The Bass Fishing League is headed to Lake Guntersville Oct. 14-16 for a regional championship featuring the best anglers from the BFL’s LBL, Volunteer, Music City and South Carolina divisions.
“The fishing has gotten really tough on Guntersville,” said National Guard pro Jonathan Newton of Rogersville, Ala., who finished the 2010 season in seventh place in the points race. “The fish are in transition right now so they are on the move and hard to predict. Temperatures have cooled down substantially, we went from above normal temperatures over the summer to below normal this fall; between that and the shorter days the fish are going to be really tough to find.
“Anglers are going to have to have a game plan and stick with it,” added Newton. “They are going to be fishing for five bites and they better land them. The fun thing about Guntersville is that any cast can produce an 8 to 10 pound lunker, you just never know. I think it is going to take about 20 pounds per day to win this thing, it’s still Guntersville.
“Throwing a frog in the grass is how to catch the bass right now. Finding the large concentration of fish is going to be tough because the grass is so thick and matted; it is also hard to maneuver so anglers are going to have to be very slow and methodical.”
Takeoffs and weigh-ins will be at Waterfront Tackle and Grill at Goose Pond located at 417 Ed Hembree Drive in Scottsboro, Ala. Takeoff is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. each day while weigh-ins will begin at 3:00 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Lake Guntersville BFL Regional tournament is being hosted by the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce.
The Top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers based on point standings from their respective divisions qualified for the regional championship where boaters are competing for a top award of a Ranger 198VX with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and a Chevy Pick-up, while co-anglers are fishing for a new Ranger 198VX and motor.
The full field will compete the first two days of competition and the top 12 boaters and top 12 co-anglers advance to the final day of competition based on accumulated weight. The winners will be determined by the heaviest three-day catch. The top six boaters and top six co-anglers will advance to the BFL All-American presented by Chevy.
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, offering bigger prizes to those who qualify for regional championships and those who make it to 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 American Fishing Series or even the FLW Tour.
ABOUT FLW OUTDOORS
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 189 tournaments in 2010. For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000.By: Julie Huber,
