Co-angler Title awarded to Georgia’s Walden

EUFAULA, Ala. (April 23, 2018) – Boater Curtis Hillman of Abbeville, Alabama, caught five bass weighing 23 pounds, 11 ounces, Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bulldog Division event on Lake Eufaula. For his finish, Hillman netted $4,199.

Hillman spent his day dissecting areas in Barbour Creek, Cheneyhatchee Creek and near the Highway 82 bridge. He said he targeted bass in 6 to 10 feet of water near humps and rocks and was able to catch his first limit by 8 a.m.

“I got on a shad spawn and caught them with a chartreuse-colored squarebill crankbait and a Citrus Shad-colored (Strike King Pro Model) 5XD crankbait,” said Hillman, who logged his first win in BFL competition. “The local authorities generated water until 11 a.m. and that’s what kept them in our areas.

“After my first limit I culled the rest of the day,” Hillman continued. “I caught them better on wind-blown banks. I didn’t get much in clear water – it needed to be stained.”

Hillman’s day was capped off by a kicker which he pulled from grass in Cowikee Creek using a Strikezone Swim-Tastic Swim Jig with an unnamed trailer.

“I only had an hour left to fish and that catch sealed the deal for me – it was the pound I needed to win.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Curtis Hillman, Abbeville, Ala., five bass, 23-11, $4,199

2^nd:         Michael Conley, Bainbridge, Ga., five bass, 22-10, $2,300

3^rd:          Mark Stillwell, Salem, Ala., five bass, 22-9, $1,398

4^th:          Bryan Meadows, Hogansville, Ga., five bass, 21-11, $1,080

5^th:          Austin Lang, Dothan, Ala., five bass, 21-7, $840

6^th:          Scott Montgomery, Eufaula, Ala., five bass, 20-10, $735

6^th:          Mark Holloway, Madison, Ga., five bass, 20-10, $735

8^th:          Shane Peck, Gainesville, Ga., five bass, 19-4, $630

9^th:          Matt Henry, Milledgeville, Ga., five bass, 18-14, $560

10^th:        Mark Burns, Good Hope, Ga., five bass, 18-11, $490

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Michael Wilder of Macon, Georgia, brought a 6-pound, 13-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $585.

Emory Walden of Newnan, Georgia, won the Co-angler Division and $2,492 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 18 pounds, 4 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Emory Walden, Newnan, Ga., five bass, 18-4, $2,492

2^nd:         C.J. Norton, Juliette, Ga., five bass, 16-5, $1,050

3^rd:          Jacob Robinson, Temple, Ga., five bass, 14-9, $751

4^th:          Shaun Mulhall, Cumming, Ga., five bass, 13-7, $490

5^th:          Blake Yarbrough, Fitzgerald, Ga., five bass, 13-3, $420

6^th:          Michael Wilcox, Haddock, Ga., three bass, 12-7, $385

7^th:          Christopher Wilder, Macon, Ga., four bass, 11-12, $350

8^th:          Bart Vigo, Upatoi, Ga., three bass, 11-0, $315

9^th:          Chance Hebert, Norcross, Ga., five bass, 10-15, $280

10^th:        Dylan Hudson, Phenix City, Ala., five bass, 10-13, $245

Walden also caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 9 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $292.

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. 11-13 BFL Regional Championship on the St. Johns River in Palatka, Florida. 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 2018 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2018 BFL All-American will be held May 31-June 2 at Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.