MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (April 29, 2024) – Boater Noah Armstrong of Fayetteville, Georgia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 13 pounds, 14 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Lake Sinclair. The tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Bulldog Division. Armstrong earned $3,917 for his victory.
Armstrong said his expectations were pretty low coming into the tournament. The spawn was over. So was the shad spawn. Add in some weather swings, and the fish were clearly in a funk, as reflected in the weights. Even in practice, Armstrong spent two days scouting the lake and never caught a fish over 2 pounds. He shook off a few he felt were decent, but that was it.
“It was definitely tough, to say the least,” Armstrong said. “It was a grind.”
With his confidence low, Armstrong hit the lake with an open mind. He ran to a couple grass spots first thing in the morning and there were already boats on them. So he ran down the lake, keeping his eyes open for anything that looked good.
“I found one little place that had some rocks, and then there was some grass,” said Armstrong. “I said, ‘This looks good. Let’s stop over there and maybe take five minutes to fish.’ On the third cast I caught a 5-pounder on a ChatterBait.”
From there, Armstrong went junk-fishing around shallow grass. He was able to catch a limit, but even with that 5-plus-pound bass in the livewell, his best five might have weighed just 8 or 9 pounds.
“Then I ran to another place where I’ve caught them before. It’s a shallow hard spot off the bank. I caught two almost 3-pounders there that were really spawned out.”
He finished the day bouncing around fishing docks and made two small culls that gave him just enough weight to lock down the win by 1 ounce.
Armstrong’s biggest bass came on a Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer. He caught one fish from the offshore rocks using a Carolina rig and the other using Garmin LiveScope and a Neko rig. His primary dock-skipping bait was a Texas rig.
The weigh-in brought an exciting finish for Armstrong, who works full time rigging fishing boats at Stateline Marine, a Phoenix Boats dealer in Lanett, Alabama.
“It caught me by surprise for sure,” he said of the win. “I knew 13-something was leading it, but I knew there was a handful left to weigh in. I thought surely one of those guys caught 15 pounds because usually it takes good weight there every time. It was definitely a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting that for sure.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Noah Armstrong, Fayetteville, Ga., five bass, 13-14, $3,917
2nd: John Kitchens, Cumming, Ga., five bass, 13-13, $1,958
3rd: Mason White, Moultrie, Ga., five bass, 13-11, $1,307
4th: Zach Clark, Newnan, Ga., five bass, 13-5, $914
5th: Chuck Howard, Elloree, S.C., five bass, 13-1, $1,303
6th: Weston Parker, Mansfield, Ga., five bass, 12-14, $718
7th: Frank Kitchens III, Oxford, Ga., five bass, 12-7, $653
8th: Brad Stalnaker, Eatonton, Ga., five bass, 12-4, $588
9th: Jae Evans, Boca Raton, Fla., five bass, 12-3, $522
10th: Mark Knight, McDonough, Ga., five bass, 12-1, $457
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Chuck Howard of Elloree, South Carolina, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $520. Matthew Foster of Marietta, Georgia, won the co-angler division and $1,958 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 12 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Matthew Foster, Marietta, Ga., five bass, 12-12, $1,958
2nd: Anthony Gaskins, Hinesville, Ga., five bass, 12-11, $979
3rd: Chris Lumpkin, Gray, Ga., five bass, 10-15, $653
4th: Harrison Dunahoo, Clermont, Ga., five bass, 10-7, $717
5th: Joshua Green, Cartersville, Ga., five bass, 10-6, $392
6th: James A. Bryant, Empire, Ga., five bass, 9-12, $359
7th: Don Griffin, Roswell, Ga., four bass, 9-5, $326
8th: Bruce Jeffrey, Lithonia, Ga., five bass, 9-2, $294
9th: Cameron Sampson, Jackson, Ga., five bass, 9-1, $261
10th: Brian Jenkins, Kennesaw, Ga., five bass, 9-0, $228
Harrison Dunahoo of Clermont, Georgia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $260, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 6 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After four events, Brooks Anderson of Marietta, Georgia, leads the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 928 points, while Jaquas Dobbs of Conyers, Georgia, leads the Fishing Clash Bulldog Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 916 points.
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