Maryland’s Kyte Grabs Co-angler Title
Boater Ronnie Baker of Providence Forge, Virginia, brought five bass to the scale Saturday weighing 14 pounds, 1 ounce, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Shenandoah Division tournament on Kerr Lake. Baker earned $4,479 for his win.
Baker spent his day in Nutbush Creek, fishing main-lake points in 12 to 16 feet of water. He said he rotated through 8 to 10 different points and caught five keepers.
“I didn’t get many bites. I knew eight of the points had bait on them, so I concentrated on those and caught a fish every hour and a half or so,” said Baker, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. “I spent two of my three practice days fishing shallow, but didn’t catch many quality-sized fish. On Friday, I stayed deep and had a couple quality bites. That told me what I needed to do to win.”
Baker said he primarily threw a custom ½-ounce green-pumpkin and purple-colored Surfside Bait & Tackle football-head jig. He also weighed one on an American Shad-colored Lucky Craft G Splash topwater bait.
“I fished the jig by hopping it a little bit, and they’d hit it when it was moving. The bites were so few and far between it was hard to get a rhythm going,” said Baker. “I did drift off and fish some floating docks and bream beds during lulls to make sure I wasn’t missing out on anything, but by the end of the day I was committed to the deep bite.
“The water was rough, but I didn’t have any dead fish penalties,” Baker went on to say. “It was like a washing machine out there, but my BassCat’s big livewell kept the fish alive and healthy.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Ronnie Baker, Providence Forge, Va., five bass, 14-1, $4,479
2nd: Rick Tilley, Moneta, Va., five bass, 13-10, $2,140
3rd: Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., five bass, 13-3, $1,726
4th: Steven Wiseman, Bryans Road, Md., five bass, 12-0, $1,098
5th: Rick McFaul, Phoenix, Md., five bass, 11-6, $856
6th: Jack Dice, Lynchburg, Va., five bass, 11-3, $785
7th: Keith Joyce, Apex, N.C., four bass, 11-2, $713
8th: Jonathan Kelley, Old Forge, Pa., five bass, 10-12, $642
9th: K.C. Choosakul, Sandford, N.C., five bass, 10-11, $571
10th: Nicholas Bodsford, Bon Air, Va., five bass, 10-7, $499
Jason Houchins of Clarksville, Virginia, brought a bass weighing 5 pounds, 3 ounces, to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $605.
William Kyte of Waldorf, Maryland, won the Co-angler Division and $2,140 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 14 pounds, 5 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: William Kyte, Waldorf, Md., five bass, five bass, 14-5, $2,140
2nd: Michael Trivette, Blackstone, Va., five bass, 10-4, $1,070
3rd: James Covington, Fredericksburg, Va., three bass, 9-14, $1,014
4th: Joshua Hertzog, Lititz, Pa., five bass, 9-11, $499
5th: Daryl Moody, Newport News, Va., four bass, 9-0, $428
6th: Cornell Badra, Clarksburg, Md., five bass, 8-11, $492
7th: Chris Whittaker, Waverly, Va., five bass, 8-6, $407
8th: Lucas Doucet, Lanham, Md., five bass, 7-11, $321
9th: David DeCiucis, Chester, Va., three bass, 7-8, $285
10th: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., three bass, 7-1, $250
Covington caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds even. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $302.
The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Shenandoah Division tournament on Kerr Lake was hosted by the Vance County Department of Tourism.
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 Chesapeake Bay in North East, Maryland. 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. 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
