DAYTON, Tenn. (Oct. 29, 2018) – Boater Gil Summerlin of Guntersville, Alabama, caught a three-day cumulative total of 15 bass weighing 47 pounds, 3 ounces, to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Regional championship tournament on Lake Chickamauga. Summerlin earned $65,000 for his efforts, including a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and automatic entry into the 2019 BFL All-American Championship.
Summerlin said he spent the event in a bay on the lower end of the lake near the Chester Frost Park area, focusing on six waypoints he had marked.
“My first keeper ended up being my biggest of the event,” said Summerlin, who earned his third career win in FLW competition. “It came on a (Sparrow-colored) Bobby’s Perfect Snag Proof Frog out of peppergrass. The frog bite died off for me when the conditions changed, but I saw some schooling-fish so I started throwing a topwater. I ended up catching the majority of my keepers on it Thursday – a (Shad White-colored) Mean Mouth Walker hardbait.
“I started out with the topwater again Friday morning, but they weren’t coming up and eating shad,” Summerlin continued. “I knew they were there holding in the little indentions in the grass line, but they weren’t showing themselves. I tried a lot of different baits before they finally ate a fluke, so I stuck with it.”
Summerlin said the bass preferred a Texas-rigged Glimmer Blue-colored Zoom Super Fluke Jr. on a 5/0-sized Lazer Trokar Wide Gap EWG Worm Hook.
“We had the same conditions Saturday as we did on Friday, so I used the fluke again and caught five keepers,” said Summerlin. “On my second-to-last cast, right before I had return to the ramp, I lost a four-plus-pounder. She didn’t really get hooked – just clamped down and then opened her mouth and the fluke came out. I thought that fish cost me the tournament.”
The top six boaters that qualified for the 2019 BFL All-American were:
1st: Gil Summerlin, Guntersville, Ala., 15 bass, 47-3, $65,000
2nd: Matt Stanley, Alexandria, Tenn., 14 bass, 45-15, $10,200
3rd: Brennon McCord, West Frankfort, Ill., 15 bass, 42-14, $5,000
4th: Cody Santel, Benton, Ky., 15 bass, 40-0, $3,000
5th: Tommy Williams, Shepherdsville, Ky., 15 bass, 38-6, $2,000
6th: Seth Davis, Harrison, Tenn., 15 bass, 37-5, $1,900
Rounding out the top-10 boaters were:
7th: Greg Lamb, Harrison, Tenn., 14 bass, 37-1, $1,600
8th: Casey O'Donnell, Guntersville, Ala., 15 bass, 35-11, $1,400
9th: Sam Morgan, Coalmont, Tenn., 15 bass, 34-13, $1,200
10th: Michael Black, Toledo, Ill., 11 bass, 32-0, $1,000
Lake Blasingame of Killen, Alabama, won the Co-angler Division and a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard with a three-day cumulative catch of 10 bass weighing 26 pounds, 12 ounces.
The top six co-anglers that qualified for the 2019 BFL All-American were:
1st: Lake Blasingame, Killen, Ala., 10 bass, 26-12, $45,200
2nd: Mitch Murphy, Metropolis, Ill., eight bass, 24-7, $5,050
3rd: Todd Blakeman, Chatham, Ill., 11 bass, 24-3, $2,500
4th: Wayne Kilgore, Attalla, Ala., seven bass, 21-14, $1,500
5th: Terry Smith, Tullahoma, Tenn., nine bass, 20-15, $1,000
6th: Gary Megson, Dayton, Ohio, eight bass, 20-9, $900
Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers were:
7th: Harry Peyton, Decatur, Ala., nine bass, 20-9, $800
8th: Chase Maddox, Crane Hill, Ala., eight bass, 18-6, $700
9th: Billy Gardner, Livingston, Tenn., eight bass, 16-0, $600
10th: Amanda Black, Greenup, Ill., seven bass, 15-14, $500