GROVE, Okla. (Sept. 11, 2017) – Curt Warren of Rose, Oklahoma, won the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Okie Division tournament on Grand Lake Sunday with a two-day cumulative catch of 10 bass weighing 31 pounds, 15 ounces. For his win, Warren earned $6,534.
“The bite was funny this weekend,” said Warren, who logged his first career-win in BFL competition. “It wasn’t as bad Saturday, but Sunday I missed several bites. I don’t know if it was weather or what, but they were finicky. Thankfully my 7-foot Falcon (Cara T7) rod helped me feel the bites, or else I may have missed more.
“I was mainly junk-fishing – just beating the banks,” continued Warren. “I was on the north end of the lake, not too far from takeoff. I fished docks and shallow wood cover. I probably had 50 different stops. All my fish came from less than 10 feet of water.”
Warren said everything he weighed in came on a ½-ounce Bass-X football-head jig with an unnamed green pumpkin-colored trailer. He said he caught six keepers each day of the event.
“If I pulled up to an area and there weren’t any shad, I usually kept moving,” said Warren. “They were really close to the surface.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Curt Warren, Rose, Okla., 10 bass, 31-15, $6,534
2nd: Paul Smith, Copan, Okla., eight bass, 29-8, $3,467
3rd: Cade Alsbury, Springdale, Ark., 10 bass, 28-11, $2,276
4th: Benjamin King, Garnett, Kan., 10 bass, 26-6, $1,525
5th: Tim Hickson, Cleveland, Okla., 10 bass, 26-4, $1,307
6th: Dylan Duncan, Kansas, Okla., 10 bass, 26-2, $1,198
7th: Sheldon Collings, Grove, Okla., seven bass, 25-13, $1,089
8th: Thomas Canady, Collinsville, Okla., 10 bass, 23-14, $980
9th: Chris Torkleson, Sand Springs, Okla., eight bass, 23-4, $871
10th: Tye Smith, Fort Gibson, Okla., eight bass, 22-5, $762
Mark Teply of Midwest City, Oklahoma, caught a bass weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division. The catch earned him the Boater Big Bass award of $937. Alan Hill of Ada, Oklahoma, caught a two-day total of eight bass weighing 22 pounds, 9 ounces, to win the Co-angler Division and $3,267.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Alan Hill, Ada, Okla., eight bass, 22-9, $3,267
2nd: Patrick Weir, Broken Arrow, Okla., seven bass, 18-15, $1,633
3rd: Keltyn Hendrix, Goldsby, Okla., eight bass, 16-2, $1,091
4th: Jason Buckley, Canute, Okla., six bass, 15-14, $762
5th: Jacob Sloan, Paola, Kan., seven bass, 15-13, $853
6th: Nolan Wright, Blanchard, Okla., six bass, 14-10, $599
7th: Josh Sloan, Paola, Kan., four bass, 14-4, $544
8th: Sam Bremmerkamp, Joplin, Mo., four bass, 14-4, $540
9th: Rick Blosser, Tulsa, Okla., six bass, 14-3, $436
10th: Nathan Colwell, Pryor, Okla., seven bass, 13-12, $381
Tom Verdine of Yukon, Oklahoma, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a fish weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces – and earned the Co-angler Big Bass award of $469.