“I caught a big one sight-fishing around 9 [a.m.]. It was my second keeper of the day and ended up being the biggest [in the boater division],” said Stracner, who earned his fourth win in BFL competition – second on Lake Eufaula. “I also caught one more shallow on the same stretch of grass.”
Stracner said he used a Texas-rigged, green-pumpkin Yamamoto Senko for his shallow fish. The rest of his limit was caught with a Sexy Shad-colored Strike King 6XD crankbait, on an offshore hump near the mouth of Barbour Creek.
“The other three bass in my limit were prespawn,” Stracner said. “They came in 16 feet of water and were within sight of where I caught the grass fish.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Josh Stracner, Vandiver, Ala., five bass, 22-9, $5,302
2nd: Andrew Norris, Columbus, Ga., five bass, 22-4, $1,996
3rd: Greg Rikard, Leesville, S.C., five bass, 18-8, $1,451
4th: Mark Stewart, Ashville, Ala., five bass, 18-6, $838
5th: Coby Carden, Shelby, Ala., five bass, 18-4, $718
6th: Jeff Kitchens, Auburn, Ala., five bass, 16-13, $659
7th: Tim Ferguson, Pelham, Ala., five bass, 16-3, $599
8th: Jason Nixon, Wetumpka, Ala., five bass, 15-9, $539
9th: Terry Fisher, Jacksonville, Fla., five bass, 15-8, $479
10th: David Parsons, Dothan, Ala., five bass, 15-7, $419
Stracner’s big sight-fish was a 7-pound, 8-ouncer – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $460. Justin Smith of Deatsville, Alabama, won the Co-angler Division and $1,953 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 12 pounds, 13 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Justin Smith, Deatsville, Ala., five bass, 12-13, $1,953
2nd: John Hatfield, Panama City, Fla., five bass, 11-7, $926
3rd: Jeff Buswell, Fayetteville, Ga., five bass, 11-0, $585
4th: Vernon Miller, Manchester, Ga., five bass, 10-7, $409
5th: Mark Whitten, Scottsboro, Ala., five bass, 10-2, $336
5th: Timothy Hackett, Wetumpka, Ala., five bass, 10-2, $336
7th: Dakota Gaskin, Carrollton, Ga., five bass, 10-1, $292
8th: Michael Corbett, Oxford, Ala., three bass, 9-1, $523
9th: Lew Moore, Roanoke, Ala., five bass, 8-13, $234
10th: Nikki Jo Hatten, Pace, Fla., three bass, 8-12, $204
Corbett caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $110.