HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (April 15, 2019) – Boater Randall Clark of Little Rock, Arkansas, caught a five-bass limit Saturday weighing 15 pounds, 11 ounces, to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Arkie division tournament on Lake Hamilton. Clark earned $3,901 for his efforts.
Clark said that he fished for spawning fish mid-lake, targeting 15 specific bass that he had found during his practice period on Friday and saved for the tournament. He was able to put three of those marks in the boat, including the big bass of the tournament at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. He added a couple of more keepers from the same areas to fill out his limit.
“I tried a bunch of stuff – I had 10 rods on my deck – but I couldn’t get bit on anything other than a Texas-rigged black Yamamoto Senko,” Clark said. “The pollen had really darkened the water up. It had color – almost muddy – but it wasn’t muddy, it was the pollen.
“Really, the key for me winning was catching the big fish,” Clark continued. “You couldn’t see them, but I was blind casting to the areas that I knew that they were in. During my practice on Friday I had shook that fish off, and I knew right where it was. It was my second stop during the tournament and I put her in the boat within five minutes of getting there.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Randall Clark, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 15-11, $3,901
2nd: Lance Pyle, Sherwood, Ark., five bass, 14-3, $1,733
3rd: Garry Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-11, $1,155
4th: Chase Mitchell, Umpire, Ark., five bass, 13-8, $809
5th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $835
5th: Shannon Pierce, Rison, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $1,135
5th: Josh Ray, Alexander, Ark., five bass, 13-2, $835
8th: Ben Blaschke, Roland, Okla., five bass, 12-10, $620
9th: Cody Kemp, Donaldson, Ark., five bass, 12-9, $462
10th: Chris Darby, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 12-8, $404
Clark’s big fish of the day was a 6-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass, which also was the tournament’s biggest bass of the day and also earned him the Boater Big Bass award of $435. Ethan Sutton of Hot Springs, Arkansas, won the Co-angler Division and $1,950 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 13 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Ethan Sutton, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 13-8, $1,950
2nd: Robert Bogard Jr., Conway, Ark., five bass, 11-8, $866
3rd: Andrew Wooley, Little Rock, Ark., five bass, 11-2, $577
4th: Cody McEntire, Walnut Ridge, Ark., five bass, 9-12, $504
4th: Randy Bridges, Quitman, Ark., five bass, 9-8, $347
6th: Jody Jones, Harvey, Ark., five bass, 9-4, $353
7th: John McCullar, Benton, Ark., five bass, 9-4, $303
8th: Matt Russell, Prairie Grove, Ark., four bass, 9-3, $260
9th: Tony Reynolds, Austin, Ark., five bass, 9-1, $231
10th: Stan Cullipher, Malvern, Ark., five bass, 8-12, $202
Sutton also 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 $217.