The Costa FLW Series is headed to Kentucky Lake on April 28-30 for a tournament presented by Lowrance when as many as 300 pros and co-anglers will take to the water for the second stop of 2016 in the Central Division.
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“We may very well see the bass in all three phases of the spawn – prespawn, spawn and postspawn – come tournament time,” said Strike King Lures pro Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tennessee, who has eight previous top-10 finishes on Kentucky Lake in FLW competition. “It’s still a little early to be catching them offshore, so I think that this tournament will likely be won shallow – bed fishing, or in the bushes.”
“We’re fixing to get quite a bit of rain here in the next couple of days, and the lake needs another foot of water to get up into the bushes,” Wooley continued. “If that happens, that is where this tournament will be won.”
Flipping creature baits, crankbaits, swimbaits, spinnerbaits and topwater baits were all mentioned by Wooley as possible winning baits and patterns.
Last year’s Costa FLW Series tournament on Kentucky Lake was won by Boy Scouts of America pro Tom Redington with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 71 pounds, 13 ounces. Wooley expects this year’s winning weight to be a bit smaller, but still thinks an angler will need at least 63 pounds to win.
“Last year the tournament had great timing and we had the perfect storm of conditions,” Wooley said. “The fish were swarming to the ledges while the tournament was going on. This year we’re a little earlier, but it’s still Kentucky Lake so you’re going to need to weigh in at least 20 pounds a day to win.”
Anglers will take off from Paris Landing State Park, located at 16055 Highway 79 N. in Buchanan, at 6:30 a.m. CDT each day. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-in will be held at the State Park beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at Walmart, located at 1210 Mineral Wells Avenue in Paris, beginning at 3:30 p.m. All takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The event is being hosted by the Henry County Alliance.
Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger Z175 with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2016 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 3-5 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri.
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: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
