June 17, 2019 by FLW Communications
BRANDON, Miss. – Local boater Corey Sullivan of Brandon, Mississippi, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Mississippi Division tournament on Ross Barnett Reservoir Saturday after catching five bass weighing 17 pounds, 5 ounces. For his win, Sullivan pocketed $3,377.
“It was a cloudy day and I threw a frog. The reservoir is notorious for frog fishing this time of year, and I made up my mind Friday that that’s what I was going to do,” said Sullivan, who earned his second career win on Ross Barnett Reservoir in BFL competition. “I stayed upriver, north of the Ratliff Ferry Trading Post and covered a ton of water. I fished thick pads close to deep water – the river’s edge, an old channel edge – anything. The reservoir has got a lot of pads and the fish love them this time of year.”
Sullivan said he used a Black Widow-colored Spro Dean Rojas Bronzeye 65 frog and a Pearl White Strike King KVD Sexy frog. He threw them on 7-foot, medium-heavy Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Signature Series Casting rods with Johnny Morris Signature Series baitcast and Abu Garcia Revo reels.
“During the morning I caught some that were short and put one keeper on the boat,” said Sullivan. “It started getting cloudy around 10 [a.m.] and whenever the clouds blocked the sun they started looking up a bit more. The key was covering water.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Corey Sullivan, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 17-5, $3,377
2nd: Ivy Bradshaw, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 15-13, $1,689
3rd: Mitch Crane, Columbus, Miss., five bass, 15-3, $1,578
4th: Jason Cordell, Pelahatchie, Miss., five bass, 14-11, $888
5th: Larry Savell, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 13-9, $675
6th: Jason Hannah, Forest, Miss., five bass, 13-5, $713
6th: Dudley Salers, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 13-5, $563
6th: Glenn Page, Union, Miss., five bass, 13-5, $563
9th: Brandon Perkins, Counce, Tenn., five bass, 12-15, $450
10th: Brandon Bolton, West Point, Miss., five bass, 12-3, $394
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Lake Blasingame caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 1 ounce – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $415.
Jimmy Tisdale of Ellisville, Mississippi, won the Co-angler Division and $1,644 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 13 pounds even.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Jimmy Tisdale, Ellisville, Miss., five bass, 13-0, $1,644
2nd: Tim Beale, Hernando, Miss., five bass, 12-14, $1,120
3rd: Morris Collins, Kettering, Ohio, five bass, 10-13, $549
4th: Ryan Godwin, Meridian, Miss., four bass, 10-9, $384
5th: Tommy Nichols, Fayette, Ala., five bass, 9-14, $329
6th: Tyler Helms, Meridian, Miss., five bass, 9-13, $501
7th: Shane Cade, Clinton, Miss., four bass, 8-12, $274
8th: Dylan Cornelius, Bear Creek, Ala., five bass, 8-11, $247
9th: Scott Brown, Lucedale, Miss., three bass, 7-10, $219
10th: Tom Miles, Chadds Ford, Pa., three bass, 7-9, $192
Beale and Kenneth Amos of Greenville, Mississippi, both caught a bass weighing in at 5 pounds, 11 ounces, and split the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $196.
The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five winners in each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 17-19 BFL Regional Championship on Lake Guntersville in Guntersville, Alabama, presented by Mercury. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard.
The 2019 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2020 BFL All-American will be held April 30-May 2 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina, and is hosted by Visit Anderson. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
