, Bethel director of athletics. “This is an annual event that brings national exposure to our campus and all of our Henry and Carroll County communities. Bassmaster and ESPN being here allows us to showcase our university, this great part of our nation and the opportunities available in the area.”
For more information on the Bassmaster High School and Junior Bassmaster programs, please visit Bassmaster.com/high-school-bass-fishing.
2017 Costa Bassmaster High School Title Sponsor: Costa
2017 Costa Bassmaster High School Presenting Sponsor: DICK’S Sporting Goods
2017 Costa Bassmaster High School Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2017 Costa Bassmaster High School Premier Sponsors: Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Shell Rotella, Skeeter Boats, Triton Boats, Yamaha, Berkley, Huk, Humminbird
2017 Costa Bassmaster High School Supporting Sponsors: Academy Sports + Outdoors, Advance Auto Parts, Carhartt, Lowrance, Phoenix Boats, Shimano, St. Croix Rods, ABU Garcia
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Costa Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.
Pedigo Wins ABA RAM Trucks Open on Ft. Gibson
Brandon Pedigo won the American Bass Anglers Ram Truck Open Series Oklahoma event held April 22nd on Ft. Gibson Reservoir.
Running out of Taylor’s Ferry North near Wagoner OK, the Lawton, OK angler caught five bass weighing 13.34 pounds. The tournament originally scheduled for the Arkansas River was moved to Ft Gibson on Friday morning due to dangerously high waters from a recent storm that passed through the area. The rain subsided for Saturday and for the Boater Division victory, Pedigo took home a check for $5,000.
“What a day,” Pedigo said. “This weather changed everything. The bite was a brutal day. Cold, windy, just brutal. My Coangler had his limit by 9 o’clock. I was trying to force feed them a frog and only got one bite on it and ended up flipping the rest of them. I finally finshed out my limit around noon. I only had 5 bites and luckily all 5 were keepers. One of them I had to flip over to make her touch 14 and that’s the one that did it for me."
In second for the boaters, Josh Teply of Harrah, OK landed two bass that weighed in at 9.98 pounds. He collected $1,400 for the effort.
“I tell you what, I was all over this lake today. I ran all the way up the river, all the way to 14 mile, and ended up catching these 2 fish straight across the lake with about 30 minutes to go. I left them biting and may have been able to do something with a little more time but that’s fishing.” Teply said.
Tom Nilssen of Perry, OK finished third for the boaters with three bass going 9.96 pounds, just .02 oz behind the 2nd place finisher to earn $950.
“I froze all day! There really isn’t much to talk about. I caught 2 fish early down by paradise, and I caught my last fish across the lake here about an hour before weigh in. It was a long cold day. No other bites, just those 3, I got them in the boat and that was it. They were all keepers.” Nilssen said.
Finishing fourth, Lee Sanders of Stillwater, OK landed three bass for 9.73 pounds.
Craig Sampson of Chelsea, OK rounded out the top five boaters with three bass weighing in at 9.23 pounds.
The biggest bass for the boaters was caught by Brandon Linney of Tahlequah, OK locking in at 6.05 pounds. Brandon took home a check for $700 for his fish and the Abu Garcia Big Bass award for catching the biggest bass of the tournament. Brandon was the recipient of an Abu Garcia Revo SX.
In the Co-Angler Division, Corey Wiseman of Broken Arrow, OK won with two bass weighing 7.17 pounds. He sealed his victory with a 4.10-pound kicker to pocket a check for $1,200.
“I only had 2 bites. I caught one early and the other later in the afternoon. We started all the way up the river and ended up going all the way down to the dam. I did break one off at the end of the day but the best thing is I can go home knowing it wasn’t the fish that would have won the tournament. I am very fortunate.” Wiseman said.
Taking second for the co-anglers, Stan Forrester of Westville, OK brought in a three-bass limit weighing 7.12 pounds. He collected $400 for the effort.
“It was rough. I caught 3 fish all day and everything I caught I kept. I had all three of them by 9 o’clock and that was it. We rode around for the next 6 hours trying everything we could but nothing else happened. It made for a long day but I’m happy to be here.” Forrester said.
Mike Beus of Ozark, MO placed third among the co-anglers with three bass weighing 6.62 pounds to earn $350.
“Very difficult. I didn’t catch my first bass until 1 o’clock. We went to a gravel point, threw a wobble head and they were there. I was not able to cull any but I did get 3 keepers and that was it,” Beus said.
In fourth place among the co-anglers, Al Longoria of Pottsboro, TX brought in two bass for 6.49.
Derrick Kinight of Durant, OK finished in fifth place with two bass at 6.26 pounds.
The biggest bass for the co-anglers was caught by Corey Wiseman of Broken Arrow, OK that weighed 4.10 pounds. Corey pocketed an extra $180 for his fish.
