Lake Sinclair Bass Fishing League May 7, 2018

[Mike Cork]

Boater Kip Carter of Social Circle, Georgia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 2 ounces, Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bulldog Division event on Lake Sinclair. For his efforts, Carter netted $6,126.
"I caught the majority of my fish in the first two hours of the day during the shad spawn," said Carter, who earned his second career win on Lake Sinclair in BFL competition. "I fished mid-lake, targeting grass and seawalls."
Carter said he used three baits – a buzzbait, a Nasty Shad-colored Spro Dean Rojas 65 Bronzeye Frog and a custom chartreuse and white-colored spinnerbait with gold double-willow leaf blades and a white Zoom Split Tail trailer.
"The spinnerbait caught more in terms of the number of fish, but the topwaters got the bigger ones," said Carter.
With around 15 pounds of fish in his livewell, Carter left the shad spawn and flipped docks for the remainder of his day with a Junebug-colored Zoom Trick Worm on a shaky-head rig.
"I stayed mid-lake and got a couple key bites that ended up anchoring my bag for the win," said Carter.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
               1st:          Kip Carter, Social Circle, Ga., five bass, 18-2, $4,126 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus
               2nd:         Dylan Peppers, Good Hope, Ga., five bass, 15-13, $1,963
               3rd:          Mark Svendsen, Doraville, Ga., five bass, 14-2, $1,939
               4th:          Steve Phillips, Douglas, Ga., five bass, 12-12, $916
               5th:          John McKinney, Palatka, Fla., five bass, 12-6, $785
               6th:          Terry Adams, Mansfield, Ga., five bass, 11-7, $720
               7th:          Tony Couch, Buckhead, Ga., five bass, 11-5, $654
               8th:          David Milsaps, Ranger, Ga., five bass, 11-3, $856
               8th:          Pat Fisher, Colbert, Ga., five bass, 11-3, $556
               10th:        John Bitter, Maitland, Fla., five bass, 10-4, $458
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Svendsen brought a 5-pound, 12-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day's Boater Big Bass award of $530.
Justin Kimmel of Athens, Georgia, won the Co-angler Division and $2,228 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 11 pounds, 2 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
               1st:          Justin Kimmel, Athens, Ga., five bass, 11-2, $2,228
               2nd:         Mike Thornton, Jonesboro, Ga., four bass, 8-11, $1,081
               3rd:          Matthew O'Connell, Brooks, Ga., five bass, 8-3, $705
               4th:          Brandon Padilla, Roswell, Ga., five bass, 8-0, $458
               5th:          Zachary Padilla, Roswell, Ga., three bass, 7-10, $393
               6th:          Daniel Bentley, Fayetteville, Ga., five bass, 7-9, $360
               7th:          Ariel Laria, Flowery Branch, Ga., four bass, 7-5, $294
               7th:          Ron Lee, Cumming, Ga., four bass, 7-5, $294
               7th:          Carlos Guzman, Fayetteville, Ga., four bass, 7-5, $294
               10th:        Christopher Wilder, Macon, Ga., four bass, 7-3, $229
Kimmel also caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 5 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the day's Co-angler Big Bass award of $265.
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. 11-13 BFL Regional Championship on St. Johns River in Palatka, Florida. 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.