White wins co-angler title
Jeremy Talbert of Albemarle, North Carolina, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 13 pounds, 2 ounces, Sunday to win the FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Piedmont Division Super Tournament on High Rock Lake, with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 30 pounds, 8 ounces. For his win, Talbert took home $4,457.
“I worked up shallow each day and caught all of my fish in the backs of three creeks – Crane Creek, Little Crane Creek and Second Creek,” said Talbert, who notched his first win in FLW competition. “That’s where the shad were. I didn’t have a lot of company, which was a plus. A lot of people weren’t looking for bass in creeks because the water temperature was still in the eighties – that’s high for September.
“I flipped a Cricket-colored Shooter Lures Jig rigged with a green-pumpkin Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw around floating piers,” Talbert continued. “If I found piers with brush buried beneath, that was big. I caught 14 keepers on Day One. I was fishing the jig aggressively in terms of how I hopped it. It was definitely a reaction bite.”
On Day Two of the event, Talbert said he struggled to dial in on the jig bite in the morning. Once the sun was high, he said he was able to put something together.
“I switched to a black Texas-rigged Zoom Trick Worm around 12:30 (p.m.)”, said Talbert. “That decision really helped me get the win. I caught four keepers fairly quick, which took some pressure off.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Jeremy Talbert, Albemarle, N.C., 10 bass, 30-8, $4,457
2nd: Thomas Ludwick, Salisbury, N.C., nine bass, 27-0, $2,128
3rd: Randy Childers, Anderson, S.C., 10 bass, 26-10, $1,420
4th: James Blankenship, Siler City, N.C., 10 bass, 25-8, $1,293
5th: Tommy Jones, Salisbury, N.C., nine bass, 25-4, $951
6th: Derek Tolley, Winston-Salem, N.C., nine bass, 24-6, $780
7th: Steve Sink, Winston-Salem, N.C., seven bass, 22-2, $1,181
8th: Mike Miller, Trinity, N.C., eight bass, 20-1, $639
9th: Rodney Bell, Salisbury, N.C., eight bass, 19-13, $568
10th: Todd Harris, Clemmons, N.C., eight bass, 19-5, $497
Sink caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 8 ounces – the biggest of the tournament in the pro division – and earned the Boater Big Bass award of $472.
Frank White of Marion, North Carolina, won the co-angler division and earned $2,129 with a two-day cumulative catch of five bass weighing 14 pounds even.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Frank White, Marion, N.C., five bass, 14-0, $2,129
2nd: Nicholas Ireland, Raleigh, N.C., seven bass, 13-14, $1,064
3rd: Eric Lochner, Fayetteville, N.C., seven bass, 12-8, $809
4th: Doug File, Salisbury, N.C., four bass, 11-4, $497
5th: Chad Coley, New London, N.C., four bass, 11-1, $426
6th: Wayne Austin, High Point, N.C., four bass, 10-2, $676
7th: Mark Robertson, Henderson, N.C., three bass, 9-11, $355
8th: James Williams, Littleton, N.C., three bass, 8-1, $319
9th: Dale Webber, Kernersville, N.C., three bass, 7-4, $284
10th: Josh Hollins, Lexington, Ky., three bass, 6-14, $248
Austin caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division, a fish weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces, and earned the Co-angler Big Bass award of $236.
The top 50 boaters and 50 co-anglers based on point standings will qualify for the Oct. 27-29 Regional Championship on Lake Hartwell in Seneca, South Carolina. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 50 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and 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. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros.
By: Brian Johnson, FLW
