Co-angler Title Awarded to Oxford’s Thome

LAKEVIEW, Ohio (Sept. 10, 2018) – Boater Brandon Houston of Burlington, Kentucky, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Buckeye Division tournament on Indian Lake Sunday with a two-day cumulative catch of 10 bass weighing 19 pounds, 2 ounces. Houston took home $4,944 for his win.

“I started out fishing pads on Saturday, but I didn’t have a fish in the boat at 11 (a.m.),” said Houston, who earned his second career win in BFL competition. “I decided to move and fish stretches of rock in the Black Hawk area of the lake. Other anglers seemed to be casting reaction-type baits like spinnerbaits and crankbaits, so I decided to slow down and drag a tube.”

Houston said he used a Texas-rigged green-pumpkin Strike King KVD Pro-Model Tube with a ¼-ounce tungsten weight with a 4/0-sized Black Chrome-colored Owner Wide Gap Plus hook. He threw the bait using 20-pound-test Seaguar InvizX line on a 7-foot Falcon BuCoo SR Heavy Casting rod.

“On Sunday I started by the ramp and a caught couple of keepers, but then went until 11:30 (a.m.) again without a bite,” said Houston. “I went down a stretch where I’d caught a couple on Saturday and caught two more. By that time, I’d already fished my main stretch from Saturday, but it seemed like they were pulling up on that rock later in the day, so I went back at about 1:30 (p.m.) and caught my biggest fish of the day. Those were the only five bites I got.”

Houston added that his second fish – a 2½-pounder – came from pads on a black Strike King KVD Sexy Frog.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:           Brandon Houston, Burlington, Ky., 10 bass, 19-2, $4,944

2^nd:         Cody Seeger, Bellefontaine, Ohio, 10 bass, 15-7, $2,472

3^rd:          Kyle Weisenburger, Ottawa, Ohio, 10 bass, 15-5, $1,579

4^th:          Jeremy Tenwalde, Ft. Jennings, Ohio, nine bass, 14-12, $1,107

5^th:          Miles Johnson, Centerville, Ohio, 10 bass, 13-7, $1,249

6^th:          Eric Moore, Hamilton, Ohio, eight bass, 13-4, $870

7^th:          Josh Smith, Hamilton, Ohio, eight bass, 11-14, $791

8^th:          Ron Hiles, Piketon, Ohio, five bass, 11-8, $1,282

9^th:          Jay Ellis, Celina, Ohio, five bass, 10-7, $633

10^th:        Kevin Spears, New Boston, Ohio, four bass, 9-8, $553

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Hiles caught a bass weighing 3 pounds, 12 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division. The catch earned him the Boater Big Bass award of $570.

Austin Thome of Oxford, Ohio, caught a two-day total of seven bass weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces, to win the Co-angler Division and $2,238.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:           Austin Thome, Oxford, Ohio, seven bass, 8-10, $2,238

2^nd:         Jordan Scales, Russells Point, Ohio, five bass, 7-15, $1,119

3^rd:          James McWhorter, Hamilton, Ohio, four bass, 6-12, $748

4^th:          Mark Miller, Baltic, Ohio, three bass, 5-9, $522

5^th:          Darian Ginter, Maplewood, Ohio, five bass, 5-7, $448

6^th:          Aaron Stahley, Batavia, Ohio, four bass, 5-1, $610

7^th:          Jeff Turner, Plainfield, Ill., three bass, 5-0, $373

8^th:          David Rackley, Kettering, Ohio, three bass, 4-11, $336

9^th:          Rick McGuire, Brookville, Ohio, two bass, 4-8, $298

10^th:        Aaron Kuhlmann, Hamilton, Ohio, three bass, 4-7, $261

Logan Kaplon of Rural Valley, Pennsylvania, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a fish weighing 3 pounds even – and earned the Co-angler Big Bass award of $262.

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 Chesapeake Bay in North East, Maryland. 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 2019 BFL All-American will take place May 30-June 1 on the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland.

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.