Grizzle Takes Home Co-angler Title

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (Oct. 23, 2017) – Boater Jayme Rampey of Liberty, South Carolina, caught a three-day cumulative total of 15 bass weighing 41 pounds, 13 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Regional event on Lake Lanier presented by General Tire. Rampey pocketed $65,200 for his win, including a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and automatic entry into the 2018 BFL All-American Championship.

Rampey said he focused on shallow docks to catch his fish throughout the weekend. He started each day by fishing near the Laurel Park launch site before heading to the Buford Dam, and said most of his bites came in 2 to 3 feet of water.

“I fished 150 to 200 docks each day,” said Rampey, who notched his seventh career win in BFL competition. “I went to several of them on multiple days, and I never caught fish on the same place more than once. I think they’re really finicky right now and once they see something, they have a really good memory.”

Rampey said he tempted his dock fish with a one-two punch: a white swimbait on a 1/2-ounce Buckeye Lures J-Will jighead and a green-pumpkin-colored stickbait on a 1/16-ounce Buckeye Lures Flick-It head. He alternated between the two until the bass showed their preference.

“On Friday the fish preferred the swimbait, and Saturday I caught my big one on the swimbait and had to grind it out with the Flick-It,” Rampey said. “If they were biting the swimbait, I’d keep on throwing it.”

Rampey said that each day delivered a good morning bite, followed by a lull and then a midday rally from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“You only had a few hours to catch them, and then they were really moody,” said Rampey. “They would follow the bait out and you’d see them, but they wouldn’t bite.”

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

1^st:          Jayme Rampey, Liberty, S.C., 15 bass, 41-13, $65,200

2^nd:         Jeremy Strong, Elberton, Ga., 15 bass, 37-0, $11,000

3^rd:          Rob Jordan, Flowery Branch, Ga., 15 bass, 36-14, $5,100

4^th:          Roger Vinson, Flowery Branch, Ga., 15 bass, 36-7, $3,000

5^th:          David Nichol, Gainesville, Ga., 15 bass, 34-3, $2,000

6^th:          Heath Pack, Ellijay, Ga., 15 bass, 33-10, $1,800

Rounding out the top-10 boaters were:

7^th:          Greg Glouse, Liberty, S.C., 15 bass, 33-1, $1,600

8^th:          Steve Foster, Jasper, Ga., 14 bass, 32-9, $1,400

9^th:          Derek Lehtonen, Woodruff, S.C., 15 bass, 32-3, $1,200

10^th:        Matthew Mollohan, Prosperity, S.C., 13 bass, 29-6, $1,000

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Harold Grizzle of Gainesville, Georgia, won the Co-angler Division and a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard with a three-day cumulative catch of 12 bass weighing 25 pounds, 12 ounces.

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

1^st:          Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga., 12 bass, 25-12, $45,100

2^nd:         Eric Cerny, Alpharetta, Ga., 13 bass, 24-7, $5,000

3^rd:          Stephen Main, Chester, Va., 12 bass, 22-11, $2,500

4^th:          Brandon Brock, Honea Path, S.C., 11 bass, 22-2, $1,550

5^th:          Jeremy Bouldin, Kings Mountain, N.C., 11 bass, 21-13, $1,000

6^th:          Michael Miller, Greenville, S.C., 11 bass, 21-3, $900

Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers were:

7^th:          Chester Tucker, Seneca, S.C., 10 bass, 19-4, $800

8^th:          Jay Trudel, Boca Raton, Fla., 10 bass, 18-1, $700

9^th:          Cody Coker, Comer, Ga., nine bass, 16-13, $600

10^th:        Derek Petruzelli, Saint Cloud, Fla., eight bass, 15-2, $500

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League Regional Tournament on Lake Lanier was hosted by the Gainesville Convention & Visitors Bureau.

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.