Morgan by Ounces on Lanier

Grizzle nets co-angler title in Bulldog event

Tyler Morgan of Columbus, Georgia, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 16 pounds,15 ounces, Saturday to win the first T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bulldog Division tournament of 2017 on Lake Lanier. For his win, Morgan took home $5,214.

“I’m not extremely familiar with Lanier, but I was fishing up the river,” says Morgan, who earned his first career victory as a boater after three prior wins as a co-angler in BFL competition. “Most of the other anglers were fishing the main-lake and they would fish around the points, but they weren’t fishing in the pockets. I was going to the very back of pockets and catching fish extremely shallow.”

Morgan caught 16 or 17 keepers throughout the day throwing a Special Red Craw-colored Berkley Pit Bull crankbait and a black and blue-colored Z-Man ChatterBait with a black Keitech Swing Impact FAT 4.3 swimbait.

“I was cranking bluff walls up the river and put together a quick 9-pound limit of spotted bass by 9 a.m.,” Morgan says. “Then I went running the back of pockets looking to upgrade with largemouth. I was upgrading by ounces all day long, and ended up weighing in one spot and four largemouth.

“Coming back to the weigh-in I thought that I had a shot to finish in the top-10, but I never expected to win. It was a pleasant surprise.”

The top 10 boaters:

1^st:           Tyler Morgan, Columbus, Ga., five bass, 16-15, $5,214

2^nd:          Johnathan Akins, Lula, Ga., five bass, 16-12, $2,507

3^rd:          Rob Jordan, Flowery Branch, Ga., five bass, 16-9, $1,420

3^rd:          Steve Foster, Jasper, Ga., five bass, 16-9, $1,420

5^th:           Chris Baxter, Winder, Ga., five bass, 16-8, $1,403

6^th:           Brock Turner, Jasper, Ga., five bass, 16-6, $919

7^th:           Tristan Thomas, Lula, Ga., five bass, 16-0, $836

8^th:           Mike Shepard, Dawsonville, Ga., five bass, 15-11, $752

9^th:           Kip Carter, Social Circle, Ga., five bass, 15-3, $668

10^th:        Jason Densmore, Dawsonville, Ga., five bass, 15-1, $555

10^th:        Doug Workman, Cleveland, Ga., five bass, 15-1, $555

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.  

Willie McMullen of Oxford, Georgia, caught a 6-pound, 12-ounce bass – the largest of the event – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $765.

Grizzle wins co-angler title

Harold Grizzle of Gainesville, Georgia, weighed in five bass totaling 16 pounds, 3 ounces Saturday to win the co-angler division and earn $2,707.

The top 10 co-anglers:

1^st:           Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga., five bass, 16-3, $2,707

2^nd:          Chris Davies, Griffin, Ga., five bass, 14-15, $1,635

3^rd:          Stanley Smith, Greensboro, Ga., five bass, 14-6, $837

4^th:           Brent Thomas, Cleveland, Ga., five bass, 13-8, $585

5^th:           Ronald Harris, Jefferson, Ga., five bass, 13-5, $501

6^th:           Chance Hebert, Norcross, Ga., five bass, 12-11, $460

7^th:           Adam Thomas, Cleveland, Ga., five bass, 12-2, $468

8^th:           Matthew O’Connell, Brooks, Ga., four bass, 12-1, $376

9^th:           Brian Benedit, Canton, Ga., five bass, 11-11, $334

10^th:        Robert Barker, Monticello, Ga., five bass, 11-10, $292

Davies caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division, a fish weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce, and earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $382.

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. 12-14 BFL Regional Championship on Wheeler Lake in Decatur, Alabama. 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.