MANNING, S.C. (March 15, 2014) – Lindwood Thornhill of Pineville, S.C., weighed five bass totaling 24 pounds, 1 ounce Saturday to win the Rayovac FLW Series Southeast Division tournament on Santee Cooper with a three-day total of 14 bass weighing 72 pounds, 4 ounces. For his victory, Thornhill earned $40,000.
“I feel wonderful. It couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Thornhill of his win. The South Carolina native was the only pro in the field to bring more than 20 pounds to the scales each of the three days of competition and he won by a stunning 12-pound, 4-ounce margin.
Thornhill said that he mined one spot that was good for all of his fish, plus the 64 pounds, 7 ounces that co-angler winner Marvin Reese caught.
“I’ve fished there for over 40 years,” explained Thornhill. “Sometimes there are fish there and sometimes there aren’t. I checked it in practice and they were there. It is somewhat off a drop-off. It goes from 5 to 25 feet, and the fish were in 12 to 14 feet of water.
“I went several places just like it, but the fish just weren’t there,” continued Thornhill. “I fished it last weekend and I didn’t get a bite. But the fished moved up there this week.
“I was using ¼-ounce football jigs. I don’t remember the brand name, but they worked really good for me,” finished Thornhill. “I was just dragging them really slowly.”
The top 10 pros on Santee Cooper were:
1st: Lindwood Thornhill, Pineville, S.C., 14 bass, 72-4, $40,000
2nd: Ben Moon, Danielsville, Ga., 14 bass, 60-0, $15,500
3rd: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 15 bass, 58-2, $12,000
4th: Clent Davis, Montevallo, Ala., 11 bass, 55-10, $10,000
5th: Trevor Fitzgerald, Belleview, Fla., 15 bass, 55-1, $9,000
6th: Chad Grigsby, Maple Grove, Minn., 12 bass, 50-5, $8,000
7th: Todd Auten, Lake Wylie, S.C., 11 bass, 47-2, $7,000
8th: Lionel Botha, Okeechobee, Fla., 12 bass, 47-0, $6,000
9th: Bradford Beavers, Ridgeville, S.C., nine bass, 45-2, $5,000
10th: Brett Mitchell, Timmonsville, S.C., 10 bass, 43-9, $4,000
Jeff McMillan of Belle Glade, Fla. caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division Friday – a 10-pound, 5-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Rayovac FLW Series Big Bass award of $300.
Marvin Reese of Gwynn Oak, Md., won the co-angler division and a Ranger Z117C with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 64 pounds, 9 ounces. The top 10 co-anglers on Santee Cooper were:
1st: Marvin Reese, Gwynn Oak, Md., nine bass, 64-7, Ranger Z117C with a 90-horsepower outboard
2nd: Dave Hammer, Taylorsville, N.C., seven bass, 31-11, $5,000
3rd: Bryan New, Belmont, N.C., five bass, 22-3, $4,000
4th: Douglas Conklin, Harmony, Fla., seven bass, 21-4, $3,500
5th: Wendy Kmucha, Harrisburg, Ill., six bass, 20-15, $3,000
6th: Blaine Bucy, Weirton, W. Va., six bass, 20-14, $2,500
7th: Mark Seals, Laurinburg, N.C., four bass, 20-9, $2,000
8th: Lonnie Drusch, Sumter, S.C., five bass, 19-5, $1,750
9th: Rodney Jordan, Sumter, S.C., five bass, 18-14, $1,500
10th: Ken Sharpless, Babson Park, Fla., four bass, 17-8, $1,250
Reese caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division Friday – a 10-pound, 2-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Rayovac FLW Series Big Bass award of $200.
The Rayovac FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the no-entry-fee Rayovac FLW Series Championship. The 2014 Rayovac FLW Series Championship is being held Oct. 30-Nov. 1 on Wheeler Lake in Rogersville, Ala.