Alabama fisherman captures co-angler crown

Oswalt catches two keepers, earns $20,000 FLW Tour payday

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A full house was in attendance at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex to watch one of their own win $20,000 as the co-angler champion of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on Smith Lake.

Lynn Oswalt of nearby Jasper, Ala., caught only two bass Saturday, but that was all it took to better the nine other finalists. Fishing with Snickers pro and Cullman, Ala., native Greg Pugh on day three, Oswalt took advantage of an early-morning spotted-bass bite, catching a pair of keepers that weighed 3 pounds, 5 ounces.

Oswalt opened the tournament in 33rd place Thursday with two bass weighing 4 pounds while fishing with pro Keith Combs of Del Rio, Texas. On Friday he jumped into third place on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 11-4 while fishing with Shad Schenck of Waynetown, Ind.

“I felt like all day long I was going to need to catch more than two fish,” said the co-angler champion, who earned his win in only his second FLW Outdoors event. “You never really know what’s in those other boys’ sacks, and they’re all sitting there looking at you and grinning. I’ve been close before in these things, but nothing this big.”

Oswalt caught his first keeper on his first cast of the day and managed to boat two other fish – but only one keeper – using a 3/16-ounce shaky head paired with a green-pumpkin worm.

“Todd Lee talked me into getting into this thing. I never dreamed it would be anything like this.”

Oswalt savored the victory with his son and girlfriend in attendance.

“She probably didn’t think I could do it. I can’t blame her; I wasn’t so sure either.”

Rest of the best

Teddy Roberts of Faubush, Ky., took second place with one bass weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces. He earned $10,000 in his first FLW Tour event. In fact, it was his first check in 12 FLW Outdoors tournaments. Like Oswalt, Roberts fished a shaky head and a finesse worm.

Paul Mueller of Southbury, Conn., finished third and collected $9,000 with a single bass that weighed 1 pound, 11 ounces. Not surprisingly, his key bait this week was a shaky head and a finesse worm.

“I lost a couple that could have made it interesting,” he said. “We were catching a bunch of shorts, but you never know.”

Besides Oswalt, Roberts and Mueller, none of the seven remaining co-anglers managed a keeper bass on the final day of competition. Since fourth place through 10th place is a tie, the tiebreaker goes to the angler’s opening-round total.

Therefore, fourth place and $8,000 went to Frank Divis Sr. of Fayetteville, Ark. With his latest paycheck, Divis inched closer to $200,000 in career FLW Outdoors earnings. For more information, see Quick Bites.

Larry Hostetler of Floyds Knobs, Ind., rounded out the top five co-anglers and won $7,000.

Rounding out the top 10 co-angler finishers at Smith Lake:

6th: Masahiro Yanase of Nagoya, Japan, $6,000

7th: Greg Edwards of Jasper, Ala., $5,000

8th: Stetson Blaylock of Benton Ark., $4,000

9th: Chad Hillis of McMinnville, Tenn., $3,000

10th: William Grantham of Mobile, Ala., $2,000