Walmart BFL Regional Set for Lake Cherokee
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. – The Walmart Bass Fishing League (BFL) is headed to Lake Cherokee Oct. 9-11 for one of six regional championships. The three-day tournament, presented by Evinrude, will feature the top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers from each of the LBL, Mountain, North Carolina and Savannah River divisions.
Anglers will take to the water to compete for the top prize of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Evinrude outboard and a Chevy 1500 Silverado in the Boater Division and a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Evinrude outboard in the Co-Angler division. The top six boaters and co-anglers will also qualify for one of the longest running championships in competitive bass fishing – the 2015 Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy.
“Tournament anglers will definitely catch them on topwater baits, like a Heddon Zara Spook or a buzzbait,” said Walmart pro Wesley Strader, a 14-time Forrest Wood cup qualifier. “You can catch them on a spinnerbait too – a Stan Sloan’s Zorro Baits Bango Blade catches them well this time of year. If somebody finds a school that is still out deep, a crankbait would be a good way to catch them. There will be multiple patterns going on, but it is definitely a good topwater lake this time of year.
“The water falls a lot in the winter time, and they are starting to draw the water down right now,” Strader explained. “Things change a lot this time of year. The key will be figuring out the type of bottom the bass are keying on. Sometimes the fish get on mud flats, sometimes they will be on red clay rock and sometimes they can be on chunk rock.
“There is an 18-inch size limit on smallmouth, so it is kind of risky to target them,” finished Strader. “I think most of the guys will be targeting largemouth, and I think a three-day total around 45 pounds will win.”
Anglers will take off from Hamblen County Boat Dock in Cherokee Park located at 3045 Cherokee Park Road in Morristown, Tennessee, at 7:30 a.m. each day. Weigh-ins on Thursday and Friday will be held at the launch site beginning at 3:30 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at Walmart located at 475 S. Davy Crockett Parkway in Morristown at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The BFL Regional Championship event on Lake Cherokee is being hosted by the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce.
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 40 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and compete to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Rayovac FLW Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
About FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2014 over the course of 229 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit FLWOutdoors.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.