GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (April 8, 2024) – Boater Drew Morgan of Noblesville, Indiana, caught a five-bass limit weighing 22 pounds, 9 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. The tournament was the second event of the season for the BFL LBL Division. Morgan earned $4,541 for his victory. Morgan is a collegiate angler at Murray State University. On Friday, he competed in the Abu Garcia College Fishing presented by YETI event at Table Rock Lake, then blitzed back home Friday night to get into the BFL event on Kentucky Lake the next morning.
The engineering major is also a local hammer around Kentucky Lake. Morgan won a major springtime tournament on the lake a week prior with 27 pounds and change. While weights were a bit lower in the BFL, Morgan was able to lock up the win and move to fourth place in the LBL Division standings.
“I was catching them on swimbaits in 8 to 14 feet of water,” he said. “(I was) really just seeing them on (Garmin) LiveScope. I’d try to cover a lot of water because half of them wouldn’t eat.”
Morgan said he caught about 40 fish for the day, fishing areas from Paris, Tennessee, clear to Kentucky Dam. All five fish in his limit were smallmouth bass. Though there was no real pattern to the specific areas he targeted, Morgan said most of the more productive spots were near areas where the fish will eventually spawn. His biggest key was just covering as much water as possible.
“A lot of fish I’d see roaming, but there’s a lot of bait in the lake, too,” he said. “I caught a couple fish around bait.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Drew Morgan, Noblesville, Ind., five bass, 22-9, $4,541
2nd: Levi Kohl, Edinburg, Ill., five bass, 22-8, $2,270
3rd: Jordan Hartman, Benton, Ky., five bass, 22-0, $1,514
4th: Clint Knight, Lewisburg, Ky., five bass, 21-13, $1,060
5th: Clayton Ellis, Saltillo, Miss., five bass, 21-2, $908
6th: Connor DeWeese, Evansville, Ind., five bass, 20-12, $833
7th: Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., five bass, 19-9, $1,379
7th: BJ Fitzgerald, Whitesville, Ky., five bass, 19-9, $719
9th: Marty Sisk, Evansville, Ind., five bass, 19-8, $605
10th: Harbor Lovin, New Concord, Ky., five bass, 19-0, $530
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Matteo Turano of Puryear, Tennessee, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 15 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $660. Douglas Salzman of Newburgh, Indiana, won the co-angler division and $2,236 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 16 pounds, 7 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Douglas Salzman, Newburgh, Ind., five bass, 16-7, $2,236
2nd: Joshua Smith, Benton, Ky., five bass, 16-6, $1,118
3rd: Daniel Effinger, Springville, Tenn., five bass, 14-13, $745
4th: Patrick Thomas, Clarksville, Tenn., five bass, 14-7, $522
5th: John Lovin, Fayetteville, Ohio, five bass, 13-5, $447
6th: Dave Maxfield, Gilbertsville, Ky., five bass, 12-8, $410
7th: Chris Medlin, Dumas, Miss., five bass, 12-6, $373
8th: Dustin Miller, Sparland, Ill., five bass, 11-15, $335
9th: Barry Gunter, Trafalger, Ind., four bass, 11-9, $298
10th: Ed Daniell, West Frankfort, Ill., four bass, 11-5, $411
Mark Manley of Bowling Green, Kentucky, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $325, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 5 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After two events, Clint Knight of Lewisburg, Kentucky, leads the Fishing Clash LBL Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 490 points, while John Lovin of Fayetteville, Ohio, leads the Fishing Clash LBL Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 485 points.
https://dev.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-kentucky-barkley-4824.html
Bass Fishing League (BFL) News