Ohio’s Poffenberger Wins FLW Bass Fishing League Buckeye Division Event on Ohio River

Redwine wins co-angler title

MAYSVILLE, Ky. – Jake Poffenberger of Brookville, Ohio, weighed four bass totaling 9 pounds, 7 ounces, Saturday to win the fourth FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Buckeye Division tournament of 2016 on the Ohio River. For his victory, Poffenberger earned $4,684.

“I spent my day fishing four different creek mouths between the lock and Maysville,” said Poffenberger, who earned his first win in FLW competition. “I picked apart 100-yard stretches along flats and hit all kinds of wood. I think the river was fluctuating a lot, so that’s why bass were close to the creek mouths and not in the backwaters.

“The flats I sat on were about 2 feet down, but there was deeper water nearby,” Poffenberger continued. “When the sun came out I had better bites because the bass were pushed closer to the wood.”

Poffenberger said he rotated between a 1/8-ounce chartreuse-colored Hawk Spinnerbait and a Watermelon Red Magic-colored Yamamoto Senko to catch his four keepers.

“I used the Hawk until the wind stopped blowing, then I picked up the Senko,” said Poffenberger. “I didn’t catch many fish, but they were the right size.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1^st:          Jake Poffenberger, Brookville, Ohio, four bass, 9-7, $4,684

               2^nd:         Kyle Weisenburger, Ottawa, Ohio, five bass, 9-0, $2,059

               3^rd:          Chris Combess, Cleves, Ohio, four bass, 8-7, $1,374

               4^th:          Keith Wheelock, Springboro, Ohio, five bass, 7-14, $961

               5^th:          Dick Shaffer, Rockford, Ohio, five bass, 6-15, $824

               6^th:          Bret Languell, Indianapolis, Ind., five bass, 6-11, $755

               7^th:          David Dudley, Dublin, Ohio, three bass, 6-9, $686

               8^th:          Sean Wieda, Florence, Ky., five bass, 6-7, $618

               9^th:          Trevor Windgassen, Alexandria, Ky., five bass, 6-3, $549

               10^th:        James Fulton, Ray, Ohio, five bass, 6-1, $480

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com. 

Poffenberger also caught a bass weighing 4 pounds, 5 ounces – the biggest of the tournament in the pro division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $565.

Alex Redwine of Cincinnati, Ohio, weighed in four bass totaling 5 pounds, 14 ounces, Saturday to win the co-angler division and earn $2,059.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1^st:          Alex Redwine, Cincinnati, Ohio, four bass, 5-14, $2,059

               2^nd:         Douglas Shope, Troy, Ohio, three bass, 5-8, $1,030

               3^rd:          Herbert Jones, Cincinnati, Ohio, five bass, 4-9, $687

               4^th:          Butch Dobransky, Canton, Ohio, three bass, 4-7, $480

               5^th:          Aaron Kuhlmann, Hamilton, Ohio, one bass, 4-3, $694

               6^th:          Derek Buchanan, Madison, Ind., three bass, 4-1, $378

               7^th:          Bill Lowther, Brandenburg, Ky., four bass, 3-15, $343

               8^th:          Billy Senters, New Richmond, Ohio, three bass, 3-14, $309

               9^th:          Bradley Fulton, Ray, Ohio, three bass, 3-13, $275

               10^th:        Dennis Robinson, Oxford, Ohio, three bass, 3-11, $228

               10^th:        Justin Busby, Lancaster, Ohio, one bass, 3-11, $228

Kuhlmann brought a 4-pound, 3-ounce bass to the scale, which was the biggest of the tournament in the co-angler division and earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $282.

The top 50 boaters and 50 co-anglers based on point standings will qualify for the Oct. 13-15 Regional Championship on Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.

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 BFL All-American. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Costa 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.

About FLW

FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Periscope: @FLWFishing.

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