Salisbury’s Kraft tops Co-angler field
Scott Hamrick of Denver, North Carolina, brought a five-bass limit totaling 16 pounds, 15 ounces, to the scale Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) North Carolina Division event on Lake Wylie. For his win, Hamrick pocketed $4,594.

“I targeted suspended fish under docks from all the way up the river to down near the dam,” said Hamrick, who earned his third career-victory in BFL competition. “I used a Shooter Lures Jig with a Zoom Super Chunk trailer to catch everything I weighed in.
“The fish were coming off of the beds and suspending under docks to feed on crappie,” continued Hamrick. “Most people target those bass when the shad are spawning, but that won’t happen for a week or two. The rest of the field was fishing in pockets and going after bedding fish, but I ended up doing something different.”
Hamrick said he put 25 to 30 keepers in the boat throughout the event.
“The bite was strongest in the morning, but I caught them all day,” said Hamrick. “I didn’t do anything too fancy with the jig. If they were in there under those docks, they would eat it.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st” Scott Hamrick, Denver, N.C., five bass, 16-15, $4,594
2nd: Chris Dover, Blacksburg, S.C., five bass, 15-12, $1,940
3rd: Carson Orellana, Mooresville, N.C., five bass, 15-6, $1,393
4th: Israel Gibson. Spruce Pine, N.C., five bass, 14-12, $905
5th: Rob Digh, Denver, N.C., five bass, 14-9, $776
6th: Cole Blythe, Charlotte, N.C., five bass, 13-15, $711
7th: Bryan New, Belmont, N.C., five bass, 13-11, $647
8th: Jeff Queen, Catawba, N.C., five bass, 13-7, $582
9th: Ryan Deal, Indian Trail, N.C., five bass, 13-2, $517
10th: Michael Stephens, Gastonia, N.C., five bass, 13-0, $453
Hamrick also caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 2 ounces – the largest of the event in the boater division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $515.
Louis Kraft of Salisbury, North Carolina, weighed in four bass totaling 12 pounds even Saturday to win the Co-angler division and the top prize of $2,140.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Louis Kraft, Salisbury, N.C., four bass, 12-0, $2,140
2nd: Paul Conti, Concord, N.C., five bass, 11-2, $970
3rd: Adam Edwards, Cana, Va., five bass, 10-13, $696
4th: Brent Kukowski, Fort Mill, S.C., five bass, 10-12, $453
5th: Hunter Harwell, Hickory, N.C., five bass, 10-11, $388
6th: Michael Thomas, York, S.C., five bass, 10-3, $356
7th: Jeffery Wingler, Wilkesboro, N.C., four bass, 9-14, $323
8th: Brian Mann, Ballard, W. Va., five bass, 8-14, $291
9th: Marvin Godard, Charlotte, N.C., four bass, 8-10, $259
10th: Caleb Lynch, Mount Holly, N.C., two bass, 8-1, $483
Lynch weighed the biggest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing 6 pounds, 7 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $257.
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. 12-14 BFL Regional Championship on the James River in Williamsburg, Virginia. 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 2017 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. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the 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 2017 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 274 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa 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
