COLUMBUS, Miss. - Boater Gene Brown of West Point earned $3,770 Saturday as winner of the Bass Fishing League Mississippi Division bass fishing tournament on the Columbus Pool. The tournament was the second of five regular-season Mississippi Division events and featured 136 boaters vying for the win, which earned Brown 200 points in the Boater Division.
Brown's winning catch of five bass weighed 24 pounds, 5 ounces and bested the field by more than 7 pounds. He caught his tournament-winning bass on a Hoot Gibson Frog. He earned another $680 as the Boater Division big-bass award winner thanks to an 8-pound, 6-ounce bass, and he earned a $1,000 bonus from Ranger Boats as the highest-finishing participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program. He earned another $1,000 from Garmin for using only Garmin electronics during the event, and Bombardier awarded him $1,000 for using an Evinrude Direct Injection outboard for a total cash award of $7,450.
Finishing second was Danny Walden of Columbus with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 4 ounces that earned him $1,885. Tied for third were Shan Schoenrock of Carrollton, Ala., and Yancy Windham of Gordo, Ala. Both anglers caught five bass weighing 15 pounds, 4 ounces that earned each of them $1,131. Jason Frederick of Booneville finished fifth with five bass that weighed 14 pounds, 13 ounces worth $829.
Michael Marlin of Southaven bested 135 Co-angler Division competitors to earn $1,871 as the co-angler winner, thanks to five bass weighing 14 pounds that he caught on a spinnerbait. This is Marlin's second win of the 2004 season, as he took home the co-angler crown at the Mississippi Division season opener on Pickwick Lake in February. Marlin has only competed in two BFL events in his career and has won both of them.
Dustin Gordon of Horn Lake finished second with five bass weighing 13 pounds, 11 ounces that earned him $935. Tied for third were Travis Kegans of Saltillo and Jerome Gilder of Columbus Air Force Base with five bass each that weighed 11 pounds, 15 ounces that earned them both $561. Finishing fifth was Jimmy Tisdale of Ellisville with five bass weighing 11 pounds, 4 ounces worth $412.
Marlin earned $338 as the co-angler big-bass award winner with a 6-pound, 10-ounce bass.
The Mississippi Division's next event will be held May 22 on Pickwick Lake near Pickwick Dam, Tenn., followed by an event on Lake Ferguson in Greenville Aug. 7. The Mississippi Division will wrap up its regular season Sept. 18-19 with a two-day Super Tournament on Ross Barnett near Ridgeland.