Slated for May 6th, the next divisional tournament will be held on Lake Eufaula out of Eufaula Cove South near Eufaul, OK. At the end of the season, the best anglers from across the nation advance the 2018 Ray Scott Championship, slated for the Red River in Bossier City, LA.
For more information on this tournament, call Chris Wayand, tournament manager, at 256-230-5627 or ABA at 256-232-0406. On line, see www.ramopenseries.com .
About American Bass Anglers: American Bass Anglers is committed to providing low cost, close to home tournaments for the weekend angler and at the same time offer each competitor an upward path for individual angler progression. For more information about American Bass Anglers, the Ram Truck Open Series, the American Fishing Tour or the American Couples Series, visit www.americanbassanglers.com.
John Cox's Love/Hate Relationship with the TN River
Story by Vance McCullough / Images Courtesy of BASS, Ronnie Moore
John Cox has a windshield/bug relationship with TVA lakes. The 31-year-old professional tournament veteran either smashes the competition or gets wiped away when he takes to Tennessee River fisheries.
“Kentucky Lake messed me up from winning the points, year-before-last. I’ve always just had awful finishes, in the hundreds, on TVA lakes,” says Cox. Then there’s the Forrest Wood Cup he won last summer on Wheeler Lake. And his most recent win this past weekend on Chickamauga.
Cox is an unapologetic skinny water angler. Shallow patterns are often fragile patterns, especially on lakes with volatile water levels. This has a lot to do his success/failure rate on the Tennessee.
“TVA fish go shallow quick and they go deep quick,” says Cox. “They change. All of the tournaments that I’ve done well in, the fish have come to me. They were leaving the deep water and coming shallow so I was able to beat the guys that were fishing out on the ledges.”
And so it went this week at the Bassmaster Southern Open on Lake Chickamauga where Cox won with a 3-day total weight of 68 pounds, 3 ounces and a winning margin of nearly 3 pounds over local favorite Michael Neal.
Not only did Cox beat a local stick, he beat the local wisdom which said the tourney would be won offshore. It’s hard to win a multi-day tourney solely by sight fishing any more, but he pulled it off.
Cox attributes his win to a couple of factors. “Timing, weather, them pulling water and the time of year - it just worked out perfectly.”
A less obvious contribution came from the Tennessee DNR who stocked Florida strain largemouth into the lake a few years ago. Cox, of DeBary, FL knows how those fish act. “On the Tennessee River, there’s always a good deep bite, always more fish out there on the ledges, but it’s just that, when I get around the right area . . . and those fish there act a lot like Florida bass, so it was just awesome.”
Cox is happy to win an Open after 12 years of trying, but the real prize for him is the berth into the 2018 Bassmaster Classic. It will be held on one of his favorite fisheries, Lake Hartwell. “My main goal was to go to the Classic on Hartwell. If I could fish a Classic on any of the places we go to, it would be Hartwell at that time of year.”
Cox can’t pinpoint the reason for his love of Hartwell, a lake so different from his native environs. “I didn’t do well the first time I went there, but I liked how it laid out. I spent a lot of time practicing, seeing the lake with the water down and learning as much as I could about it. Last year, 
winning, and the year before that, finishing 3rd or 4th, it just fits into the way I like fishing. Even with a full field you can get so spread out and there’s fish everywhere. It’s a fun place to fish. You can fish all day and never see another boat.
“I haven’t been able to sleep for thinking about it,” said an already exhausted Cox as he headed to the hotel after practicing for the FLW Tour tourney on Beaver lake which starts this Thursday. He went directly from Chickamauga to Beaver hoping to ride some momentum, if not some good rest. “As soon as they announced the Classic location on Hartwell I said ‘I can win, if I can get in that thing’. I can’t believe it.”
As for the other carrot that dangles before all Opens competitors, Cox doesn’t think He will fish the Elite Series next year, even though he is currently 2nd in points in the Southern Opens standings.
“I’m not planning on it unless something drastic changes. I really like everybody at FLW and I like fishing over there. I like the lakes we go to. Things are going good. I don’t feel like I need to change up anything for any reason.”
As for his win on Chickamauga,
“I just barely put it together.
“I had a few that I saw during practice that were really shallow and I thought they were going to be really hard to catch so I marked them but I didn’t think that I was going to go back to any of those. The fish I was planning on catching were gone during the tournament and the water came up where I couldn’t see anything so a lot of the smaller fish that I saw but didn’t even mark, I started running those areas where I had seen them and I found few others.
“Each day I might have culled 1 or 2 fish. I really struggled to catch them.”
Cox also planned for each coming day. “I knew we would have a south wind coming one day so I left a few fish in an area for that day. The last day I just started trolling around and I ran into 5 and I caught them and had 20 pounds. I couldn’t believe it. It just worked out. I got a little lucky.”
