HENRICO, Va. (Sept. 16, 2019) – At the two-day Bass Fishing League (BFL) Shenandoah Division super-tournament on the James River, boater Bryan Elrod of Mechanicsville, Virginia, brought a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale weighing 29 pounds, 7 ounces, to win Sunday. Elrod earned $3,542 for his efforts.
“I started each morning making the 45-minute run down to Chickahominy Creek, then I’d work my way back up with the low tide,” said Elrod, who earned his fifth career BFL victory – third this season. “I was flipping a green-pumpkin Zoom Brush Hog and throwing a 4- to 6-foot diving crankbait around wood. I probably caught around 7 or 8 keepers each day.”
Elrod said that of the 10 fish that he brought to the scale, five came on the Brush Hog and five came on the unnamed crankbait.
“I was just rotating the baits, throwing them in the same areas,” Elrod said. “I think there were two keys to my victory. One was my Evinrude outboard. I made a long run on both days and it ran efficiently and flawlessly – a huge weight off of your shoulders when we’re on the water. I also think that my local knowledge of the river was key. With the tides, you have to be in the right area at the right time and I knew what I was looking for.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Bryan Elrod, Mechanicsville, Va., 10 bass, 29-7, $3,542
2nd: Wesley Farmer, New Kent, Va., 10 bass, 26-13, $1,821
3rd: Keith Estes, Spring Grove, Va., 10 bass, 26-8, $1,578
4th: Rob Uzzle, Hampton, Va., 10 bass, 25-14, $902
5th: Richard Owen, Chester, Va., 10 bass, 25-2, $648
6th: Brandon Stapleton, Temperanceville, Va., 10 bass, 24-2, $594
7th: Todd Langford, Great Falls, Va., 10 bass, 22-12, $540
8th: Ryan Powroznik, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 11-15
9th: Joe Pautler, Catonsville, Md., five bass, 11-7
10th: Stephen Miller, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 11-7
Uzzle caught a 4-pound, 7-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the event’s Boater Big Bass award of $146. Chester, Virginia’s Davis Deciucis won the Co-angler Division and $1,621 Sunday after catching a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 22 pounds, 15 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: David Deciucis, Chester, Va., 10 bass, 22-15, $1,621
2nd: Jamie Newton, Falls Church, Va., 10 bass, 20-4, $957
3rd: Brandt Thompson, Richmond, Va., nine bass, 17-4, $791
4th: Patrick Lambert, Woodbridge, Va., five bass, 13-13, $478
5th: Danny Crickenberger, Charlottesville, Va., seven bass, 12-7, $324
6th: Gregory Chuhta, Germantown, Md., six bass, 9-13, $297
7th: Anthony Shanz, Selbyville, Del., five bass, 9-6, $320
8th: David Barlow, Disputanta, Va., three bass, 6-11
9th: Dillon Reid, Ashland, Va., two bass, 6-4
10th: Rob Hilliard, Vinton, Va., four bass, 6-3
Newton caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the event’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $146.