HUDDLESTON, Va. (May 13, 2019) – Boater Bryan Elrod of Mechanicsville, Virginia, won the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Piedmont Division tournament on Smith Mountain Lake Saturday with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 1 ounce. For his efforts, Elrod pocketed $3,766.
“I targeted the shad spawn. I’d found multiple areas where the shad were spawning, but only one had fish in it – It was a point up the Roanoke River,” said Elrod, who notched his third career win in BFL competition. “I caught them from rip-rap in about 2 feet of water using a shad-colored [Heddon Zara] Spook. I caught four that I weighed on the Spook and one on a [shad-colored Rebel] Pop-R.
Elrod said he caught about 8 keepers during the tournament, citing the first hour of the day as the most productive.
“We went all over the lake running other stuff. The fish had spawned, and there were some areas with fry-guarders, but those fish were small. I only caught a few of those and they didn’t help me any,” said Elrod. “That area was really the only productive stop.”
Elrod went on to say that his winning limit consisted of four largemouth and one smallmouth.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Bryan Elrod, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 17-1, $3,766
2nd: Stephen Miller, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 16-15, $1,933
3rd: Matt Hicks, Evington, Va., five bass, 15-15, $1,155
4th: Keith Joyce, Apex, N.C., five bass, 15-14, $1,159
5th: Dennis Burdette, Pembroke, Va., five bass, 15-9, $693
6th: Rick Tilley, Moneta, Va., five bass, 15-4, $635
7th: Tommy Little, Chester, Va., five bass, 15-1, $578
8th: Powell Kemp, Scotland Neck, N.C., five bass, 14-13, $520
9th: Justin Hicks, Roanoke, Va., five bass, 14-8, $462
10th: Kevin Kane, Woodbridge, Va., five bass, 14-6, $404
Taylor Godsey of Chester, Virginia, caught a 5-pound, 7-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $435. David Deciucis of Chester, Virginia, won the Co-angler Division and $1,896 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 15 pounds even.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: David Deciucis, Chester, Va., five bass, 15-0, $1,896
2nd: Scott Howard, Bedford, Va., five bass, 14-4, $1,044
3rd: Roland Burton, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 13-9, $614
4th: Pat Kendrick, Bumpass, Va., five bass, 12-7, $394
5th: Brian LaClair, Denton, Md., five bass, 12-6, $338
6th: Timothy Kinder, Manassas, Va., five bass, 12-3, $310
7th: Mickey Bergeron, Amherst, Va., five bass, 11-14, $281
8th: Gerald Heffler, Chester, Va., five bass, 11-12, $253
9th: Tim Privette Jr., Wendell, N.C., five bass, 11-11, $225
10th: Shawn Huwar, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 11-9, $197
Deciucis also caught the heaviest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 4 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $207.