GAINESVILLE, Ga. (Sept. 30, 2019) – Boater Brock Turner of Jasper, Georgia, brought a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale weighing 33 pounds, 7 ounces, to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bulldog Division super-tournament on Lake Lanier Sunday. Turner earned $8,266 for his efforts.
“I was mainly fishing fresh bushes and humps in 15- to 25-feet-of-water,” said Turner, who earned his first career victory in FLW competition. “I fished mainly on the south end, and I caught around 10 to 15 keepers a day.”
Turner weighed in a five-bass limit totaling 13 pounds, 2 ounces on Day One to end the day in 14th place. Although he was more than 4 pounds behind day one leader Kelly Bagley, Turner knew that the weather forecast for day two would have him in contention for the win.
“The first day the cloud cover hurt me, but the second day the clouds went away and they bit like they were supposed to,” Turner said. “We’ve been catching them good that way since July. The bite was much better at the end of the day, on both days. I just had to have patience.”
Turner said he caught his fish on four main baits – a scrounger jig with a Zoom Super Fluke, a Fish Head Spin with a Zoom Super Fluke, a spoon and a spybait. His weigh-in limits consisted of nine spotted bass and one largemouth.
“I caught a surprise largemouth out deep on the second day,” Turner said. “It was a 3½-pounder, and just happened to be in the same spot that I caught my biggest spotted bass – a 5-pounder – on day one.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Brock Turner, Jasper, Ga., 10 bass, 33-7, $6,266 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus
2nd: Rob Jordan, Flowery Branch, Ga., 10 bass, 32-6, $3,033
3rd: Trent Palmer, Cumming, Ga., 10 bass, 32-3, $2,124
4th: Clabion Johns, Social Circle, Ga., 10 bass, 30-14, $1,415
5th: David Nichol, Gainesville, Ga., 10 bass, 29-10, $2,045
6th: Jordan Thompkins, Myrtle Beach, S.C., 10 bass, 29-3, $1,112
7th: Brad Wiley, Alto, Ga., 10 bass, 27-14, $1,011
8th: Jason Johnson, Dawsonville, Ga., 10 bass, 27-9, $910
9th: Grant Kelly, Milledgeville, Ga., 10 bass, 26-12, $809
10th: Chad Spiva, Jasper, Ga., 10 bass, 25-14, $708
Nichol caught a 5-pound, 1-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the event’s Boater Big Bass award of $832. Conery Williams of Macon, Georgia, won the Co-angler Division and $2,971 Sunday after catching a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 20 pounds, 10 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Conery Williams, Macon, Ga., 10 bass, 20-10, $2,971
2nd: Deron Burdette, Fayetteville, Ga., six bass, 18-3, $1,686
3rd: Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga., eight bass, 17-12, $1,039
4th: Dax Liner, Mineral Bluff, Ga., nine bass, 15-12, $693
5th: Devereaux Adams, Powder Springs, Ga., eight bass, 14-15, $594
6th: Jeffrey Payne, Danville, Ga., six bass, 14-9, $695
7th: Ben Smith, Lula, Ga., eight bass, 14-8, $495
8th: Wesley Wilson, Cornelia, Ga., eight bass, 14-6, $446
9th: Preston Pullman, Cumming, Ga., five bass, 13-4, $797
10th: Robert Holliday, Greensboro, Ga., six bass, 13-2, $347
Pullman caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 3 ounces. The catch earned him the event’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $401.