October 7, 2019 by FLW Communications

SENECA, S.C. – Boater Jayme Rampey of Liberty, South Carolina, brought a three-day total of 15 bass to the scale weighing 43 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the no-entry fee T-H Marine FLW BFL Regional Championship on Lake Hartwell presented by Navionics Saturday. For the win, Rampey earned $70,000, including a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Evinrude outboard and automatic entry into the 2020 BFL All-American Championship, April 30-May 2 – also at Lake Hartwell.

With the win, the Liberty angler earned his 11th career BFL victory and moved into a tie for No. 3 all-time for most BFL Boater wins – remarkable considering Rampey is just 33 years old. Five of his 11 wins have come on Lake Hartwell, including one just 2½ weeks ago.

“I caught them doing pretty much the same thing that I did just a few weeks ago,” said Rampey. “I’d start shallow every morning throwing a Zoom Horny Toad. I’d fish that until 11 (a.m.) or so, then I’d run to the lower end of the lake and fish purely topwater baits. I was throwing at isolated targets – timber, cane piles and rock piles – in 20 feet of water.”

Rampey’s first day limit Thursday consisted of five largemouth bass. On day two, his limit consisted of a mix of largemouth and spotted bass, and on the third and final day his limit was five spotted bass.

“I think it was due to the wind and the conditions – it was really blowing on day two – and it had the largemouth held real tight to the cover,” Rampey said. “I caught around 15 fish each day, and it was a good mix. I caught one or two shallow and the rest offshore on Thursday. Friday, I caught all of them offshore. Saturday I only caught one offshore and the rest were shallow.”

Rampey said his two main baits were a Ima Little Stik topwater bait, rigged with 30-pound-test Hi-Seas Grand Slam braided line, and a Zoom Horny Toad (green-pumpkin- and watermelon-colored) rigged with 65-pound Hi-Seas Grand Slam braid with a 6/0 Owner Twistlock Flipping Hook.

“The shallow fish were biting really well in practice, but it seemed to get worse and worse each day,” Rampey went on to say. “I think the difference was making the right decision to go offshore at the right time each day.”

The top six boaters that qualified for the 2020 BFL All-American were:

1st: Jayme Rampey, Liberty, S.C., 15 bass, 43-12, $20,000 + Ranger Z518L w/200-horsepower outboard

2nd: Ryan Deal, Marshville, N.C., 15 bass, 42-14, $10,000

3rd: Mike Miller, Trinity, N.C., 14 bass, 37-6, $5,000

4th: Wesley Sandifer, Chapin, S.C., 15 bass, 36-6, $3,000

5th: Clabion Johns, Social Circle, Ga., 15 bass, 35-0, $2,200

6th: Todd Goade, Suwanee, Ga., 15 bass, 33-6, $1,800

Rounding out the top-10 boaters were:

7th: Conrad Bolt, Seneca, S.C., 15 bass, 33-6, $1,700

8th: Ross Burns, Columbia, S.C., 15 bass, 33-4, $1,400

9th: Jason Burroughs, Hodges, S.C., 15 bass, 33-2, $1,200

10th: Joseph Marks, Duncan, S.C., 15 bass, 32-12, $1,000

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Justin Kimmel of Athens, Georgia, weighed in 15 bass over three days totaling 27 pounds, 10 ounces to win the top prize package of $50,000, including a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Evinrude outboard.

The top six co-anglers that qualified for the 2020 BFL All-American were:

1st: Justin Kimmel, Athens, Ga., 15 bass, 27-10, Ranger Z518L w/200-horsepower outboard

2nd: Nick Coker, Knoxville, Tenn., 15 bass, 27-2, $5,200

3rd: Wayne Smelser, Rural Retreat, Va., 15 bass, 24-14, $2,550

4th: Costas Melendez, Shenandoah, Va., 14 bass, 24-13, $1,500

5th: Kibbee McCoy, Knoxville, Tenn., 13 bass, 19-10, $1,000

6th: James Roten, West Jefferson, N.C., 14 bass, 19-9, $900

Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers were:

7th: Matt Langley, Lebanon, Tenn., 10 bass, 18-7, $800

8th: Sam Loveless, Somerset, Ky., nine bass, 18-6, $700

9th: Trace Bigelow, Salisbury, N.C., 11 bass, 17-8, $600

10th: Maverick Canipe, Kings Mountain, N.C., 10 bass, 16-11, $500

The T-H Marine FLW BFL Regional Championship on Lake Hartwell presented by Navionics was hosted by Visit Oconee SC. It featured the top pros and co-anglers from the Music City (West Tennessee), Shenandoah (Virginia-Maryland), North Carolina, and Volunteer (East Tennessee) divisions.

