Mooreville’s Speaks Claims Co-angler Title

IUKA, Miss. (April 23, 2018) – Boater Marty Torrence of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, caught a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces, Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Mississippi Division event on Pickwick Lake. Torrence pocketed $6,197 for his win.

Torrence started his day fishing rocks on the north end of the lake, not far from the dam. He said he used a Spro deep-diving crankbait to catch five fish, but only managed one good keeper. After the sun came out, he moved on to a new area that produced the bulk of his weight.

“In practice I could see that there were full trees lying flat in the area,” said Torrence, who secured his first career win in BFL competition. “It was overcast and the fish were suspended over them and hard to catch, but when the sun came out on Saturday, the fish were hanging in tighter. The big fish were near the roots in 28 to 30 feet of water, while the smaller ones were shallower near the tree tops.”

The bass in the trees ate two baits for Torrence – a green-pumpkin-colored Zoom Trick Worm on a shaky-head rig and a ½-ounce Keitech Model III Swim Jig with a Keitech trailer.

“The Keitech is a confidence bait for me – it’s my go to,” said Torrence. “And when I went for the bigger fish down deep I had to rotate in something else that I like. The shaky-head always catches them on Pickwick. The fish may not always be the size you need, but you will catch them.”

Torrence’s limit ended up consisting of three largemouth and two smallmouth, one of which he caught with only 15 minutes left to fish.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Marty Torrence, Crystal Springs, Miss., five bass, 17-15, $6,197

2^nd:         Heath Gilmore, Meridian, Miss., five bass, 16-15, $2,798

3^rd:          Kevin Wright, Waterloo, Ala., five bass, 16-2, $1,733

4^th:          Christopher Whitehead, Tupelo, Miss., five bass, 15-6, $1,313

5^th:          Timmy Ming, Louisville, Miss., five bass, 14-10, $1,039

6^th:          Mark Willins, Collierville, Tenn., five bass, 14-8, $909

6^th:          Jason Hannah, Forest, Miss., five bass, 14-8, $909

8^th:          Hunter Utley, Cordova, Tenn., five bass, 14-4, $780

9^th:          Marshall Stevens, Marietta, Miss., five bass, 14-0, $693

10^th:        Andrew Schrock, Smithville, Miss., five bass, 13-13, $606

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Michael Nichols of Brandon, Mississippi, brought a 5-pound, 2-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $810.

Thomas Speaks of Mooreville, Mississippi, won the Co-angler Division and $2,598 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 19 pounds even.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Thomas Speaks, Mooreville, Miss., five bass, 19-0, $2,598

2^nd:         Tim Beale, Hernando, Miss., five bass, 17-6, $1,299

3^rd:          Jim Pierce, Medon, Tenn., five bass, 15-15, $1,065

4^th:          Larry McNeil, Huntsville, Ala., five bass, 15-3, $606

5^th:          Clint Horton, Ripley, Miss., five bass, 14-5, $520

6^th:          Ryan LeCompte, Picayune, Miss., five bass, 12-0, $526

7^th:          Joe Cornelius, Corinth, Miss., five bass, 10-10, $433

8^th:          C.J. Holbrook, Smithville, Miss., three bass, 10-5, $390

9^th:          Austin Navarre, Carriere, Miss., four bass, 9-13, $346

10^th:        Mike Allen, Crystal Springs, Miss., three bass, 9-11, $303

Jake Steinkuhl of Evansville, Indiana, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $405.

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.