Spawners Take Jones to Top
White takes co-angler title on Neely Henry
Bradley Jones of Aragon, Georgia, brought five bass to the scale Saturday weighing 17 pounds, 8 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Choo Choo Division event on Neely Henry Lake. Jones took home $5,224 for his efforts.
“I caught bedding fish that I’d found a couple weeks earlier and in practice,” says Jones, who logged his fourth win on Neely Henry Lake in BFL competition. “I never actually saw any of them during the tournament, but I made some long pitches into their general area and they bit on the first cast each time.”
Jones fished three larger creeks on the lower end of the lake. He caught around 15 fish throughout the event, citing a Texas-rigged green-pumpkin-colored V&M J-Bug as his bait of choice.
“I could tell where the beds were by the way the structure was,” says Jones. “I just pitched it in there and they bit it, there wasn’t really anything to it. I couldn’t have asked for a better scenario – everything just worked out.”
The top 10 boaters:
1st: Bradley Jones, Aragon, Ga., five bass, 17-8, $5,224
2nd: Andrew Johnson, Glencoe, Ala., five bass, 16-10, $2,197
3rd: Blake Hall, Hartselle, Ala., five bass, 15-10, $1,564
4th: Landon Lomax, Owens Cross Roads, Ala., five bass, 15-6, $1,025
5th: Geoff McKnight, Rainbow City, Ala., five bass, 14-11, $879
6th: Brandon McGinnis, Pell City, Ala., four bass, 13-13, $805
7th: Scott Chatham, Kingston, Ga., five bass, 13-9, $732
8th: Brian Davenport, Attalla, Ala., five bass, 13-5, $659
9th: Terry Tucker, Gadsden, Ala., five bass, 13-2, $586
10th: Jeff Cannon, Douglasville, Ga., five bass, 12-6, $513
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Jones also brought a 6-pound, 3-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $630.
White wins co-angler title
Truman White of Spring Hill, Tennessee, won the Co-angler Division and $2,612 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 16 pounds, 5 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers:
1st: Truman White, Spring Hill, Tenn., five bass, 16-5, $2,612
2nd: Cameron Gatlin, Chattanooga, Tenn., five bass, 13-2, $1,148
3rd: Steven White, Ashville, Ala., five bass, 12-11, $733
4th: Kenny Pannell, Springville, Ala., five bass, 11-14, $513
5th: Davey Bailey, Warrior, Ala., five bass, 10-8, $439
6th: Marcus Corbett, Anniston, Ala., five bass, 10-2, $403
7th: Jason Risley, Cordova, Tenn., five bass, 9-14, $366
8th: David Blakely, Kingsport, Tenn., five bass, 9-13, $330
9th: Sal Pinto, Cumming, Ga., five bass, 9-2, $293
10th: Michael Corbett, Oxford, Ala., five bass, 8-13, $256
White also caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $315.
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 Chickamauga in Dayton, Tennessee. 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.