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. The 2020 BFL All-American will be held April 30-May 2 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina, and is hosted by Visit Anderson. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

October 5, 2019  by FLW Communications

GROVE, Okla. – After starting the day in third place, pro Curt Warren of Rose, Oklahoma, caught a five-bass limit Saturday weighing 15 pounds, 9 ounces, to vault to the top of the leaderboard and win the three-day Costa FLW Series at Grand Lake presented by T-H Marine.

Warren’s three-day total of 13 bass weighing 46 pounds, 7 ounces was enough to earn him the victory by a 1-pound, 6-ounce margin over second-place pro Jason Christie of Park Hill, Oklahoma, and earn him the top prize of $77,175, including a brand new Ranger Z518L boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard. The tournament was the third and final regular-season tournament of the year for anglers competing in the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of boat pressure around me, because I think that I was fishing much deeper than most,” said Warren, who had one previous win on Grand Lake – a Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament in 2017. “I wasn’t really doing anything special. I was just fishing from mid-lake to the dam, fishing fall transition stuff – big chunk rock and fresh green brush.”

Warren said he did most of his damage this week throwing a Bass X ¾-ounce football jig (kicker craw), with a Netbait Paca Chunk (green-pumpkin) or Strike King Rage Craw (watermelon candy), although he did mix in a Zoom Brush Hog Saturday. He also caught two suspended fish on a ½-ounce shad-colored spinnerbait that he brought to the scale.

“I only had four fish on each of the first two days – although I lost a 2½- to 3-pounder Thursday – but today I caught five and I probably lost another five,” Warren said. “I’d been catching a few early and a few later in the day. Today, it was nothing early and then from 1:30 on I caught everything that I weighed.

“I think the key to my win was my equipment and gear,” Warren went on to say. “I was fishing a Falcon Rods Expert Series ‘Amistad’ Extra Heavy rod and it is really an ideal rod for the football jigs that I like to use. My line was just as important – I was throwing 22-pound-test Sunline Shooter Fluorocarbon. With it, I can feel anything.”

The top 10 pros on Grand Lake finished:

 1st: Curt Warren, Rose, Okla., 13 bass, 46-7, $77,175

 2nd: Jason Christie, Park Hill, Okla., 15 bass, 45-1, $12,027

 3rd: Toby Hartsell, Afton, Okla., 15 bass, 41-15, $9,085

 4th: Bradley Hallman, Norman, Okla., 15 bass, 40-5, $7,571

 5th: Cody Bird, Granbury, Texas, 13 bass, 39-6, $6,814

 6th: Jeremy Lawyer, Sarcoxie, Mo., 15 bass, 36-5, $6,057

 7th: Marcus Sykora, Osage Beach, Mo., 14 bass, 35-13, $5,300

 8th: Lance Crawford, Broken Bow, Okla., 11 bass, 31-5, $4,542

 9th: Allen Head, Pryor, Okla., 11 bass, 31-4, $3,785

 10th: Paul Heavener, Tulsa, Okla., 12 bass, 28-7, $3,028

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

Christie caught the largest bass of the tournament Thursday on a buzzbait, weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces and earning him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $192.

Steven Meador of Bentonville, Arkansas, won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 11 bass weighing 27 pounds, 15 ounces. For his win, Meador took home the top prize package of a new Ranger Z175 boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor, worth $27,100 and a $5,000 Ranger Cup contingency bonus.

The top 10 co-anglers on Grand Lake finished:

 1st: Steven Meador, Bentonville, Ark., 11 bass, 27-15, $27,100 + $5,000 Ranger Cup

 2nd: Richard Champagne, Bentonville, Ark., 11 bass, 27-5, $4,031

 3rd: Alan Quick, Springfield, Mo., eight bass, 22-9, $3,185

 4th: Calan Cameron, Coppell, Texas, eight bass, 20-8, $2,787

 5th: Robin Babb, Tulsa, Okla., seven bass, 19-13 $2,439

 6th: Mason Roach, Conroe, Texas, 11 bass, 19-11, $1,991

 7th: Tony Thompson, New Braunfels, Texas, nine bass, 18-11, $1,593

 8th: Johnny Burke, Bristow, Okla., nine bass, 17-5, $1,393

 9th: Travis Pattilllo, Zavalla, Texas, five bass, 16-9, $1,322

 10th: Jayce Garrison, Conroe, Texas, seven bass, 14-11, $995

Pattillo caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday, a fish weighing 5 pounds, 6 ounces. He earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $128.

The Costa FLW Series on Grand Lake presented by T-H Marine was hosted by the City of Grove. It was the third and final tournament in the 2019 regular season for Southwestern Division anglers. The next tournament for FLW Series anglers will also be the Central Division finale, the Costa FLW Series at Table Rock Lake presented by Evinrude, held Oct. 10-12 in Osage Beach, Missouri. 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.

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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