Cox relied on a weightless Senko, 15-lb fluorocarbon line and a 7’ 6” MHX 873 rod to take care of business. He occasionally used a jig as well, particularly when trying to locate fish under less than ideal sight fishing circumstances.
Cox is impressed with the health of Chickamauga’s bass population. “I had no idea, like the ones I was looking at that I didn’t mark because I thought they weighed 3 pounds, they ended up being more like 4 apiece. I was way off on how big a lot of them were. They were wide and heavy. They fight harder. They’re really neat fish, different than a lot of places we go.”
Cox has earned the nickname ‘Tin Man’ because he fishes from an aluminum rig. While he was able to sneak up on shallow bass this week, he didn’t have to access any hard-to-reach spots. Instead, 90% of the field eliminated themselves by fishing offshore when the likes of Shaw Grigsby, Ish Monroe and other sight fishermen dominated the standings.
“Nothing was really hard to get into or anything - and I really didn’t have a single spot. I fished different places every day. I’d pull into a cove and troll the entire cove or the entire creek arm and I might find 1 fish. I never went back to any of those areas. I trolled new water every day.”
Cox visited areas where he did not even practice. “There was a whole bunch of spots I’d end up going to where I might have seen a fish in there 4 or 5 years ago or where I saw one swim off in practice that wasn’t on a bed yet and I went back in the tournament and they’d be set up on a bed.”
When an idea struck him, Cox acted on his hunches. “I was just riding by the seat of my pants. I didn’t second guess myself.
“Where ever I felt like going I just went.”
And that approach has led him to a place he dearly wants to go - the Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell.
Marty Warren Drops 19 pound limit with 7 pound kicker on the scales for ABA Ram Open Win
Marty Warren of Elon, North Carolina won the American Bass Anglers Ram Truck Open Series Virginia division tournament held 4/22/2017 held on Kerr Lake.
Running out of Nutbush Park in Henderson North Carolina, Marty caught five bass weighing 19.71 pounds including a big bass that weighed 7.04 pounds. For the Boater Division victory, Warren took home a check for $5,000.
"I caught my fish today flipping plastics. I was fishing bushes and docks," stated Warren.
In second for the boaters, Chase Johnson of Four Oaks, North Carolina landed a five bass tournament limit weighing 16.42 pounds. He collected $700 for the effort. "I probably caught 10-15 fish today. I was catching fish that were bedding and cruising," said Johnson.
Shawn Hammack of Gasburg, Virginia took third for the boaters with five bass weighing 15.83 pounds. His limit earned him $500. "I caught probably 10-12 fish today. They were mostly bed fish. I got lucky on a couple of good ones and the others were just keepers," said Hammack.
Finishing fourth, Tyler Trent of Nathalie, Virginia landed a five bass limit weighing 15.29 pounds. Trent also pocketed an additional $460 from the big fish pot with a bass weighing 3.91 pounds.
Bowman Gray of Lake Waccamaw North Carolina rounded out the top five with five bass weighing 14.44 pounds.
In the Co-Angler Division, Tim Gardner of Goldsboro, North Carolina won with three bass weighing 7.57 pounds. He sealed his victory with a 3.99 pound kicker to pocket a check for $600.
"It was a pretty slow day. I caught four fish culling one time. My fish came off a shakey head using a trickworm," said Gardner.
Taking second for the co-anglers, Randy Ruffin from Norfolk, Virginia brought in a three-bass division limit weighing 6.89 pounds. Randy anchored his catch with a 3.50 pound bass. He collected $300 for his catch. "I had a blast today said Ruffin. I caught 7 or 8 fish on a shakey head with a bait my boater gave me," said Ruffin.
Ernest McIntyre Jr. of Fayetteville, North Carolina placed third among the co anglers with three bass weighing 6.83 pounds. He earned $225 for his catch. "I caught my fish today on a texas rigged 4 inch worm on a small weight," said McIntyre.
In fourth place among the co-anglers, David Lanaville of Goldsboro, North Carolina weighed in three bass weighing 6.81 pounds.
Tom O’Neal finished in fifth place with three bass at 6.08 pounds.
Slated for May 13th 2017 the next divisional tournament will be held on Lake Gaston out of Americamps in Bracey Virginia. At the end of the season, the best anglers from across the nation advance the 2018 Ray Scott Championship, slated for the Red River in Shreveport-Bossier Louisiana in April 2018.
For more information on this tournament, call Rodney Michael, tournament manager, at 256-497-0967 or ABA at 256-232-0406. On line, see www.ramopenseries.com.
About American Bass Anglers: American Bass Anglers is committed to providing low cost, close to home tournaments for the weekend angler and at the same time offer each competitor an upward path for individual angler progression. For more information about American Bass Anglers, the Ram Truck Open Series, the American Fishing Tour or the American Couples Series, visit www.americanbassanglers.com.