Walmart BFL Tournament Preview
Arkie, Choo Choo, Gator, LBL, Shenandoah and South Carolina division Super Tournaments slated for Sept. 20-21
The 2014 Walmart BFL season continues with six two-day Super Tournaments on Sept. 20-21. The Arkie Division will fish on Lake Ouachita, the Choo Choo Division will compete on Lake Guntersville, the Gator Division will take on Lake Okeechobee, the LBL Division is headed to Kentucky Lake, the Shenandoah Division is set for Smith Mountain Lake and the South Carolina Division will meet at Lake Wylie. Up to 400 boaters and co-anglers will be competing in each event for top awards up to $11,000 and $4,500.
When: Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 20-21
Arkie Division
Lake Ouachita
Mountain Harbor Marina
34 Marina Drive
Mount Ida, Ark.
Hosted by Visit Hot Springs
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Lake Ouachita is expected to be good. Most of the bass will still be in typical summertime patterns. Anglers will likely concentrate their effort offshore for schools of deeper bass or right on the bank for roaming fish. Topwater baits could play both shallow and deep, and worms, jigs, drop-shot rigs, spoons, spinbaits and crankbaits could all be effective offshore. The winner is expected to bring in about 25 pounds over the course of this two-day event.
Choo Choo Division
Lake Guntersville
The Bait, Tackle & Grill at Goose Pond
417 Ed Hembree Drive
Scottsboro, Ala.
Hosted by the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Lake Guntersville is expected to be excellent. The grass that Guntersville is famous for is likely to dominate the event, although some bass could be caught on offshore structure. For the grass and mats, throwing topwater frogs and flipping heavy jigs and soft plastics are likely to be the main choices. Offshore, anglers could find success with spinbaits, swimbaits, jigs and crankbaits. The winner of this two-day event is expected to bring about 47 pounds of bass to the scale.
Gator Division
Lake Okeechobee
Roland & Mary Ann Martin’s Marina
920 E. Del Monte Ave.
Clewiston, Fla.
Hosted by Roland & Mary Ann Martin’s Marina & Resort
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Lake Okeechobee is expected to be very good. As is usual for Okeechobee, the fishing is likely to center around some kind of grass – reeds, hydrilla or something else. Though fish could be caught with moving baits, flipping big jigs and big Texas-rigged soft plastics figures to be the dominant pattern. The winner is expected to catch about 45 pounds of bass over the course of the two-day event.
LBL Division
Kentucky Lake
Moors Resort & Marina
570 Moors Road
Gilbertsville, Ky.
Hosted by the Marshal County Tourist Commission
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Kentucky Lake is expected to be good. The fish will likely be scattered between their summer and fall patterns which should give the competitors many different options. Shallow ledges with cover, shoreline cover, brush piles, roving schools of bait and offshore ledges all figure to hold bass. Topwater baits, crankbaits, jigs, drop-shot rigs, soft plastic worms and spinnerbaits will be popular choices. It is likely to take about 41 pounds of bass to win this two-day event.
Shenandoah Division
Smith Mountain Lake
Parkway Marina
16918 Smith Mountain Lake Parkway
Huddleston, Va.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
NOTES: The bass fishing at Smith Mountain Lake is expected to be good. Most of the bass will be in the summer to fall transition and they could be caught a variety of ways. Most of the field will be targeting docks, brush piles, stumps, grass or looking for roaming bass along the bank or following bait. Lipless crankbaits, drop-shot rigs, jigs, swimbaits, topwater baits and shaky-head rigs will all be productive baits. The winner is expected to bring about 34 pounds of bass to the scale over the course of this two-day event.
South Carolina Division
Lake Wylie
Buster Boyd’s Landing
3990 Charlotte Highway
Lake Wylie, S.C.
Hosted by the Rock Hill and York County C.V.B.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Lake Wylie is expected to be good. With cooling weather, fish figure to be moving between their summer and fall patterns. As a result, competitors are likely to be fishing many different ways. They could fish shoreline cover or docks, target bass around bluegill or fish deeper around offshore structure or brush piles. Crankbaits, topwater baits, jigs, drop-shot rigs, soft plastic worms, spoons and swimbaits could all be productive baits. The winning weight is expected to be a two-day total about 29 pounds.
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 40 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and 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 Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the BFL on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWOutdoors.
About FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2014 over the course of 229 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit FLWOutdoors.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.