Campbellsville’s Pillow Takes Co-angler Title
Boater Brad McClure of Brentwood, Tennessee, brought five bass to the scale Saturday weighing 23 pounds, 14 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division tournament on Kentucky and Barkley lakes. For his efforts, McClure took home $4,963.
“I caught them on deep brush piles, 12 to 17 feet down,” said McClure, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. “I was on Lake Barkley, and used a plum-colored Zoom Ol’ Monster Worm.”
McClure said he caught 11 of his 12 keepers from a mid-lake area that contained several brush piles. He said one pile ended up producing three of his largest fish, and that he caught everything he weighed in between 8:30 and 9:10 a.m.
“I think finding the fish in that one spot with my Lowrance unit was key for me,” said McClure. “They were stacked because of the brush piles, stumps and baitfish. I put waypoints down for the individual brush piles and then used my MinnKota Ultrex Spot Lock feature to keep me stationary so I could make the same casts over and over to the piles.”
McClure said his worm was Texas-rigged with a 3/8-ounce Strike King Tour Grade tungsten weight on a 4/0 Bass Pro Shops XPS Round Bend Offset Hook and 15-pound-test Berkley Big Game line. He threw it on a 7-foot, 6-inch Abu Garcia Vendetta medium-heavy casting rod and Pflueger Supreme baitcasting reel.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Brad McClure, Brentwood, Tenn., five bass, 23-14, $4,963
2nd: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, five bass, 19-15, $2,181
3rd: Chris Beaudrie, Princeton, Ky., five bass, 18-6, $1,422
4th: Jordan Hartman, Murray, Ky., five bass, 17-8, $925
5th: Larry Bailey, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 17-1, $793
6th: Jim Eakin, Clarksville, Tenn., four bass, 16-13, $1,027
7th: Nick Uebelhor, Jasper, Ind., five bass, 16-11, $660
8th: Josh Malone, Alma, Ill., five bass, 15-10, $594
9th: Stephen Barga, Benton, Ky., five bass, 15-6, $528
10th: Tim Collier, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 15-3, $462
Arby Tevault of Elberfield, Indiana, brought a 6-pound, 5-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $535.
Robert Pillow of Campbellsville, Kentucky, won the Co-angler Division and $1,981 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 15 pounds, 2 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Robert Pillow, Campbellsville, Ky., five bass, 15-2, $1,981
2nd: Greg Henry, Hixson, Tenn., five bass, 14-6, $991
3rd: Spencer Childers, Jasper, Ga., four bass, 13-12, $662
4th: Jake Steinkuhl, Evansville, Ind., four bass, 12-0, $562
5th: Roger Richardson, Belleville, Ill., two bass, 11-6, $663
6th: Wendy Kmucha, Harrisburg, Ill., four bass, 10-13, $363
7th: Luke Lamb, Nicholasville, Ky., four bass, 10-0, $330
8th: Thomas White, Iron City, Tenn., three bass, 9-15, $347
9th: Danny Robinson, Fairland, Ind., three bass, 9-2, $264
10th: Chuck Rounds, Benton, Ky., two bass, 8-2, $231
Richardson caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $267.
The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division tournament on Kentucky and Barkley lakes was hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.
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
