WINCHESTER, Tenn. (April 22, 2024) – Boater Austin True of Dickson, Tennessee, caught a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 8 ounces, Saturday to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Tims Ford Lake. The tournament was the second event of the season for the BFL Music City Division. True earned $2,883 for his victory. Before the tournament, True found some spawning fish in the Elk River and thought this BFL tournament would be a spawn event. But in practice on Friday, he realized he’d have to change his strategy due to warming weather.
“I skipped a ChatterBait up under a dock and caught like a 5-pounder,” he said. “So using my (Garmin) LiveScope, I determined there were fish suspending up under docks. All my fish that were spawning, were now suspending under docks.”
True changed it up in the tournament. He caught a decent smallmouth first thing in the morning on a 4-inch 6th Sense Crush Dogma topwater bait in French bone pearl.
“From there, I took a jumbo (7-inch) Strike King Ocho on a baitcaster with 20-pound fluorocarbon, and I just skipped it as far back under the dock as I could. And hold on!” True said. “I enjoyed it because I didn’t have to stare at the LiveScope all day. I could see the structure I was fishing, and I fished confident.”
True, who works as an electrician at Wolfe & Travis Electric in Nashville, finished the tournament with four largemouths and the one smallmouth he caught in the morning. All his best docks were situated on channel-swing banks where he found wads of shad.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Austin True, Dickson, Tenn., five bass, 19-8, $2,883
2nd: Jacob Woods, Loudon, Tenn., five bass, 17-12, $1,442
3rd: Alex Gault, Elora, Tenn., five bass, 17-4, $960
4th: Jason Cooper, Shelbyville, Tenn., five bass, 15-1, $673
5th: Brent Sain, Manchester, Tenn., five bass, 14-14, $553
5th: Jed Lamb, Chapel Hill, Tenn., five bass, 14-14, $1,053 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
7th: Kyle Palmer, Winchester, Tenn., five bass, 14-9, $481
8th: Josh Womack, Gallatin, Tenn., five bass, 14-2, $433
9th: William Merrick, Wartrace, Tenn., five bass, 13-11, $660
9th: Scotty Sudberry, Tullahoma, Tenn., five bass, 13-11, $360
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Wesley D. Taylor of Estill Springs, Tennessee, caught a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 11 ounces, and earned the Big Bass boater award of $320. Rex Henry of Hixson, Tennessee, won the co-angler division and $1,602 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 15 pounds, 1 ounce.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Rex Henry, Hixson, Tenn., five bass, 15-1, $1,602
2nd: John Fitzpatrick, Baxter, Tenn., five bass, 13-10, $721
3rd: Mark Redman, Bowling Green, Ky., four bass, 12-11, $483
4th: Kevin Jones, Fort Campbell, Ky., four bass, 10-14, $336
5th: Wayne Crouch, Jamestown, Tenn., five bass, 10-13, $388
6th: Kevin Barton, Portland, Tenn., five bass, 10-3, $264
7th: Darryl Lee, Portland, Tenn., three bass, 9-9, $240
8th: Thomas Coker, Manchester, Tenn., three bass, 8-13, $216
9th: Jordan Harris, Fayetteville, Tenn., four bass, 8-2, $192
10th: Brandon Adcock, McMinnville, Tenn., three bass, 6-15, $168
Henry also earned the Big Bass co-angler award of $160, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 3 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After two events, Jacob Woods of Loudon, Tennessee, leads the Fishing Clash Music City Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 972 points, while Kevin Jones of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, leads the Fishing Clash Music City Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 495 points.
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Bass Fishing League (BFL) News