Murray’s Bucy Earns Co-angler Title
Boater Andrew Suggs of Cunningham, Tennessee, caught five bass weighing 24 pounds, 6 ounces, to win Saturday’s T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division tournament on Kentucky and Barkley lakes. For his win, Suggs took home $3,945.
Suggs said he fished the mid-section of Lake Barkley, catching every fish he weighed on a ½-ounce black and blue-colored Strike King Denny Brauer Structure Jig with a Strike King Rage Tail Craw trailer of the same color.
“I found some areas a few weeks ago with my Lowrance unit using the Structure Scan feature and found isolated brush piles on the tops of ledges,” said Suggs, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. “I fished ledges all day and the brush piles produced my biggest fish. I didn’t really catch many fish from one single area. I had to move around from ledge to ledge.
“It started out slow. I didn’t have a limit until almost 1 p.m.,” Suggs continued. “I think when the sun got up it concentrated them closer to the brush piles and that’s why they produced.”
Suggs caught the largest fish of the event – a 6-pound, 3-ouncer – around 11:30 a.m.
“I ended up catching seven keepers total, culling twice in the last hour,” said Suggs.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Andrew Suggs, Cunningham, Tenn., five bass, 24-6, $3,945
2nd: Thomas Sandefur , Kuttawa, Ky., five bass, 20-3, $1,753
3rd: Joe White, Princeton, Ky., five bass, 18-1, $1,169
4th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, five bass, 16-7, $1,018
5th: Tommy Williams, Shepherdsville, Ky., five bass, 14-3, $701
6th: Cody Santel, Benton, Ky., five bass, 14-0, $643
7th: Daniel Langton, Haubstadt, Ind., four bass, 12-15, $584
8th: Dan Morehead, Paducah, Ky., three bass, 10-15, $896
8th: John Hopkins, Hendersonville, Tenn., three bass, 10-15, $596
10th: Phillip Brinegar, Lexington, Ky., three bass, 10-10, $409
Suggs’ 6-pound, 3-ounce bass also earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $440.
Kenneth Bucy of Murray, Kentucky, won the Co-angler Division and $1,773 Saturday after catching four bass weighing 14 pounds, 9 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Kenneth Bucy, Murray, Ky., four bass, 14-9, $1,773
2nd: Ryan Kirkpatrick, Benton, Ky., three bass, 10-14, $986
3rd: Douglas Salzman, Newburgh, Ind., three bass, 9-15, $591
4th: Nathan Steele, Benton, Ky., three bass, 8-12, $414
5th: Dick Brown, Smithland, Ky., three bass, 8-8, $355
6th: Daniel Pope Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio, four bass, 7-13, $325
7th: Paul McBride, Vienna, Ill., three bass, 7-8, $295
8th: Greg Adams, Mayfield, Ky., two bass, 7-5, $266
9th: Kristin Knuteson, Mount Washington, Ky., three bass, 7-2, $236
10th: Dean Dearwester, Cincinnati, Ohio, two bass, 7-0, $207
Nathan Eubank of Mountain Vernon, Indiana, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 2 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $222.
The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division tournament on Kentucky and Barkley lakes was hosted by the Cadiz-Trigg County Tourism 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
