HENDERSON, N.C. (July 2, 2018) – Boater Ronnie Baker of Providence Forge, Virginia, brought five bass to the scale Saturday weighing 14 pounds, 1 ounce, to win the FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Shenandoah Division tournament on Kerr Lake. Baker earned $4,479 for his win. Baker spent his day in Nutbush Creek, fishing main-lake points in 12 to 16 feet of water. He said he rotated through 8 to 10 different points and caught five keepers.
“I didn’t get many bites. I knew eight of the points had bait on them, so I concentrated on those and caught a fish every hour and a half or so,” said Baker, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. “I spent two of my three practice days fishing shallow, but didn’t catch many quality-sized fish. On Friday, I stayed deep and had a couple quality bites. That told me what I needed to do to win.”
Baker said he primarily threw a custom ½-ounce green-pumpkin and purple-colored Surfside Bait & Tackle football-head jig. He also weighed one on an American Shad-colored Lucky Craft G Splash topwater bait.
“I fished the jig by hopping it a little bit, and they’d hit it when it was moving. The bites were so few and far between it was hard to get a rhythm going,” said Baker. “I did drift off and fish some floating docks and bream beds during lulls to make sure I wasn’t missing out on anything, but by the end of the day I was committed to the deep bite.
“The water was rough, but I didn’t have any dead fish penalties,” Baker went on to say. “It was like a washing machine out there, but my BassCat’s big livewell kept the fish alive and healthy.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Ronnie Baker, Providence Forge, Va., five bass, 14-1, $4,479
2nd: Rick Tilley, Moneta, Va., five bass, 13-10, $2,140
3rd: Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., five bass, 13-3, $1,726
4th: Steven Wiseman, Bryans Road, Md., five bass, 12-0, $1,098
5th: Rick McFaul, Phoenix, Md., five bass, 11-6, $856
6th: Jack Dice, Lynchburg, Va., five bass, 11-3, $785
7th: Keith Joyce, Apex, N.C., four bass, 11-2, $713
8th: Jonathan Kelley, Old Forge, Pa., five bass, 10-12, $642
9th: K.C. Choosakul, Sandford, N.C., five bass, 10-11, $571
10th: Nicholas Bodsford, Bon Air, Va., five bass, 10-7, $499
Jason Houchins of Clarksville, Virginia, brought a bass weighing 5 pounds, 3 ounces, to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $605. William Kyte of Waldorf, Maryland, won the Co-angler Division and $2,140 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 14 pounds, 5 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: William Kyte, Waldorf, Md., five bass, five bass, 14-5, $2,140
2nd: Michael Trivette, Blackstone, Va., five bass, 10-4, $1,070
3rd: James Covington, Fredericksburg, Va., three bass, 9-14, $1,014
4th: Joshua Hertzog, Lititz, Pa., five bass, 9-11, $499
5th: Daryl Moody, Newport News, Va., four bass, 9-0, $428
6th: Cornell Badra, Clarksburg, Md., five bass, 8-11, $492
7th: Chris Whittaker, Waverly, Va., five bass, 8-6, $407
8th: Lucas Doucet, Lanham, Md., five bass, 7-11, $321
9th: David DeCiucis, Chester, Va., three bass, 7-8, $285
10th: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., three bass, 7-1, $250
Covington caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds even. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $302. https://www.bassresource.com