Diberville’s Petras Grabs Co-angler Title

BRANDON, Miss. (March 26, 2018) – Boater Anthony Thomas of Jackson, Mississippi, caught a five-bass limit weighing 22 pounds, 9 ounces, Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Mississippi Division event on Ross Barnett Reservoir. For his win, Thomas earned $5,475.

“I fished heavy grass patches in Pelahatchie Bay that had the coontail moss up under them,” said Thomas, who notched his first career win in FLW competition. “I had two areas, but one was more productive because there were bream bedding near the bass. Every year the bream seem to bed in the same area as the bass and they mess with them.”

Thomas said a natural-colored Spro Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog produced his best bites.

“I caught one fish chasing a bream in practice on a frog and it was cloudy, so I knew I’d do the same thing if it was cloudy during the tournament,” said Thomas. “I only had eight bites all day – four in the morning and then four more throughout the day with my biggest coming around 2 (p.m.).

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Anthony Thomas, Jackson, Miss., five bass, 22-9, $5,475

2^nd:         Terry Whittington, Laurel, Miss., five bass, 19-5, $2,737

3^rd:          Michael Savell, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 18-9, $2,697

4^th:          Ramey Harrell, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 16-5, $1,277

5^th:          Dave Woodfin, Kosciusko, Miss., five bass, 15-10, $1,095

6^th:          Marty Torrence, Crystal Springs, Miss., five bass, 14-6, $1,004

7^th:          Kenny Churchill, Jackson, Miss., five bass, 14-3, $912

8^th:          Jason Hannah, Forest, Miss., four bass, 13-5, $821

9^th:          Brent Anderson, Kingston Springs, Tenn., five bass, 12-13, $930

10^th:        Shannon Denson, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 12-9, $639

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Savell weighed a 7-pound, 13-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $870.

Michael Petras of Diberville, Mississippi, won the Co-angler Division and $2,668 Saturday after catching four bass weighing 12 pounds, 10 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Michael Petras, Diberville, Miss., four bass, 12-10, $2,668

2^nd:         Josh Taylor, Nesbit, Miss., three bass, 10-1, $1,334

3^rd:          Ken Pecanty, Vicksburg, Miss., four bass, 9-7, $988

4^th:          Justin Thomas, Braxton, Miss., three bass, 9-3, $673

5^th:          Marian Hall, Hattiesburg, Miss., two bass, 9-0, $954

6^th:          Leland Brown, Fulton, Miss., two bass, 7-10, $489

7^th:          Brent Ladnier, Wiggins, Miss., three bass, 7-1, $445

8^th:          Adam Horn, Madison, Miss., two bass, 7-0, $400

9^th:          Ray Higginbotham, Brooksville, Miss., three bass, 6-15, $356

10^th:        Tim Callahan, Houston, Miss., three bass, 6-10, $311

Hall caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 5 pounds, 14 ounces. The catch earned her the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $420.

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. 18-20 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 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.