FLORENCE, Ala. (Sept. 26, 2022) – Boater Garrett Warren of Hoover, Alabama, caught 10 bass weighing 35 pounds even to win the two-day MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League tournament on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Alabama. The tournament was the fifth and final regular-season event for the Bass Fishing League Choo Choo Division. Warren earned $5,831 for his victory.
Warren said he keyed in on Pickwick’s Seven Mile Island area and fished to his strengths to claim the victory. He said he flipped a ½-ounce jig tipped with a green-pumpkin Zoom Z-Craw Jr. with a hand-dyed chartreuse tail to bushes on the bank where current had cut the bank to 2-to-4-feet deep. He said a mixture of oxygen in the water and a good presence of bluegill had the bass holding and actively feeding.
“I’ve had a pretty good history with BFLs on Pickwick,” Warren said. “In all three of the BFL events I’ve fished there, I’ve caught all of my fish shallow. I fish the Chattahoochee River in a 17-foot boat and fish a lot of channel-swing banks, and I’m able to really understand current now.”
Warren said he lost a good fish early Saturday but filled his limit on three different stretches of water as he “fished by the seat of his pants” to hook five keeper bass on the first day of competition. Warren said his last keeper of the day came just seven minutes before his afternoon check-in.
Sunday was more of the same grind, as Warren had only two keepers at 1:30.
“I caught one on a buzzbait early Sunday, then proceeded to lose three really big fish – one on a buzzbait and two on a frog skipping around the bushes,” Warren said.
“I never lost confidence, because I knew if I got mentally out of it in the last hour I would lose,” Warren added. “I had to focus and make perfect skips and flips for the last hour, and it really paid off. It’s just unreal to win on Pickwick. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s made me want to strive harder for the next win.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Garrett Warren, Hoover, Ala., 10 bass, 35-0, $5,831
2nd: Casey Martin, Brownsboro, Ala, 10 bass, 31-8, $2,915
3rd: Christopher Whitehead, Fulton, Miss., 10 bass, 31-7, $1,945
4th: Jade Keeton, Florence, Ala., 10 bass, 31-4, $1,661
5th: Scott Towry, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., 10 bass, 30-5, $2,453
6th: Trent Suratt, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., nine bass, 28-15, $1,069
7th: Edward Gettys, Paris, Tenn., 10 bass, 27-4, $1,472 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF5 contingency bonus)
8th: Blake Fritts, Florence, Ala., 10 bass, 26-15, $875
9th: Keith Miller, Chattanooga, Tenn., nine bass, 25-7, $777
10th: Jared Kawalec, Waterloo, Ala., eight bass, 24-11, $680
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Scott Towry of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, caught a bass weighing 4 pounds, 13 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – to earn the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $787. Chaz McMahan of Saint Joseph, Tennessee, won the Strike King Co-angler Division and $2,909 Sunday after catching a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 34 pounds, 9 ounces.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers were:
1st: Chaz McMahan, Saint Joseph, Tennessee, 10 bass, 34-9, $2,909
2nd: John Anderson, Baysprings, Miss., 10 bass, 26-14, $1,904
3rd: Kevin Lankford, Hollywood, Ala., nine bass, 25-7, $970
4th: Isaac Warta, Mount Juliet, Tenn., eight bass, 23-13, $679
5th: Rex Henry, Hixson, Tenn., seven bass, 21-14, $582
6th: Nick Quaintance, Russellville, Ala., six bass, 18-13, $533
7th: Ray Higginbotham, Estill Springs, Tenn., four bass, 17-12, $485
8th: Joe Cornelius, Corinth, Miss., six bass, 15-4, $436
9th: Allen Rhodes, Decherd, Tenn., four bass, 11-12, $774
10th: Roger Schilling, Athens, Ala., five bass, 11-7, $339
Allen Rhodes of Decherd, Tennessee, caught the largest bass in the Strike King Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 3 ounces. The catch earned him the Berkley Big Bass Co-angler award of $386.
With the regular season now complete, boater Casey Martin of Brownsboro, Alabama, won the 2022 Bass Fishing League Choo Choo Division Boater Angler of the Year (AOY) race with a five-event total of 1,307 points to earn the $1,000 boater AOY award. Randy Wilson of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, won the 2022 Strike King Co-Angler Choo Choo Division AOY race with 1,282 points and earned the $500 Strike King Co-angler of the Year award.