Tramel Weighs 20-12 Worth of Smallies
Adams wins co-angler title
Josh Tramel of Smithville, Tennessee, brought five bass to the scale Saturday weighing 20 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Music City Division tournament on Center Hill Lake. For his first-place finish, Tramel earned $4,384.
Tramel says he primarily worked through two mid-lake areas with gravel and rock, and caught approximately 10 keepers throughout the tournament.
“One area was a staging area – a little creek channel swing in a major creek – and one had multiple staging areas close to points where bass were spawning,” says Tramel, who earned his sixth career win in BFL competition. “I caught most of what I weighed in before lunch, until 12 [p.m.] or so. My limit was made up of all smallmouth.”
Tramel caught three that he weighed at the channel swing in 6 to 8 feet of water using a Carolina-rigged green pumpkin-colored Berkley Powerbait Power Hawg. The other two smallmouth were caught at the points on Crawfish-colored Rapala DT6 and a DT10 crankbaits in 6 to 10 feet of water.
The top 10 boaters:
1st: Josh Tramel, Smithville, Tenn., five bass, 20-12, $4,384
2nd: Jesse Rigsby, Old Hickory, Tenn., five bass, 17-2, $1,467
3rd: Mickey Beck, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 17-1, $1,127
4th: Clabion Johns, Covington, Ga., five bass, 16-15, $784
5th: Adam Wagner, Cookeville, Tenn., five bass, 16-5, $587
6th: Daniel Johnson, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 16-0, $538
7th: Michael Thomason, Winchester, Tenn., five bass, 15-13, $489
8th: Jay Melton, Murfreesboro, Tenn., five bass, 15-11, $440
9th: Dale Rowland, Shelbyville, Tenn., five bass, 14-6, $391
10th: Alex Hester, Crossville, Tenn., five bass, 13-13, $342
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Matt Langley of Lebanon, Tennessee, caught a bass weighing 5 pounds even – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $335.
Adams wins co-angler title
Mitchell Adams of Goodletsville’s, Tennessee, won the Co-angler Division and $1,374 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 15 pounds, 9 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers:
1st: Mitchell Adams, Goodletsville, Tenn., five bass, 15-9, $1,374
2nd: Tyler Barnes, Murfreesboro, Tenn., five bass, 15-5, $687
3rd: Sam Loveless, Somerset, Ky., five bass, 12-6, $459
4th: Brian Reed, Cookeville, Tenn., four bass, 11-3, $321
5th: Bryan Brinson, Hendersonville, Tenn., three bass, 8-8, $375
6th: Randall Wiggins, Birmingham, Ala., five bass, 8-1, $302
7th: Todd Knois, Lewisburg, Tenn., three bass, 8-0, $229
8th: James Davis, Springfield, Tenn., three bass, 7-13, $206
9th: Donnie Rubel, Murfreesboro, Tenn., two bass, 7-8, $183
10th: Kelly Stone, Westmoreland, Tenn., two bass, 6-13, $160
Andrew Whitaker of Scottsville, Kentucky, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 4 pounds, 5 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $152.
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. 10-12 BFL Regional Championship on Lake Hartwell in Seneca, South Carolina, presented by Navionics. 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.