Indiana’s Hackemack Wins T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League LBL Division Opener on Kentucky/Barkley Lakes

Tennessee’s Henry Wins Co-angler Title

GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – Boater Kane Hackemack of Georgetown, Indiana, caught a five-bass limit Saturday weighing 29 pounds, 8 ounces, to take top honors at the 2018 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division opener on Kentucky and Barkley lakes. Hackemack earned $4,915 for his win.

Hackemack said he focused on deep points with current breaks, and caught his first two keepers within 20 minutes at his first area, on the north end of Kentucky Lake.

“The current breaks had a lot of shad and bass were feeding on them,” said Hackemack, who notched his first career win in FLW competition. “I hooked my first two on a ¾-ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad and stuck with the lure the rest of the day.”

Hackemack said he caught nine keepers from the area, averaging one every 20 to 30 minutes. He said his last good fish – a 7½-pounder – came at 11:30 a.m. From there, he said the bite slowed down.

“I’ve caught many 20- to 25-pound limits on Kentucky Lake, but to get almost 30 is awesome,” said Hackemack. “It truly is one of the best fisheries in the country.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1st:          Kane Hackemack, Georgetown, Ind., five bass, 29-8, $4,915

               2nd:         Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, five bass, 27-1, $3,408

               3rd:          Rick Shannon, Woodlawn, Tenn., five bass, 18-3, $1,640

               4th:          Matt Robertson, Kuttawa, Ky., three bass, 16-3, $1,147

               5th:          Tommy Williams, Shepherdsville, Ky., five bass, 16-12, $983

               6th:          Stuart Eversole, Middletown, Ohio, five bass, 16-1, $901

               7th:          Drew Boggs, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 15-11, $819

               8th:          Austin Brown, Benton, Ky., four bass, 15-9, $837

               9th:          Ray Barga, Benton, Ky., four bass, 14-14, $955

               10th:        Chris Beaudrie, Princeton, Ky., four bass, 14-7, $573

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Floyd weighed a 9-pound, 9-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $750.

Greg Henry of Hixson, Tennessee, won the Co-angler Division and $2,458 Saturday after catching three bass weighing 12 pounds, 8 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1st:          Greg Henry, Hixson, Tenn., three bass, 12-8, $2,458

               2nd:         Ryan Kirkpatrick, Benton, Ky., three bass, 12-4, $1,329

               3rd:          Roger Kirby, Owensboro, Ky., three bass, 10-7, $817

               4th:          John Lovin, Fayetteville, Ohio, two bass, 10-5, $573

               5th:          Craig Middleton, Harrodsburg, Ky., two bass, 9-10, $492

               6th:          Chuck Rounds, Benton, Ky., two bass, 9-6, $826

               7th:          Kevin Webb, Clayton, Ohio, two bass, 8-15, $410

               8th:          Claude Cobb, Lexington, Ky., two bass, 8-13, $369

               9th:          Roger Richardson, Saint Louis, Mo., three bass, 8-12, $328

               10th:        Luke Lamb, Nicholasville, Ky., two bass, 8-8, $287

Rounds caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $375.

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division event on Kentucky and Barkley lakes was hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau.

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.

The 2018 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. The 2018 BFL All-American will be held May 31-June 2 at Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

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 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. 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 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

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