Day: September 29, 2019

September 29, 2019  by FLW Communications

BENTON, Ky. – Fishing League Worldwide, the world’s largest tournament fishing organization, announced Sunday that the 2019 T-H Marine BFL Wild Card tournament will take place on Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Kentucky, Nov. 8-9. The two-day event, hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, will launch from the Kentucky Dam Marina in Gilbertsville.

In order to be eligible to fish the no-entry-fee BFL Wild Card, anglers must have entered all five events within a BFL division during the 2019 season and fished at least two of them. In addition, anglers who fish in a regular BFL regional tournament are ineligible.

“We’re extremely excited to bring one of our favorite events of the year – the BFL Wild Card – to FLW’s home waters of Kentucky Lake,” said Daniel Fennel, BFL Director of Tournament Operations. “The lake has faced some challenges over the past few years, but we are starting to see some very positive changes due to the efforts to combat Asian carp. We are seeing a lot of short fish and baitfish for the first time in a few years. At a recent two-day BFL super-tournament we saw a 16-pound limit and a 7-pound, 2-ounce big bass. I expect we’ll see quite a few quality fish caught, and the anglers will have a competitive tournament.”

Anglers will take off from the Kentucky Dam Marina, located at 466 Marina Drive, in Gilbertsville at 7 a.m. CDT each day of competition. The weigh-ins will be held each day at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. All takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

During the BFL Wild Card, the full field competes both days, with winners determined by the heaviest two-day catch. The top six boaters and top six co-anglers will advance to the 2020 T-H Marine BFL All-American, held on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina, April 30-May 2, hosted by Visit Anderson.

An optional pot is available to anglers who elect to participate at the BFL Wild Card tournament. Entry fees for the optional pot is $300 for boaters and $150 for co-anglers, with the top 20 percent of anglers who elect to participate in the optional pot receiving checks. There will be no official practice period or off-limits period prior to the pretournament meeting for the Wild Card. No contestant may be on tournament waters for the purpose of locating bass or potential fishing waters after the start of the pretournament meeting except during tournament hours.

Entry for the BFL Wild Card is now open and runs through Thursday, November 7, 2019, at 6 p.m. CDT. You may enter by phone on or before Wednesday, November 6, at 270.252.1000. Entries on November 7 will be taken onsite at the pretournament meeting at Kentucky Dam Marina.

The 2019 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.

September 29, 2019  by FLW Communications

BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. – Pro Blake Dyer of Walnut Creek, California, caught a five-bass limit Saturday weighing 15 pounds, 8 ounces, to win the three-day Costa FLW Series on the California Delta presented by Power-Pole.

Dyer’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 62 pounds, 13 ounces was enough to earn him the victory by a 1-pound, 9-ounce margin over second-place pro Jason Borofka of Salina, California, and earn him the top prize of $31,114. The tournament was the third and final regular-season tournament of the year for anglers competing in the Costa FLW Series Western Division.

Dyer weighed in a monster 27-pound, 3-ounce limit on Day One of the tournament, catching all of his fish punching grass with a green-pumpkin-colored Reaction Innovations Spicy Beaver and a 1½-ounce weight. He said that most of his damage was done pretty early in the morning.

“I had what I had by about 9:45 in the morning,” Dyer said. “On the first stretch I went to, I caught two big ones. I think the biggest one was close to 7 and then another one over 5.

“I went to another little stretch not far away and, on my first cast, I caught a 5-pounder there. I went to the next stretch and caught two small fish, then I went to the backside of that spot and caught two more over 5.”

Cooler weather and steady winds forced Dyer and many others to adjust on day two. Dyer skipped one of his starting spots because the wind had blown the mat he intended to fish completely away.

“At my second spot it was blowing and I tried to punch those mats, but I just wasn’t getting through because the wind really compacts those mats,” Dyer said. “I didn’t want to waste any more time and lose the tide down in my south spot, so I ran to a tule island and caught a 2-pounder on a Senko and then booked it down south to my main spot.”

His southern area was considerably more protected, and he alternated between fishing a vibrating jig in the open areas and punching the mats.

“That spot salvaged my day,” Dyer said. “I punched one that was almost 4 pounds, I caught one that was almost 5 pounds on a ChatterBait and then filled out my limit.”

