Lewis Takes Co-angler Title
Boater Kerry Partain of Elberton, Georgia, caught five bass weighing 14 pounds, 14 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) South Carolina Division tournament Saturday on Lake Hartwell. For his efforts, Partain took home $3,705.
Partain said he worked through nearly 30 areas from the Tugaloo River down to the dam, catching eight keepers throughout the tournament.
“I used a weightless Zoom Super Fluke early for postspawn fish on shoals and points,” said Partain, who logged his first win in FLW competition. “I fished main-lake areas in anywhere from 2 to 10 feet of water.”
Following the postspawn bite, Partain caught two bedding fish – a 3- and 4-pounder – from mid-lake spawning beds. He said he was near docks, and used a Texas-rigged Watermelon Magic-colored Zoom Fluke Stick.
“I ran points for postspawners to finish out the day,” said Partain. “I ran up the Tugaloo and Seneca arms and basically hit any areas coming off the spawning flats.”
Partain’s afternoon postspawn baits were a Watermelon Candy-colored Zoom Finesse Worm on a drop-shot rig and a shaky-head jig with a green-pumpkin Zoom Magnum Swamp Crawler.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Kerry Partain, Elberton, Ga., five bass, 14-14, $3,705
2nd: Justin McLeese, Iva, S.C., five bass, 12-14, $1,753
3rd: Troy Morrow, Eastanollee, Ga., five bass, 12-5, $1,169
4th: Henry Kratz, Pelzer, S.C., five bass, 10-7, $820
4th: Joey Nichols, Cumming, Ga., five bass, 10-7, $820
4th: David Milsaps, Ranger, Ga., five bass, 10-7, $1,120
7th: Marcus Church, Seneca, S.C., five bass, 10-6, $525
7th: Joe Anders, Easley, S.C., five bass, 10-6, $525
7th: Randy Childers, Anderson, S.C., five bass, 10-6, $525
10th: Scott Chatham, Kingston, Ga., five bass, 10-3, $409
Randy Gentry of Franklin, North Carolina, brought a 5-pound, 4-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $440.
Keith Lewis of Franklin, North Carolina, won the Co-angler Division and $1,853 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 10 pounds, 10 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Keith Lewis, Franklin, N.C., five bass, 10-10, $1,853
2nd: Tim Watson, Martin, Ga., five bass, 10-3, $926
3rd: Rusty Smith, Liberty, S.C., five bass, 9-8, $585
4th: Darren Jeter, Marshall, N.C., five bass, 9-3, $409
5th: Chris Nunziato, Elberton, Ga., five bass, 8-13, $351
6th: Samson Faulk, Lyman, S.C., five bass, 8-12, $321
7th: Harold Chappell, Central, S.C., five bass, 8-4, $292
8th: Michael Smith, Piedmont, S.C., five bass, 7-10, $263
9th: Thomas Morris, Walhalla, S.C., four bass, 7-9, $234
10th: Bill Hawkins, Piedmont, S.C., five bass, 7-6, $204
James Durham of Hartwell, Georgia, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 3 pounds, 14 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $110.
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. 11-13 BFL Regional Championship on the St. Johns River in Palatka, Florida. 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.
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 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. 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
