Benton’s Kirkpatrick Co-angler Title
Boater Drew Boggs of Lebanon, Tennessee, caught a 23-pound, 8-ounce limit of bass Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division event on Kentucky and Barkley lakes presented by Navionics. For his efforts, Boggs earned $4,244.
Boggs spent the majority of his day working a 50-yard ditch. He said he was able to put together a limit within his first hour of fishing and culled twice as the day went on.
“The ditch was 3 to 12 feet deep and the fish were between 4 and 7 feet,” said Boggs, who earned his sixth career win in BFL competition –third on Kentucky and Barkley lakes. “I ended up weighing four from an umbrella rig and one on a jig.”
Boggs’ umbrella rig had a custom grub on top, a Zoom Swimmin’ Super Fluke Jr. on the bottom and a custom 5½-inch swimbait in the middle. All of the baits were white expect for the swimbait, which was chartreuse. Boggs’ jig was a green-pumpkin-colored V&M Cliff Pace Pacemaker Football Jig with a Strike King Rage Tail Craw of the same color.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Drew Boggs, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 23-8, $4,244
2nd: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, five bass, 20-13, $2,322
3rd: Dan Morehead, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 20-0, $1,813
4th: Michael Wasden, Paris, Tenn., five bass, 19-12, $990
5th: Bill Schroeder III, Paducah, Ky., four bass, 18-15, $849
6th: Anthony Hagewood, Herndon, Ky., five bass, 17-12, $778
7th: Jim Eakin, Clarksville, Tenn., five bass, 13-8, $707
8th: Cody Bertrand, Dyer, Ind., four bass, 13-6, $637
9th: Cody Santel, Benton, Ky., four bass, 12-12, $566
10th: Ron Shearer, Nicholasville, Ky., three bass, 10-11, $495
Chad Biddle of Shelbyville, Kentucky, brought a 6-pound, 14-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $600.
Ryan Kirkpatrick of Benton, Kentucky, won the Co-angler Division and $2,222 Saturday after bringing four bass weighing 13 pounds, 1 ounce to the scale.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Ryan Kirkpatrick, Benton, Ky., four bass, 13-1, $2,222
2nd: Thomas White, Iron City, Tenn., two bass, 8-11, $934
2nd: Daniel Pope Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio, two bass, 8-11, $884
4th: Ricky Boehringer, Troy, Ohio, two bass, 8-7, $495
5th: Spencer Clark, Maryland Heights, Mo., two bass, 8-5, $424
6th: Wendy Kmucha, Harrisburg, Ill., two bass, 8-1, $389
7th: Dick Brown, Smithland, Ky., three bass, 7-8, $354
8th: Greg James, Carterville, Ill., two bass, 7-2, $318
9th: Brad Williams, Kokomo, Ind., one bass, 6-15, $583
10th: Aaron Gray, Vandalia, Ill., two bass, 6-14, $248
Williams caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $300.
The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division event on Kentucky and Barkley lakes was hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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. 25-27 BFL Regional Championship on Lake Chickamauga in Dayton, Tennessee. 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.
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