Carrying the momentum of two big catches into the final round, Dyer started day three by returning to the Central Delta Slough where he had done most of his previous work. He actually had a different starting spot on days one and two, but his best area sees a lot of waterski and wakeboard activity on the weekends, so he decided to beat the rush.

With the exception of a few locals, who graciously gave him a wide berth, Dyer had the spot to himself. Despite the week’s cold front, which cranked up winds of 15-20 mph and dropped air temperatures a good 20 degrees from day one, his fish started biting in short order — but only after a key adjustment.

“I noticed the grass was flowing the opposite direction and I was going too fast, so I gunned it to the other end of the slough, turned around and started fishing the other direction so my bait was in the current, where the fish are looking up,” Dyer said. “Fish tend to point into the current so they see what’s coming at them. If you’re going the other way, they don’t have a chance to see it.

“My first cast, I catch a 3-pounder and then 10 minutes later, I catch a 6-pounder that made all the difference and won the tournament.”

The top 10 pros on the California Delta finished:

 1st: Blake Dyer, Walnut Creek, Calif., 15 bass, 62-13, $31,114

 2nd: Jason Borofka, Salinas, Calif., 15 bass, 61-4, $13,579

 3rd: Austin Wilson, Citrus Heights, Calif., 15 bass, 57-0, $9,274

 4th: Nick Nourot, Benicia, Calif., 15 bass, 55-4, $7,728

 5th: Mike Birch, Oakley, Calif., 15 bass, 53-13, $6,956

 6th: John Pearl, Upper Lake, Calif., 15 bass, 50-5, $6,183

 7th: Michael Fong, Sacramento, Calif., 15 bass, 49-5, $5,410

 8th: Stephen Tosh Jr., Modesto, Calif., 15 bass, 48-2, $5,833

 9th: Phillip Dutra, Concord, Calif., 15 bass, 47-3, $3,864

 10th: Jamond Andrews, Oakley, Calif., 15 bass, 46-1, $3,091

A complete list of results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Mark Daniels Jr. of Tuskegee, Alabama, weighed in a big 8-pound, 13-ounce bass Thursday – the heaviest of the tournament in the Pro Division – and also earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $196.

Jack Farage of Discovery Bay, California, won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 37 pounds, 2 ounces. For his win, Farage took home the top prize package of a new Ranger Z175 boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor, worth $27,100.

The top 10 co-anglers on the California Delta finished:

 1st: Jack Farage, Discovery Bay, Calif., 15 bass, 37-2, $27,100

 2nd: Cesar Laguna, Galt, Calif., 15 bass, 36-9, $4,194

 3rd: Travis Williams, Bethel Island, Calif., 15 bass, 35-3, $3,301

 4th: Justin Hurney, Oakley, Calif., 14 bass, 33-4, $2,845

 5th: Casey Dunn, North Highlands, Calif., 15 bass, 32-1 $2,819

 6th: Daniel Lutz, Las Vegas, Nev., 15 bass, 31-7, $2,032

 7th: Bryan Lutz, Clearlake Oaks, Calif., 15 bass, 30-5, $1,626

 8th: Blaine Christiansen, San Jose, Calif., 14 bass, 27-8, $1,423

 9th: Tony Zanotelli, Redding, Calif., 15 bass, 27-8, $1,219

 10th: Claudio Silva, Riverbank, Calif., 11 bass, 23-3, $1,016

Laguna caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday, a fish weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces. He earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $130.

The Costa FLW Series on the California Delta presented by Power-Pole was hosted by Russo’s Marina and the Sugar Barge RV Resort & Marina. It was the third and final tournament in the 2019 regular season for Western Division anglers. The next tournament for FLW Series anglers will also be in the Southwestern Division, the Costa FLW Series at Grand Lake presented by T-H Marine, held Oct. 3-5 in Grove, Oklahoma. For a complete schedule, visit FLWFishing.com.

The Costa FLW Series consists of five U.S. divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western – along with the International division. Each U.S. division consists of three regular-season tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to compete in the season-ending Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2019 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Oct. 31 – Nov. 2 on Lake Cumberland in Burnside, Kentucky.

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