Kentucky’s Bays Wins Co-angler Title
Boater Jeremy Knepp of Montgomery, Indiana, caught three bass weighing 8 pounds, 15 ounces, Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Hoosier Division event on Patoka Lake presented by Navionics. For his win, Knepp pocketed $4,741.
Knepp stayed on the main lake to catch his fish, targeting points at the mouths of feeder creeks. He said he caught two on a Clown-colored Strike King KVD Deep Jerkbait and one on a homemade spinnerbait with a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer.
“I caught one in the morning around 10:45 (a.m.) and the other two at about 3 (p.m.),” said Knepp, who earned his first career victory in FLW competition. “It was tough fishing conditions out there. It rained and was windy the entire day and the temperature only reached 35 degrees.”
Knepp said he worked along 15 to 20 points throughout the day.
“Technique-wise I gave the jerkbait a five or 10 second pause before bringing it in,” said Knepp.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Jeremy Knepp, Montgomery, Ind., three bass, 8-15, $4,741
2nd: Marty Sisk, Evansville, Ind., two bass, 8-5, $2,370
3rd: Paul Mendez, Fort Wayne, Ind., two bass, 7-14, $1,514
4th: Matt McCoy, Indianapolis, Ind., two bass, 7-6, $1,060
5th: Thomas Foster, Terre Haute, Ind., two bass, 6-15, $908
6th: Nick Teeters, Martinsville, Ind., two bass, 6-9, $795
6th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, one bass, 6-9, $1,455
8th: Mark Nies, Cannelton, Ind., one bass, 6-4, $681
9th: Doug Ruster, New Palestine, Ind., one bass, 6-1, $605
10th: Bryan Jenkins, Indianapolis, Ind., one bass, 5-13, $530
Campbell weighed a 6-pound, 9-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $660.
Lenny Bays of Dayton, Kentucky, won the Co-angler Division and $2,270 Saturday after catching two bass weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Lenny Bays, Dayton, Ky., two bass, 8-8, $2,270
2nd: Leroy Miller, Napoleon, Ohio, one bass, 6-4, $1,465
3rd: Lawrence Spicher, Boonville, Ind., two bass, 6-0, $757
4th: Garron Sneed, Charlestown, Ind., one bass, 5-12, $530
5th: Justin Kivett, Indianapolis, Ind., one bass, 5-11, $454
6th: Nick Horton, Trafalgar, Ind., one bass, 5-9, $416
7th: James Mayle, Newark, Ohio, one bass, 5-6, $378
8th: Greg Roberts, Columbus, Ind., two bass, 4-10, $341
9th: Nicole Foor, Greens Fork, Ind., one bass, 4-0, $503
10th: Dan Pardue, Morgantown, Ind., one bass, 3-13, $265
Miller caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 4 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $330.
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. 18-20 BFL Regional Championship on Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. 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
