Clark fished for spawning fish mid-lake, targeting 15 specific bass that he had found during his practice period on Friday and saved for the tournament. He was able to put three of those fish in the boat, including the big bass of the tournament at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. He added a couple of more keepers from the same areas to fill out his limit.

“I tried a bunch of stuff – I had 10 rods on my deck – but I couldn’t get bit on anything other than a Texas-rigged black Yamamoto Senko,” Clark says. “The pollen had really darkened the water up. It had color – almost muddy – but it wasn’t muddy, it was the pollen.

“Really, the key for me winning was catching the big fish,” Clark continues. “You couldn’t see them, but I was blind casting to the areas that I knew that they were in. During my practice on Friday I had shook that fish off, and I knew right where it was. It was my second stop during the tournament and I put her in the boat within five minutes of getting there.”

The top 10 boaters:

1st: Randall Clark, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 15-11, $3,901

2nd: Lance Pyle, Sherwood, Ark., five bass, 14-3, $1,733

3rd: Garry Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-11, $1,155

4th: Chase Mitchell, Umpire, Ark., five bass, 13-8, $809

5th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $835

5th: Shannon Pierce, Rison, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $1,135

5th: Josh Ray, Alexander, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $835

8th: Ben Blaschke, Roland, Okla., five bass, 12-10, $620

9th: Cody Kemp, Donaldson, Ark., five bass, 12-9, $462

10th: Chris Darby, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 12-8, $404

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Clark’s big fish of the day was a 6-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass, which also was the tournament’s biggest bass of the day and also earned him the Boater Big Bass award of $435.

Co-angler Ethan Sutton

Sutton wins co-angler title

Ethan Sutton of Hot Springs, Arkansas, won the Co-angler Division and $1,950 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 13 pounds, 8 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers:

1st: Ethan Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-8, $1,950

2nd: Robert Bogard Jr., Conway, Ark., five bass, 11-8, $866

3rd: Andrew Wooley, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 11-2, $577

4th: Cody McEntire, Walnut Ridge, Ark., five bass, 9-12, $504

4th: Randy Bridges, Quitman, Ark., five bass, 9-8, $347

6th: Jody Jones, Harvey, Ark., five bass, 9-4, $353

7th: John McCullar, Benton, Ark., five bass, 9-4, $303

8th: Matt Russell, Prairie Grove, Ark., four bass, 9-3, $260

9th: Tony Reynolds, Austin, Ark., five bass, 9-1, $231

10th: Stan Cullipher, Malvern, Ark., five bass, 8-12, $202

Sutton also caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $217.

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. 24-26 BFL Regional Championship on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. 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.