Pineville’s Lewis Grabs Co-angler Title
Boater Glen Freeman of Zwolle, caught a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 12 ounces, Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Cowboy Division event on Toledo Bend Lake. For his efforts, Freeman took home $6,895.
“I concentrated on points where the bass were moving up and feeding at certain times of the day. You just had to be there at the right time,” said Freeman, who is now tied for second on the All-Time BFL wins list with 10 career wins in BFL competition. “I was on the north end of the lake, sitting in 5 to 6 feet of water and throwing to 2 to 3 feet. I had 9 or 10 points and just rotated through them.”
Freeman said he used a green-pumpkin-colored ½-ounce Johnston jig with a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw trailer of the same color to catch approximately 15 keepers throughout the day.
“They bit the best mid-morning,” said Freeman. “The wind was a big deal for me. I had to have some wind to help the points – that brought the bass up to feed.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Glen Freeman, Zwolle, La., five bass, 24-12, $4,895 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus
2nd: Matthew McArdle, Humble, Texas, five bass, 20-6, $2,448
3rd: Lance Duff, Lumberton, Texas, five bass, 19-13, $1,565
4th: Jeff Wooldridge, Chandler, Texas, five bass, 18-10, $1,096
5th: Darold Gleason, Many, La., five bass, 18-9, $939
6th: Stephen Reitzell, Colfax, La., five bass, 18-2, $861
7th: Josh Dunaway, Sulphur, La., five bass, 18-1, $783
8th: Nick Lebrun, Bossier City, La., five bass, 17-10, $704
9th: Cory Bono, Lake Charles, La., five bass, 17-9, $626
10th: T.J. Goodwyn, Center, Texas, five bass, 17-6, $548
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Bob Vote of Kingwood, Texas, brought a 7-pound, 12-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $700.
Cason Lewis of Pineville, Louisiana, won the Co-angler Division and $2,548 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 13 pounds, 14 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Cason Lewis, Pineville, La., five bass, 13-14, $2,548
2nd: James Waller, Cypress, Texas, five bass, 13-10, $1,174
3rd: Ronnie Ray Jr., McKinney, Texas, five bass, 13-7, $831
4th: James Callaghan, DeBerry, Texas, five bass, 13-4, $509
4th: Blake Landreneau, Youngsville, La., four bass, 13-4, $509
6th: Keith Kimbrough, Woden, Texas, five bass, 13-0, $430
7th: Bill Fussell, Thibodaux, La., five bass, 12-15, $391
8th: Fred Martin, North Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 12-12, $352
9th: Cedric Jackson, Sicily Island, La., five bass, 12-10, $293
9th: Bernard Fruge, Noble, La., five bass, 12-10, $293
Eddie Burns of Little Rock, Arkansas, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 11 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $350.
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 of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri. 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
