Costas Smashes 30-12 on Santee
Crowley wins co-angler title in South Carolina Division tournament
Lex Costas of Daniel Island, South Carolina, brought five bass to the scale Saturday weighing 30 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) South Carolina Division tournament on Santee Cooper Lakes. For his catch, Costas earned $2,993.
“I started out on the lower end of Lake Marion in the Crappie Neck area using a ½-ounce white jig,” says Costas, who earned his second career win on Santee Cooper Lakes in BFL competition. “I was fishing underwater points in 10 to 14 feet of water and caught four fish from my first two stops.”
After he caught four, Costas moved on to Lake Moultrie to fish Angel’s Creek, and used a Texas-rigged, green-pumpkin-colored Zoom Z Craw to catch another seven keepers.
“I culled three times throwing at stumps and brush in 6 to 8 of water,” says Costas. “I worked both sides of the creek and probably fished 20 places.”
Costas weighed three fish from the Z Craw, and two from the jig.
The top 10 boaters:
1st: Lex Costas, Daniel Island, S.C., five bass, 30-12, $2,993
2nd: Steve Thornhill, Pineville, S.C., four bass, 25-10, $1,807
3rd: Ken Ellis, Bowman, S.C., five bass, 22-14, $931
4th: Casey Warren, Galivants Ferry, S.C., five bass, 22-12, $652
5th: Brandt Tumberg, Moore, S.C., four bass, 21-4, $559
6th: Chuck Howard, Elloree, S.C., five bass, 19-13, $1,062
7th: Robert Clarke III, Pineville, S.C., five bass, 19-8, $616
8th: Kyle Austin, Ridgeville, S.C., five bass, 17-9, $419
9th: Ron Brown, Cross, S.C., five bass, 16-15, $372
10th: Wade Grooms, Bonneau, S.C., five bass, 16-12, $326
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Thornhill caught a 7-pound, 15-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $310.
Crowley wins co-angler title
Steve Crowley of Inverness, Florida, won the Co-angler Division and $1,397 Saturday after catching three bass weighing 13 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers:
1st: Steve Crowley, Inverness, Fla., three bass, 13-8, $1,397
2nd: Ronald Bryant, Batesburg, S.C., two bass, 12-11, $698
3rd: Josh Goedel, Boiling Springs, S.C., two bass, 11-8, $465
4th: Casey Griffith, Guyton, Ga., one bass, 10-2, $481
5th: Bobby McDonald, Easley, S.C., two bass, 6-9, $479
6th: Ronald Harris, Jefferson, Ga., one bass, 6-7, $306
7th: Kate Hough, Gilbert, S.C., two bass, 6-5, $383
8th: Mike Sather, Beech Island, S.C., one bass, 6-4, $210
9th: Matthew Dangerfield, Summerville, S.C., two bass, 5-7, $186
10th: Darvin Cannon, Columbia, S.C., one bass, 5-5, $163
Griffith caught the biggest bass in the Co-angler Division, a big largemouth weighing in at 10 pounds, 2 ounces. The fish earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $155.
The tournament was hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce.
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. 17-19 BFL Regional Championship on the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard.
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 2019 BFL All-American will be held May 30-June 1 at the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland, and is hosted by the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism and the Commissioners of Charles County. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.