New Albany’s Hensley Wins T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League Hoosier Division Event on Ohio River

Kentucky’s Napier Takes Co-angler Title
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August 28, 2017 • FLW Communications • Archives

CANNELTON, Ind. – Todd Hensley of New Albany, Indiana, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Hoosier Division tournament on the Ohio River Saturday after catching five bass weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces. For his efforts, Hensley pocketed $3,842.

Hensley said he spent the event flipping stumps along a 200- to 300-yard stretch in the back of a creek on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River.

“The corps (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) had the water level low Saturday morning, so there were a lot of visible stumps,” said Hensley, who notched his third career-victory in BFL competition. “They were 2 feet down and right off of the bank. The key was the shady areas. The fish were relating to stumps that were under bushes, trees or some grass.”

Hensley said he used two lures to catch his fish – a 7-inch Blue Fleck-colored Berkley Power Worm, and a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw of the same color.

“I had 10 bites all day long, but I lost five of them,” said Hensley. “The five that I did get in the boat were the five that I weighed in.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1st:          Todd Hensley, New Albany, Ind., five bass, 7-4, $3,842

               2nd:         Jimmy Shepherd, Indianapolis, Ind., three bass, 6-9, $2,431        

               3rd:          David Spivey, Hamilton, Ohio, five bass, 6-5, $1,582

               4th:          Travis Spivey, Trenton, Ohio, five bass, 6-4, $896

               5th:          Brian Funkhouser, Bloomington, Ind., five bass, 5-15, $768

               6th:          Dick Shaffer, Rockford, Ohio, five bass, 5-14, $704

               7th:          Mark Dove, North Vernon, Ind., three bass, 5-11, $640

               8th:          Chris Wilkinson, Farmersburg, Ind., five bass, 5-7, $576

               9th:          Larry Sisk, Evansville, Ind., three bass, 4-14, $512

               10th:        Jim Pickett, Trafalgar, Ind., three bass, 4-10, $425

               10th:        Mark Heidt, Versailles, Ind., three bass, 4-10, $425

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.  

Shepherd caught a 4-pound, 10-ounce bass – the heaviest of the tournament in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $510.

Kevin Napier of Lewisport, Kentucky, caught three bass weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces, to win the Co-angler Division and $1,921.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1st:          Kevin Napier, Lewisport, Ky., three bass, 4-4, $1,921

               2nd:         Travis Edgar, North Webster, Ind., four bass, 4-1, $960

               3rd:          Tyler Buell, Lafayette, Ind., one bass, 3-9, $799

               3rd:          Bo Bivins, Evansville, Ind., three bass, 3-9, $544

               5th:          Jeremy Caudill, Nineveh, Ind., two bass, 3-8, $384

               6th:          Jason Thornton, Corydon, Ind., two bass, 3-3, $352

               7th:          Griffin Fernandes, McCordsville, Ind., two bass, 2-11, $320

               8th:          Dan Schlegel, Cincinnati, Ohio, one bass, 2-10, $288

               9th:          Bobby Revalee, Connersville, Ind., two bass, 2-7, $227

               9th:          Matt Knox, Metamora, Ill., two bass, 2-7, $227

               9th:          Larry Kitchel, Logansport, Ind., one bass, 2-7, $227

Buell caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a fish weighing 3 pounds, 9 ounces – and earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $255.

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. 5-7 BFL Regional Championship on Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. 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.

The 2017 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they 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 BFL All-American. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the 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/FLWFishing.

About FLW

FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2017 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 258 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube and Snapchat.

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