Spotted Bass Bite Likely to Be Key
The Walmart Bass Fishing League (BFL) is headed to Lake Hartwell Nov. 13-14 for the no-entry-fee BFL Wild Card Tournament. The two-day tournament will feature anglers who entered all five regular-season events in one of the 24 BFL divisions and fished in at least two but did not advance to a Regional Championship. The top six boaters and co-anglers will qualify for the 2016 Walmart BFL All-American – one of the longest running championships in competitive bass fishing.
“This time of year can be tough on Lake Hartwell because the bass are stuck between their fall and winter patterns,” said Walmart FLW Tour pro Brandon Cobb of Greenwood, South Carolina, who finished third in the Forrest Wood Cup this past August. “Luckily, there are still a few different options for anglers to catch fish.
“I think one of the big players in this tournament will be the spotted bass,” continued Cobb. “They tend to live in deeper water and they’re a little more consistent than the largemouth right now. There are also schools of spotted and largemouth bass that are eating herring over submerged timber and on main-lake points, but they’re always moving. If anglers are able to find these schools each day, they’ll have a very good stringer.”
Cobb said that there will likely be a variety of lures used in this tournament and it will come down to which areas anglers choose to target.
“If guys prefer offshore brush piles and isolated rock piles, it’s going to be your typical deep-water arsenal of drop-shots, spoons or football-head jigs,” said Cobb. “For those who decide to follow baitfish into creeks I see crankbaits, spinnerbaits and vibrating jigs doing well.”
Cobb estimated that a two-day catch totaling 29 pounds would win the tournament.
Anglers will take off from Clemson Marina, located at 150 Clemson Marina Drive in Seneca at 7 a.m. EST each day. Weigh-ins will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The BFL Wild Card on Lake Hartwell is being hosted by the Mountain Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 50 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and 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 Walmart BFL All-American. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
By: Brian Johnson, FLW
