Photo courtesy FLW.
Boater Adam Wright of Benton, Arkansas, won the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Arkie Division tournament on Lake Hamilton Sunday with a two-day cumulative catch of 10 bass weighing 31 pounds, 10 ounces. For his win, Wright pocketed $6,387. Wright said he fished all over the main lake Saturday and Sunday, hitting 15 diffeent areas Saturday and 20 on Sunday. He said he was able to put 17 keepers in the boat, mostly with a white Stanley Ribbit frog and a Black’s Custom Lures buzzbait with a white Zoom Horny Toad.
“I used a medium retrieve and made thousands of casts. They were just getting to the bank in shallow grass,” said Wright, who logged his fourth career win as a boater in BFL competition – third on Lake Hamilton. “On Saturday, I had them by 10 a.m. – it was the perfect storm. It rained the night before and it played into my strategy. I had some brush piles ready, but when it rains they go shallow.”
Wright said that when it rained during the tournament he used the buzzbait, and when it subsided, he switched to the frog.
“On Sunday I caught my largest – a 4-pound, 13-ouncer – on two ‘donkey-rigged’ white Zoom Super Flukes. It came from a 5-foot-deep creek channel at around 12:30 (p.m.). They were breaking there Saturday, but I couldn’t catch them. It was my fifth fish and ended up being my kicker as well.”
Wright said he used blue and green-colored 60-pound-test Sunline FX2 braided line on a a 7-foot, 1-inch G. Loomis NRX heavy casting rod and Lew’s Tournament Pro reel.
“The NRX is the perfect rod for swimming a frog,” said Wright. “And the Lew’s high speed reel gave me the right cadence – more repetitions and faster casts.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
- 1st: Adam Wright, Benton, Ark., 10 bass, 31-10, $6,387
- 2nd: Cody Kemp, Donaldson, Ark., 10 bass, 28-5, $2,694
- 3rd: Wayne Dixon, Morrilton, Ark., 10 bass, 26-5, $1,795
- 4th: Matt Wood, Jessieville, Ark., 10 bass, 25-13, $2,147
- 5th: Chip Hawkins, Little Rock, Ark., 10 bass, 23-10, $1,177
- 6th: Teddy Bogard, Rison, Ark., 10 bass, 20-14, $988
- 7th: Quincy Houchin, Mabelvale, Ark., 10 bass, 20-8, $898
- 8th: Steve Howard, Conway, Ark., 10 bass, 19-13, $808
- 9th: Leland Nixon, Bee Branch, Ark., 10 bass, 19-12, $718
- 10th: Keith Green, Arkadelphia, Ark., 10 bass, 19-5, $628
Wood caught a bass weighing 4 pounds, 13 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division. The catch earned him the Boater Big Bass award of $690. Trevor Delaney of Benton, Arkansas, caught a two-day total of eight bass weighing 18 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the Co-angler Division and $2,694.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
- 1st: Trevor Delaney, Benton, Ark., eight bass, 18-12, $2,694
- 2nd: Dusty Rhoades, Gravelly, Ark., 10 bass, 17-7, $1,547
- 3rd: Ethan Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., 10 bass, 17-3, $899
- 4th: Daniel Elam, Lamar, Ark., 10 bass, 15-1, $628
- 5th: Robert Bogard Jr., Conway, Ark., 10 bass, 14-11, $539
- 6th: Kevin Clark, Malvern, Ark., 10 bass, 14-6, $544
- 7th: Jody Jones, Harvey, Ark., nine bass, 14-3, $449
- 8th: John McCullar, Benton, Ark., nine bass, 12-0, $404
- 9th: Cody Nickles, Vanndale, Ark., five bass, 11-12, $359
- 10th: Brian Choate, Conway, Ark., seven bass, 11-2, $314
McCullar caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a fish weighing 4 pounds, 10 ounces – and earned the Co-angler Big Bass award of $345.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 of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri. 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. The 2019 BFL All-American will take place May 30-June 1 on the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.