Indiana’s Stone Grabs Co-angler Title

GLASGOW, Ky. (Oct. 23, 2017) – Boater Eric Sanders of Lexington, Kentucky, caught a three-day cumulative total of 12 bass weighing 33 pounds, 10 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Regional event on the Barren River presented by Lowrance. Sanders earned $65,000 for his efforts, including a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and automatic entry into the 2018 BFL All-American Championship.

Sanders spent the weekend targeting brush piles and deep rock about 25 feet deep. He said his best brush was located off the ends of bluffs outside main-lake pockets.

“The (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers started the winter drawdown about a week ago, and it kind of screwed up the shallow bite,” said Sanders, who earned his first career victory in FLW competition. “I just knew I had to fish out deep.”

All week, Sanders slowly dragged a 1/2-ounce Stan Sloan’s Zorro Bait Co. Booza Brush Bug jig. He used a Strike King Rage Twin Tail Menace Grub trailer Thursday and Friday, and a Zoom Twin Tail Grub trailer on Saturday.

“As soon as you felt rock or wood with the jig and pulled off of it, that’s when they ate it,” said Sanders. “You had to feel the cover – that was crucial.”

The top six boaters that qualified for the 2018 BFL All-American were:

1^st:          Eric Sanders, Lexington, Ky., 12 bass, 33-10, $65,000

2^nd:         Tim Rhoades, Bowling Green, Ky., 14 bass, 33-2, $10,000

3^rd:          Clint Bissonett, Beavercreek, Ohio, 12 bass, 27-1, $5,200

4^th:          Jack Dalzell, Elyria, Ohio, 12 bass, 27-0, $3,100

5^th:          Kyle Weisenburger, Ottawa, Ohio, 11 bass, 25-11, $2,000

6^th:          Brad Leifermann, Andover, Minn., 11 bass, 25-3, $1,800

Rounding out the top-10 boaters were:

7^th:          Ronny Webb, Dyersburg, Tenn., 10 bass, 25-2, $1,600

8^th:          Dick Shaffer, Rockford, Ohio, 11 bass, 24-11, $1,400

9^th:          Brandon Houston, Burlington, Ky., 11 bass, 24-7, $1,200

10^th:        Heath Wagner, Angola, Ind., 12 bass, 23-15, $1,000

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Jim Stone of Greenwood, Indiana, won the Co-angler Division and a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard with a three-day cumulative catch of eight bass weighing 23 pounds, 5 ounces.

The top six co-anglers that qualified for the 2018 BFL All-American were:

1^st:          Jim Stone, Greenwood, Ind., eight bass, 23-5, $45,100

2^nd:         Philip Borsa, Redford, Mich., 11 bass, 20-2, $5,000

3^rd:          Andrew Gilliland, McArthur, Ohio, nine bass, 16-9, $2,500

4^th:          Danny Nicklin, Highland, Ill., eight bass, 15-9, $1,500

5^th:          Paul Vonwald, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 14-11, $1,000

6^th:          Joseph Gulash, Edwardsville, Ill., five bass, 14-2, $900

Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers were:

7^th:          James Wathen, Royal Oak, Mich., six bass, 13-1, $800

8^th:          Mark Saunders, Medina, Ohio, six bass, 12-2, $700

9^th:          David Dieling, Eddyville, Ky., five bass, 11-5, $600

10^th:        Hunter Fillmore, Waynesville, Ohio, five bass, 11-5, $550

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League Regional Tournament on the Barren River was hosted by the Glasgow-Barren County Tourist & Convention Commission.

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. The 2018 All-American will be held on Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, May 31-June 2 and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier City Sports Commission and the Red River Waterway Commission. 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.