Hamilton’s Sykes tops Co-angler Division

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (June 19, 2017) – Boater Chris Myers of Madison, Indiana, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 16 pounds, 13 ounces Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Hoosier Division event on Lake Monroe presented by Navionics. Myers took home $6,394 for his victory.

“Summertime in the Hoosier division is tough fishing,” said Myers, who earned his third career BFL win – second on Lake Monroe. “To win you have to have a perfect day. You have to boat every keeper that bites and I did – I had six bites all day long and I boated them all.

“The key for me in this event was mental strength,” Myers continued. “I had engine problems on Friday, the day before the tournament. It wouldn’t even start. I took it to a local dealer and they fixed some loose wires and got it to where it would start, go forward and in reverse. I didn’t even have time to take it out on the water and make sure that I could get on plane.

“I didn’t want to take a chance during game day and I didn’t want to get too far away because I didn’t want to break down again, so all day long I fished no further than 2 miles from the launch ramp – all idle, never once on plane.”

Myers said that he caught his six keepers on Texas-rigged soft plastic worms – 5-inch green pumpkin, 7-inch electric blue and 12-inch solid black.

“I caught them as shallow as 6 inches and as deep as 12 feet,” Myers said. “I don’t think that size or color mattered. I was fishing shallow buck brush and deep water stumps and rock piles. Three came shallow and three came deep.

“You have to have the right kind of makeup to fish bass tournaments,” Myers went on to say. “Tough things happen to everybody, and when they happen to you, you have to embrace it. I certainly did not think that I was going to win, but I thought that if I put my head down and fished hard that I could possibly cash a check. It turned out that my day was better than that.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Chris Myers, Madison, Ind., five bass, 16-13, $6,394

2^nd:         Frank McClain, Scottsburg, Ind., five bass, 14-15, $2,197

3^rd:         Jeramiah Sifers, New Albany, Ind., five bass, 14-6, $1,464

4^th:         Scott Bateman, Jasper, Ind., five bass, 14-0, $1,225

5^th:         Brad Stogsdill, Nashville, Ind., five bass, 12-14, $879

6^th:         James Richardson Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio, five bass, 11-0, $805

7^th:         Phil Hunt, Connersville, Ind., three bass, 10-15, $732

8^th:         David Spivey, Hamilton, Ohio, three bass, 10-14, $1,552

8^th:         Shane Oxford, Saint Meinrad, Ind., five bass, 10-14, $622

10^th:       Bryce Kalen, Indianapolis, Ind., four bass, 10-10, $513

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Spivey caught a 6-pound, 10-ounce bass, which was the heaviest of the tournament in the Boater Division. The catch earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $630.

Ryan Skyes of Hamilton, Ohio weighed in five bass totaling 16 pounds, 11 ounces Saturday to win the Co-angler Division and the top prize of $2,393.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Ryan Sykes, Hamilton, Ohio, five bass, 16-11, $2,393

2^nd:         David Jenkins, Shelbyville, Ind., two bass, 10-15, $1,406

3^rd:         Gary Hoffman, Stoutsville, Ohio, two bass, 6-13, $621

3^rd:         Leroy Miller, Napoleon, Ohio, two bass, 6-13, $621

5^th:         Charlie Kuebler, Jasper, Ind., three bass, 6-11, $439

6^th:         Jim Betts, Fort Wayne, Ind., two bass, 5-14, $402

7^th:         Jason Bailey, Mooresville Ind., two bass, 5-13, $347

7^th:         Dave Roberts, Indianapolis, Ind., one bass, 5-13, $347

9^th:         Greg Roberts, Columbus, Ind., two bass, 5-10, $292

10^th:       Tyler Buell, Lafayette, Ind., two bass, 5-8, $256

Jenkins weighed a 6-pound, 4-ounce bass which earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award and $310.

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.

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.