DANDRIDGE, Tenn. (May 13, 2024) – Boater Jonathan Dagley of Wartburg, Tennessee, caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 9 ounces, Saturday to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Douglas Lake. The tournament was the third event of the season for the BFL Volunteer Division. Dagley earned $4,037 for his victory. For Dagley, high water was a big factor in the win, but it took a clue from his co-angler, Darren Kelly, and an audible midway through the morning to unlock the go-to pattern.
“I got on a really good crankbait bite on Thursday, and I tried to force-feed it for an hour and a half today (Saturday),” Dagley said. “Nothing happened. I pulled up in this shallow pocket, and my co-angler caught a fish on a ChatterBait. Then I picked up a spinnerbait and threw it for a little while. He caught another fish on a ChatterBait. Then I dropped everything and started running shallow brush in the first third of cuts.”
Dagley put down the crankbait, picked up the ChatterBait and spent the rest of the day slow-rolling it around flooded brush and yards. He burned through water in an area about 6 miles from takeoff, never fishing the same cut twice. In addition to Dagley earning the win, Kelly finished fourth among co-anglers, and they caught about 35 keepers between them.
All of Dagley’s bass came on a 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer fished on a 7-foot, 3-inch rod from Dixie Custom Rods. Dagley’s limit included one nice smallmouth. The rest were largemouth bass, and all were postspawn.
“We had the trolling motor on 9 for almost nine straight hours – eight and a half hours, basically,” Dagley said. “We fished behind a lot of boaters that were flipping. Everybody was flipping, and we just kept that ChatterBait in our hand. I wanted to throw a spinnerbait, but they would not eat it like they would the ChatterBait.
“It was the funnest way to catch them,” he added. “That’s the way I love fishing. I was really disappointed in the crankbait, but the ChatterBait made my day.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Jonathan Dagley, Wartburg, Tenn., five bass, 12-9, $4,037
2nd: Derrick Snavely, Piney Flats, Tenn., five bass, 11-12, $2,019
3rd: Donavan Carson, Bluff City, Tenn., five bass, 11-5, $1,143
3rd: Hayden Gaddis, Dandridge, Tenn., five bass, 11-5, $1,143
5th: Steven Redmond, Sevierville, N.C., five bass, 11-4, $807
6th: Chip Chambers, Elizabethton, Tenn., five bass, 11-3, $706
6th: Tyler Altizer, Abingdon, Va., five bass, 11-3, $706
8th: Timothy Wacker, Clinton, Tenn., five bass, 11-1, $606
9th: Tim Saylor, Johnson City, Tenn., five bass, 10-15, $504
9th: Ronnie Getz, Strunk, Ky., five bass, 10-15, $504
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Jordan Mullins of Pikeville, Kentucky, caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 3 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $545. Luke Shrader of Monticello, Kentucky, won the co-angler division and $2,285 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 5 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Luke Shrader, Monticello, Ky., five bass, 12-5, $2,285
2nd: Josh Massengale, Oliver Springs, Tenn., five bass, 11-6, $1,000
3rd: Cody Krabbe, Palisade, Colo., five bass, 10-2, $666
4th: Darren Kelly, Wartburg, Tenn., five bass, 9-7, $567
5th: Keith Gunsauls, Dandridge, Tenn., five bass, 9-0, $400
6th: Billy Farck, Harriman, Tenn., five bass, 8-11, $367
7th: Tim Martin, Jonesborough, Tenn., five bass, 8-10, $333
8th: Cody Stokes, Ooltewah, Tenn., five bass, 8-9, $300
9th: T.J. Blakely, Kingsport, Tenn., five bass, 8-7, $267
10th: Bud McKelvey, Knoxville, Tenn., four bass, 8-3, $233
Shrader tied Tyler Andrew of Maryville, Tennessee, for the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award, with each of them catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day. They each earned $135 for their share of the award.
https://dev.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-douglas-51324.html
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