Grand Lake Bass Fishing League 6 May 17

[Mike Cork]

COVINGTON'S MANSON WINS T-H MARINE FLW BASS FISHING LEAGUE BUCKEYE DIVISION OPENER PRESENTED BY NAVIONICS ON GRAND LAKE
Kettering's Crider Grabs Co-angler Title
CELINA, Ohio (May 8, 2017) – Scott Manson of Covington, Ohio, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Buckeye Division opener presented by Navionics on Grand Lake Saturday after weighing five bass totaling 12 pounds, 9 ounces. Manson pocketed $4,472 for his win.

"I started in the back of a mid-lake creek," said Manson, who earned his second career-win on BFL competition. "The front of it was muddy, so I made my way back about a half-mile to some halfway-decent water. I threw to rocky banks while my boat sat in 5 to 6 feet of water and caught three keepers on a jig."
Manson said he used a D&L Tackle Advantage Jig with a Zoom Super Chunk Jr. to catch his fish.
"I worked it back out into a couple of feet of water where the original shoreline was," said Manson. "The water was high and there was some river weed in it, and that's where they were biting. They were back there to spawn, but were waiting for the water to warm up."
Manson said spent the remainder of his day running the entire length of the lake looking for the same type of rock banks.
"I only caught six keepers all day," said Manson. "The other channels I went into had to have halfway-clean water. That was the main factor."
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
               1st:          Scott Manson, Covington, Ohio, five bass, 12-9, $4,472
               2nd:         Jay Jeffries, Celina, Ohio, four bass, 8-8, $2,236
               3rd:          Ken Garbe, Wyoming, Ohio, four bass, 8-6, $1,492
               4th:          Dave Fricke, Hamilton, Ohio, three bass, 6-13, $968
               4th:          Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, three bass, 6-13, $968
               6th:          Jeremy Tenwalde, Fort Jennings, Ohio, three bass, 6-6, $820
               7th:          Edward Backs, Troy, Ohio, three bass, 6-5, $745
               8th:          Ronald Nutter, Saint Louisville, Ohio, three bass, 6-0, $871
               9th:          Brandon Houston, Burlington, Ky., two bass,    5-6, $596
               10th:        Tom Uber, Columbus, Ohio, two bass, 5-0, $522
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com. 
Douglas Lyon of Cincinnati, Ohio, caught a bass weighing 4 pounds, 11 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day's Boater Big Bass award of $650.
Billy Crider Jr. of Kettering, Ohio, won the Co-angler Division and $2,236 Saturday after bringing four bass totaling 9 pounds even to the scale.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
               1st:          Billy Crider Jr., Kettering, Ohio, four bass, 9-0, $2,236
               2nd:         Ron Weisenburger, Continental, Ohio, two bass, 4-0, $1,118
               3rd:          Roy Lester, Hamilton, Ohio, one bass, 3-9, $1,070
               4th:          Steve Sorrell, Beavercreek, Ohio, one bass, 3-7, $522
               5th:          J.R. Selke, Waynesville, Ohio, one bass, 3-6, $447
               6th:          Remington Throckmorton, Otway, Ohio, one bass, 3-0, $410
               7th:          John Long, New Bremen, Ohio, one bass, 2-14, $354
               7th:          Eric Kramer, Celina, Ohio, two bass, 2-14, $354
               9th:          Andrew Gilliland, McArthur, Ohio, two bass, 2-12, $398
               10th:        Dennis Hughes, Bethel, Ohio, two bass, 2-11, $261
Lester's 3-pound, 9-ounce bass was the largest caught among Co-angler Division anglers. The catch earned him the day's Co-angler Big Bass award of $325.
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. 12-14 BFL Regional Championship on the Barren River in Scottsville, 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.