GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (Sept. 16, 2019) – At the Bass Fishing League (BFL) LBL Division super-tournament on Kentucky and Barkley lakes, boater Billy Schroeder of Paducah, Kentucky, brought a two-day total of seven bass to the scale Sunday weighing 22 pounds, 12 ounces, to win. Schroeder earned $6,122 for his efforts. Fishing in his 200th tournament with FLW, Schroeder said he primarily fished brush piles with a 9/16-ounce green-pumpkin jig with a Zoom Salty Pro Chunk.
“It was sheer knowledge of the lake that allowed me to win,” said Schroeder, who earned his sixth career victory. “I started out on Saturday trying to get something established, so it took me a couple of hours to figure it out. I tried topwater around some stumps and rock. For some reason these fish aren’t on stumps right now, I guess the water hasn’t cooled down enough. They’ll get on stumps in the next two or three weeks, but I never had a single bite on stumps. Once I started fishing those brush piles I started getting bites. I probably fished 20 on Saturday and 30 or 40 on Sunday, and I still had more I could have fished.”
Plagued by lost fish on Saturday, Schroeder turned it around in a big way on Sunday. Starting off with a fish on a bone-colored Evergreen Shower Blow topwater bait, he turned to the brush piles the rest of the day.
“It’s old-school fishing. It’s the way I like to fish, and it’s the way I’ve been fishing all my life,” said Schroeder. “Once I got in the meat of the brush pile I kept my jig in them as long as I could, and if I didn’t get bit I went on to the next one.
“At 10:20 on Sunday I had two fish and I made a decision to go south of Paris,” Schroeder said. “As I was running I came by some buoys and saw the current was pulling pretty hard. So, as I ran toward Paris I actually changed my location and started fishing some brush piles out in the lake, and I was glad I did, because I caught two on the first one I stopped on and two on the next one.”
Schroeder said he never fished south of Kenlake on Saturday, and primarily fished brush piles in the bays on the first day. Though he fished deeper piles on both days, Schroeder said that brush in about 12 feet was the best.
“It’s been a while since I won one,” said Schroeder of his win. “I think it’s time on the water that’s killing me, because my fishing on Saturday was really, really rusty. If I’d have been fishing four days a week like when I was winning a lot I might have done even better.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Billy Schroeder, Paducah, Ky., seven bass, 22-12, $6,122
2nd: Daniel Johnson, Lebanon, Tenn., eight bass, 21-0, $2,511
3rd: Tommy Williams, Shepherdsville, Ky. nine bass, 19-11, $1,374
4th: Larry Bailey, Paducah, Ky., seven bass, 19-7, $1,112
5th: Harry Barber, Earlington, Ky., six bass, 18-1, $824
6th: Daniel Langton, Haubstadt, Ind., six bass, 17-1, $756
7th: Eric Sanders, Lexington, Ky., six bass, 16-13, $787
8th: Stu Moyer, Indianapolis, Ind., six bass, 14-11, $918
9th: Keith Amerson, Bethel Springs, Tenn., six bass, 14-2, $550
10th: Daniel Sepeck, West Union, Ohio, six bass, 13-0, $481
Scott McGlinchey of Dexter, Kentucky, caught a 7-pound, 2-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the event’s Boater Big Bass award of $457. Paducah, Kentucky’s Jim Konas won the Co-angler Division and $2,061 Sunday after catching a two-day total of five bass weighing 14 pounds, 1 ounce.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Jim Konas, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 14-1, $2,061
2nd: Aaron Grainger, Bloomfield, Mo., four bass, 13-0, $1,031
3rd: Alan Scott, Shelbyville, Ind., five bass, 12-9, $686
4th: Barry Gunter, Trafalger, Ind., four bass, 12-8, $681
5th: Bill Wasden, Paris, Tenn., four bass, 10-7, $462
6th: Gary Huber II, Saint Charles, Mo., three bass, 9-4, $378
7th: Paul McBride, Vienna, Ill., two bass, 8-4, $573
8th: Charles Richardson III, Dyersburg, Tenn., three bass, 7-15, $309
9th: Chad Sellars, Henderson, Ky., two bass, 5-14, $275
10th: Ed Daniell, West Frankfort, Ill., two bass, 5-6 $240
McBride caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 15 ounces. The catch earned him the event’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $229.