Virginia’s Bryant tops co-angler field
Tim Wilson of Gas City, Indiana, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 23 pounds, 10 ounces, Saturday to win the first T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Choo Choo Division tournament of 2017 on Lake Guntersville. For his win, Wilson took home $5,133.
“Although I live in Indiana, I also own a small house in Scottsboro just minutes from the ramp,” said Wilson, who earned his second career win in BFL competition – both on Lake Guntersville. “Most of the time I rent it out to other fisherman, but every now and then I get to sneak down and fish on Guntersville. I hadn’t been on the lake since my last win in 2015. I fish the Costa FLW Series, and I was on my way down for the Seminole event, so I figured I’d stop in and check on the house and fish the BFL event.
“I’m an off-the-wall guy,” Wilson continued. “I like to fish where other people aren’t fishing. So, I ended up fishing a mile-and-a-half stretch of bluff down the lake, towards Guntersville. I was sitting in 40 feet of water and throwing up to 12.”
Wilson said that he only had two rods on the deck of his boat the entire day, and both were rigged with downsized umbrella rigs.
“I figured that I would have to catch 13 to 14 pounds to get a check,” Wilson said. “On my first pass down the bluff, I had 12 pounds of Kentucky bass. I ended up catching a nice 7-pound kicker largemouth and weighed in three largemouth and two Kentucky bass.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Tim WIlson, Gas City, Ind., five bass, 23-10, $5,133
2nd: Nathan Hand, Madison, Ala., five bass, 21-7, $2,766
3rd: Jerry Perkins, Cullman, Ala.., five bass, 19-11, $1,710
4th: Chris Webb, Decatur, Ala.., five bass, 18-14, $1,198
5th: Daniel Whitaker, Phil Campbell, Ala., five bass, 17-11, $1,027
6th: Freddy Palmer, Estill Springs, Tenn., five bass, 17-9, $941
7th: Zach Lemmond, Hillsboro, Ala., five bass, 17-1, $855
8th: Jacob Gibbs, Baileyton, Ala., five bass, 16-9, $770
9th: Bryan Gregory, Fort Payne, Ala., five bass, 16-8, $684
10th: J.K. Guin, Carbon Hill, Ala., five bass, 16-7, $599
Currey Holley of Pulaski, Tennessee, caught an 8-pound, 5-ounce bass – the largest of the event – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $800.
David Bryant of Covington, Virginia, weighed in three bass totaling 17 pounds, 1 ounce Saturday to win the co-angler division and earn $2,566.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: David Bryant, Covington, Va., three bass, 17-1, $2,566
2nd: Zach Britton, Hazel Green, Ala., five bass, 15-14, $1,383
3rd: John Cook, Scottsboro, Ala., five bass, 14-9, $855
4th: Dan Basham, Taylorsville, Ky., four bass, 14-1, $606
4th: Heath Frizzell, Dunlap, Tenn., four bass, 14-1, $556
6th: Frelon Moore, Albertville, Ala., four bass, 14-0, $471
7th: Alex Spires, Chickamauga, Ga., three bass, 12-10, $428
8th: Matthew Blackwood, New Hope, Ala., five bass, 12-3, $385
9th: Jerry Armstrong, Shelbyville, Tenn., five bass, 11-15, $342
10th: Donald Groves, Rocky Face, Ga., five bass, 11-0, $299
Jacob Coil of Huntsville, Alabama caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division, a fish weighing 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $400.
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. 12-14 BFL Regional Championship on Wheeler Lake in Decatur, Alabama. 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 2017 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.
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 2017 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 274 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa 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
