Co-angler Win Goes to Little Rock’s Pinter

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (Sept. 9, 2019) – Boater Charles Williams of Clarksville, Arkansas, won this weekend’s T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Arkie Division tournament on Lake Dardanelle presented by Navionics after catching a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 35 pounds, 9 ounces. For his efforts, Williams took home $4,868.

Williams said he spent each day of the tournament up the Arkansas River, in the Spadra area of the lake.

“I worked along main-lake points that had some good current on them. It seemed like the channel swings were the best,” said Williams, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. “I was flipping rock and laydown wood – wood that was in the current. It held the bigger fish. If you could find a point that had laydown logs on it, there seemed to always be big fish on them.”

Williams said he flipped a black and blue flake-colored Big Bite Baits Dean Rojas Fighting Frog with a ¼-ounce weight on 25-pound-test Seaguar Flippin’ Fluorocarbon line. He said he also weighed some off of a ½-ounce white and chartreuse Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer with a 3½-inch chartreuse and pearl Lake Fork Tackle Live Magic Shad trailer, and a Crack-colored Lucky Craft LC DRS square-billed crankbait. His rod and reel setup was a 7-foot, 8-inch Denali N3 Extra Heavy Flippin’ Rod with a Daiwa Tatula reel set to a 7:3:1 gear ratio.

“I ran to the back of some pockets Saturday in the same area and mainly fished blowholes. If it had a creek channel coming out, that was good,” said Williams.

On Sunday, Williams stuck with his main-lake pattern and was able to catch a limit by 8:30 a.m. Sitting on around 12 pounds of fish, he said he was able to cull up to 17 pounds with the help of a 4-pounder that he caught with an hour left in competition.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Charles Williams, Clarksville, Ark., 10 bass, 35-9, $4,868

2^nd:         Mike Rhinehart, Delaware, Ark., 10 bass, 31-6, $2,334

3^rd:          Erick Hurst, Clarksville, Ark., 10 bass, 30-10, $1,557

4^th:          Chip Hawkins, Little Rock, Ark., 10 bass, 29-5, $1,189

5^th:          Josh Hilton, Clarksville, Ark., 10 bass, 25-14, $934

6^th:          Wayne Dixon, Morrilton, Ark., 10 bass, 25-14, $856

7^th:          Samuel Hutson, Benton, Ark., eight bass, 23-11, $1,325

8^th:          Cade Alsbury, Gentry, Ark., 10 bass, 23-10, $700

9^th:          Ben Blaschke, Roland, Okla., 10 bass, 23-7, $872

10^th:        Brandon Lee, Ratcliff, Ark., 10 bass, 23-2, $545

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Hutson caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 13 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $547.

Eric Pinter of Little Rock, Arkansas, won the Co-angler Division and $2,608 Sunday after catching a two-day total of nine bass weighing 20 pounds, 5 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Eric Pinter, Little Rock, Ark., nine bass, 20-5, $2,608

2^nd:         Matt Russell, Prairie Grove, Ark., eight bass, 18-2, $1,167

3^rd;          Derrick Damon, Clarksville, Ark., seven bass, 12-6, $779

4^th:          Andrew Wooley, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 11-14, $645

5^th:          Jody Jones, Harvey, Ark., seven bass, 11-7, $517

6^th:          Tony Smith, Bryant, Ark., six bass, 11-0, $578

7^th:          Matthew Inman, White Hall, Ark., six bass, 10-15, $389

8^th:          Trent Jones, Springdale, Ark., four bass, 10-4, $350

9^th:          Keith Gardner, Waldo, Ark., five bass, 10-3, $311

10^th:        Ethan Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., three bass, 9-6, $272

Pinter also caught the heaviest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 10 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $274.

The tournament was hosted by Russellville Advertising and Promotions.

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. 24-26 BFL Regional Championship on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard.

The 2019 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 2020 BFL All-American will be held April 30-May 2 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina, and is hosted by Visit Anderson. 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, and YouTube.