Wood Wins FLW Bass Fishing League Bama Division Finale on Lake Eufaula

Rushing wins co-angler title

EUFAULA, Ala. – Local angler Dustin Wood of Eufaula, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 16 pounds, 2 ounces, Sunday to win the FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bama Division Super Tournament on Lake Eufaula with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 34 pounds, 6 ounces. Wood took home $5,660 for his win.

“I spent Saturday in mid- to south-lake areas throwing a Strikezone Deep Daddy crankbait,” said Wood, who earned his first win in BFL competition. “I hit ledges that were 10 to 15 feet down and isolated patches of hydrilla. Of the six keepers I caught, two were over five pounds.”

Wood said he made nearly 60 stops each day of the event and that covering a lot of water was a crucial part to his success.

“On Sunday the ledge bite was tough so I decided to fish brush piles,” said Wood. “I used a shaky-head rig with an 8-inch Bluegill-colored Strikezone Meat Stix. I didn’t get many bites, but the ones that did bite were the right size. That’s what made the difference for me. I ended up catching five keeper bass, with the last two coming within the last 30 minutes of the event.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1^st:          Dustin Wood, Eufaula, Ala., 10 bass, 34-6, $5,660

               2^nd:         Derrick Blake, Rockwood, Tenn., eight bass, 26-12, $2,730

               3^rd:          Anthony Hawkins, Pell City, Ala., eight bass, 22-15, $2,532

               4^th:          Michael Smith, Andalusia, Ala., 10 bass, 22-5, $1,274

               5^th:          Mike Cavender, Phenix City, Ala., 10 bass, 21-14, $1,092

               6^th:          Henry Golden, Tallassee, Ala., 10 bass, 21-2, $1,001

               7^th:          Terry Tucker, Gadsden, Ala., eight bass, 20-14, $1,010

               8^th:          Russell Sapp, Lincoln, Ala., seven bass, 19-13, $819

               9^th:          Bobby Padgett, LaGrange, Ga., nine bass, 16-15, $1,028

               10^th:        James Hill, Ozark, Ala., six bass, 16-10, $637

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com. 

Hawkins caught a bass weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces Saturday – the biggest of the tournament in the pro division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $712.

Wesley Rushing of Abbeville, Alabama, won the co-angler division and earned $2,730 with a two-day cumulative catch of nine bass weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1^st:          Wesley Rushing, Abbeville, Ala., nine bass, 17-15, $2,730

               2^nd:         Jeff Huddleston, Ohatchee, Ala., seven bass, 15-5, $1,365

               3^rd:          Mike Chirico, Brundidge, Ala., four bass, 12-7, $909

               4^th:          Rusty Smith, Six Mile, S.C., five bass, 12-5, $837

               5^th:          Franklin McCutcheon, Jacksonville, Ala., four bass, 11-9, $546

               6^th:          Carl Della Torre, Alachua, Fla., six bass, 11-5, $501

               7^th:          Brandon Mayhann, Wewahitchka, Fla. six bass, 10-14, $455

               8^th:          Jeff Norwood, Rogersville, Ala., five bass, 10-0, $410

               9^th:          Christopher Haynes, Valley, Ala., four bass, 8-4, $414

               10^th:        Chance Hebert, Norcross, Ga., four bass, 7-10, $319

Ryan Muccio of Columbia, Alabama, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division Saturday, a fish weighing 5 pounds, 9 ounces, and earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $356.

The top 50 boaters and 50 co-anglers based on point standings will qualify for the Oct. 27-29 Regional Championship on Lake Hartwell in Seneca, South Carolina. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.

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 BFL All-American. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.

For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the BFL on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.

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 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. 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. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat: @FLWFishing.

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