Walmart Bass Fishing League Preview For Saturday, May 9

WHAT: The 2015 Walmart Bass Fishing League season will continue with six tournaments on Saturday, May 9. The Bulldog Division will take on Lake Seminole, the Cowboy Division competes on Sam Rayburn Reservoir, the Great Lakes Division opens its season on the Mississippi River, the Music City Division stops on Center Hill Lake, the Piedmont Division continues their season on Lake Gaston and the Volunteer Division heads to South Holston Reservoir. Up to 400 boaters and co-anglers will be competing for top awards of up to $8,000 and $3,000 respectively in the one-day events.

 

WHEN: Saturday, May 9, 2015

 

Bainbridge Earle May Boat Basin

100 Boat Basin Circle

Bainbridge, Ga.

 

NOTES: Lake Seminole bass fishing is expected to be good. Come tournament time, the bass should be through with their spawning phase. Anglers will have several patterns to choose from to catch bass. Throwing a frog around lily pads has won the event in the past. Other shallow-water techniques include flipping and pitching creature baits around laydowns and heavy cover could also produce for tournament anglers. If the bass begin to move out to river ledges, anglers can target schooling bass with a deep-diving crankbait. Previous tournament winners have needed a five-bass limit weighing around 25 pounds to win the tournament.

 

Umphrey Family Pavilion

5438 Rural Route 255 W.

Brookeland, Texas

 

NOTES: Sam Rayburn is a tremendous fishery that is known for harboring big bass year round. The water levels are high right now and fishing submerged cover with jigs, frogs, and Texas-rigged creature baits has recently produced big bass. Fishing main-lake flats with Carolina-rigged soft plastics is also a popular tactic year round. Anglers will likely need to land a large kicker fish to win the event with first place weights on Sam Rayburn typically around 20 pounds.

 

W. Copeland and Clinton Ramp

Clinton Street

La Crosse, Wis.

 

NOTES:  The annual opening Great Lakes division tournament on pools 7, 8, and 9 of the Mississippi River is always a great event. The bass are typically beginning to spawn in the Great Lakes season opener. With murky waters making sight fishing difficult, anglers often search for bedding bass on gravel or sand bottoms by dragging jigs or soft plastics. Another popular tactic is targeting weed clumps and edges with swim jigs and spinnerbaits. Five-bass limits weighing nearing 20 pounds will give anglers a shot at the title.

 

Ragland Bottom Recreation Area

1423 Ragland Bottom Road

Sparta, Tenn.

 

NOTES: The bass fishing on Center Hill Lake is expected to be good. Bass should be found in a mix of spawn and post-spawn patterns. Crankbaits, umbrella rigs, jigs, and spinnerbaits should all be productive lures. Past winning weights this time of year have ranged from 18 to 23 pounds for a five-bass limit.

 

Americamps Lake Gaston

9 Lakeside Lane

Bracey, Va.

 

NOTES: Fishing reports indicate bass fishing is good on Lake Gaston. Anglers will find some bass in a prespawn phase and others just beginning to bed. Prespawn bass will be holding on main-lake points. These fish can be targeted with crankbaits, Rat-L-Traps, and spinnerbaits. Bedding bass can be found near boat docks and other shallow cover and caught using jigs and soft plastic lures. The winner is expected to bring a five-bass limit weighing in the mid-teens to the scale.

 

Observation Knob Park

553 Knob Park Road

Bristol, Tenn.

 

NOTES:  South Holston Reservoir should produce good bags of both largemouth and smallmouth bass in this tournament. Prespawn bass can be found near the mouths of creeks and caught using crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Spawning bass will move to the back pockets of creeks. Popular baits among tournament anglers for bedding bass include jigs, tubes, and finesse worms. Anglers bringing in bags weighing around 20 pounds will have a chance to win the event.

 

The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 50 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and 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 Walmart BFL All-American. The 2015 BFL All-American is being held June 18-20 on Kentucky Lake in Buchanan, Tennessee. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.

 

For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the BFL on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.

 

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 2015 over the course of 240 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 FLWFishing.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

 

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