DAYTON, Tenn. (June 14, 2015) – FLW Tour pro Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tennessee, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Sunday weighing 19 pounds, 6 ounces to win the FLW Tournament at Lake Chickamauga. Wooley’s four-day total of 20 bass weighing 92-4 gave him a 1-pound, 6-ounce margin of victory over second place angler Livingston Lures pro Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Arkansas, in the nationally-televised event that featured 146 professional bass-fishing anglers competing for the top cash award of up to $125,000.
“I grew up fishing on Pickwick Lake and Kentucky Lake,” said Wooley, who earned the first Walmart FLW Tour victory of his career in just his second season as a professional. “To get the biggest win of my life on the Tennessee River really means a lot to me. This win is just what I needed to continue my career. This lake is absolutely incredible.
“I thought I had lost the tournament today,” Wooley continued. “My key area where I have caught all of my fish this week shut down and I was only able to catch two fish there. I had to scramble and run a couple of schools that I had been practicing on each day after I’d catch my big weight. I was extremely nervous, because those schools weren’t holding the quality of fish that my original area was. Luckily I was able to pick off a few and got a couple of good bites.
“It was a grind. I thought my limit was a lot smaller than what it ended up being, so that final weigh-in was really stressful,” Wooley said.
Wooley said that he caught his fish this week on a mussel-laden bar near the Chester Frost Park boat ramp. He did most of his damage in the mornings when the gizzard shad were feeding and was catching fish in 12- to 13-feet of water. His key baits were a ½-ounce hand-poured shaky-head rig with a green-pumpkin Zoom Magnum Trick Worm and a green-pumpkin ¾-ounce Strike King Football Jig with a Strike King Rage Craw.
“I fished pretty clean all week, and I only lost one fish,” Wooley went on to say. “Lake Chickamauga will always be special to me after this one. I’ve never been to the Potomac River, but now I’ve got some momentum coming off this one and I love to fish in the grass so I’m going to give it my best shot and we’ll see what happens.”
The top 10 pros finished the tournament:
1st: Michael Wooley, Collierville, Tenn., 20 bass, 92-4, $125,000
2nd: Stetson Blaylock, Benton, Ark., 20 bass, 90-13, $29,154
3rd: David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 20 bass, 85-9, $24,288
4th: Darrell Davis, Dover, Fla., 20 bass, 77-12, $19,421
5th: Larry Nixon, Bee Branch, Ark., 20 bass, 72-8, $18,448
6th: Terry Bolton, Paducah, Ky., 20 bass, 71-12, $17,474
7th: Richard Peek, Centre, Ala., 20 bass, 70-3, $16,501
8th: Bill McDonald, Greenwood, Ind., 19 bass, 68-11, $15,528
9th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 18 bass, 68-1, $14,554
10th: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 16 bass, 62-8, $13,581
Overall there were 44 bass weighing 145 pounds even caught by pros Sunday. Seven professionals weighed in five-bass limits. Paul LaFleur of Benton, Arkansas, won the co-angler division and $25,000 Friday with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 31 pounds, 4 ounces, followed by Cody Frazier of Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, who finished in second place with eight bass weighing 29 pounds, 7 ounces worth $7,291.
The Walmart FLW Tour stop on Lake Chickamauga was the fifth of six regular-season events in the FLW Tour’s 2015 season. The sixth FLW Tour event of 2015 will be held on the Potomac River, June 25-28 in Marbury, Maryland. Boats will launch from Smallwood State Park in Marbury.