Tennessee’s Goss Grabs Co-angler Title
Boater Rod Huff of Monterey, Tennessee, brought five bass to the scale Saturday weighing 18 pounds, 6 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Mountain Division tournament on the Barren River. Huff earned $7,552 for his win.
Huff said he mainly fished rock and wood and caught his fish shallow, in less than 5 feet of water. He said his day was split between four areas, spanning from up the main river, to both Peter and Beaver creeks.
“Early on in the morning I caught my biggest using a (green-pumpkin) ChatterBait with a (Zoom) Z-Craw of the same color up the main river, around the wood and rock,” said Huff, who earned his second career win in BFL competition. “I ran the bait over a small laydown and put it in the boat.”
Huff’s fish – a 5-pound, 8-ouncer – was the heaviest of the event. He also weighed in two on a Texas-rigged green-pumpkin Zoom Z-Craw and the rest on a white 3/8-ounce custom buzzbait.
“My other big bite came between 12 and 1 o’clock flipping the Z-Craw in Peter Creek,” said Huff. “I basically covered water with the ChatterBait and buzzbait, and if I came to a treetop or something like that I’d flip it.”
Huff said he ended up catching around seven keepers over the course of his day.
“The key for me was hitting the areas at the right time. There wasn’t a lot of pressure up shallow. I actually thought the tournament would be won offshore. That, along with my two big bites, was what sealed the deal for me.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Rod Huff, Monterey, Tenn., five bass, 18-6, $5,552 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus
2nd: Tom Hill, Lexington, Ky., five bass, 16-15, $1,921
3rd: Joe Rucker, Nicholasville, Ky., five bass, 15-8, $1,382
4th: Tony Eckler, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 14-15, $896
5th: Mark Morgan, Somerset, Ky., five bass, 14-13, $768
6th: Ryan Coleman, Utica, Ky., five bass, 14-4, $704
7th: Brian Wilson, Somerset, Ky., five bass, 13-10, $940
8th: Tim Saylor, Johnson City, Tenn., five bass, 13-1, $576
9th: Robert Reagan, Byrdstown, Tenn., five bass, 12-11, $512
10th: Michael Emberton, Bowling Green, Ky., five bass, 12-9, $448
Huff’s 5-pound, 8-ounce bass earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $510.
Larry Goss of Hartsville, Tennessee, won the Co-angler Division and $2,048 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 16 pounds, 14 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Larry Goss, Hartsville, Tenn., five bass, 16-14, $2,048
2nd: Chris Rushing, Gamaliel, Ky., four bass, 11-5, $1,160
3rd: Donnie Durbin, Somerset, Ky., five bass, 10-14, $641
4th: Tommy Glass, Verona, Ky., four bass, 10-7, $448
5th: David Mouser, Elizabethtown, Ky., four bass, 9-13, $384
6th: James Wathen, Royal Oak, Mich., five bass, 9-1, $402
7th: Brent Clark, Bowling Green, Ky., four bass, 7-12, $320
8th: Glen Alan Ruth, Frankfort, Ky., four bass, 7-11, $288
9th: Billy Gardner, Livingston, Tenn., three bass, 7-10, $256
10th: Timothy Ernst, Mount Eden, Ky., three bass, 7-6, $224
Robbie Welsh of Berea, Kentucky, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 4 pounds, 15 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $127.
The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Mountain Division tournament on the Barren River was hosted by the Glasgow-Barren County Tourist & Convention Commission.
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. 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
