“I wasn’t catching a lot of fish, but they were the right ones. I probably hit 25 to 30 areas – just chasing the wind,” said Choate, who earned his first win in FLW competition. “I’m glad it was windy out there. When it picked up in practice, I was really catching them. I practiced all winter for almost two months and figured if I could get five bites, I’d have a good chance to win.”
Choate said he used a ¾-ounce chartreuse and white-colored Hoppy Tandem Emerald spinnerbait with a 4-inch white/shad-colored Todd Ruth Ultimate Swimbait trailer, as well as a scarlet-colored Duo Realis M62 5A crankbait for his lone smallmouth. His pulled in his fish with a 7-foot, 3-inch Duckett White Ice II Series rod and a Lew’s Team Pro reel.
“I was slow rolling [the spinnerbait], letting it bounce on the rocks or stumps – whatever I was fishing,” said Choate. “I threw the ¾-ounce was because of the wind. I was fishing shallow, but I needed to keep it down.”
Choate finished by extending a “thank you” to C&O Marine in White Bluff, Tennessee, for letting him borrow a boat to use while his new Nitro Z21 was being rigged up and readied for competition.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Brian Choate, Burns, Tenn., five bass, 18-3, $3,156
2nd: John Hopkins, Smyrna, Tenn., five bass, 17-1, $1,515
2nd: Mickey Beck, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 17-1, $1,315
4th: William Merrick, Mount Juliet, Tenn., five bass, 16-6, $736
5th: Billy Hinson, Mount Juliet, Tenn., five bass, 16-4, $631
6th: Josh Tramel, Smithville, Tenn., five bass, 15-2, $929
7th: Casey Taylor, Smithville, Tenn., five bass, 13-4, $526
8th: Brian Carper, Murfreesboro, Tenn., five bass, 12-6, $473
9th: Barry Whitaker, Hartsville, Tenn., five bass, 12-5, $421
10th: Chris Holland, Winchester, Tenn., four bass, 11-11, $349
10th: Daniel Johnson, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 11-11, $349
Tony Eckler of Lebanon, Tennessee, caught a 6-pound, 3-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $370. Theron Hawkes of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, won the Co-angler Division and $1,578 Saturday after catching four bass weighing 13 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Theron Hawkes, Murfreesboro, Tenn., four bass, 13-8, $1,578
2nd: Robert Henze, La Vergne, Tenn., four bass, 12-13, $789
3rd: Grayson Butler, Lebanon, Tenn., two bass, 11-11, $526
4th: Ben Gibbs, Murfreesboro, Tenn., two bass, 11-6, $553
5th: Spencer Clark, Maryland Heights, Mo., three bass, 10-15, $316
6th: Mike Barton, Gallatin, Tenn., two bass, 6-10, $289
7th: Rene Gonzalez, Smyrna, Tenn., two bass, 6-7, $263
8th: Clarence Raney, Murfreesboro, Tenn., three bass, 6-2, $237
9th: Benjiman Smith, Sparta, Tenn., two bass, 6-0, $360
10th: Randall Wiggins, Birmingham, Ala., two bass, 5-13, $384
Gibbs caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $185.