Ragsdale Takes Co-angler Crown at Guntersville
Alabama angler wins by nearly 6 pounds
As the final minutes of the day two weigh-in at the Lake Guntersville FLW Tour season opener presented by Lowrance ticked away, Jeff Ragsdale was becoming increasingly nervous. The Gardendale, Ala., native had sacked an impressive day two five-fish limit of 15 pounds, 7 ounces to go along with his 14-15 four-fish catch from day one, and he was sitting solidly atop the co-angler leaderboard with a 30-6 two-day total.
But when the last co-angler’s bag came up well short, Ragsdale could finally relax. He knew there weren’t going to be any last-minute leaderboard shuffles as he held on to grab the championship and walk away with $20,000 in only his second tournament as a co-angler.
Ragsdale, who fished with Georgia pro Rusty Trancygier on day one and Texas pro Chris McCall on day two, finished almost 6 pounds ahead of the second-place co-angler by targeting grass in shallow water.
“I fished with two great guys, and we fished the same pattern both days,” says Ragsdale. “Shallow water throwing Traps and ChatterBaits.”
Ragsdale says all his day two bites came on a 1/2-ounce red Trap in the grass in 6 feet of water or less.
“The wind today was pretty tough, but we caught more fish,” says Ragsdale. “Yesterday [Thursday] I only had eight bites and got four fish. Today I caught 14, but a lot of them were short.”
Ragsdale is obviously excited to win the Guntersville co-angler championship, and says the prize money will probably end up going toward more fishing tackle.
“I’ve got a pretty hectic fishing schedule this year, and this is going to help pay for a lot of that,” he says.
Top 10 Co-anglers
1. Jeff Ragsdale – Gardendale, Ala. – 30-6 (9) – $20,100
2. Benjie Seaborn – Guin, Ala. – 24-9 (8) – $7,500
3. JP Sims – Cookeville, Tenn. – 23-10 (9) – $5,000
4. Cody Hammontree – Flat Rock, Ala. – 22-7 (8) – $4,050
5. Rod Huff – Monterey, Tenn. – 20-7 (5) – $3,000
6. Brian Hutcheson – Russellville, Ky. – 19-13 (6) – $2,500
7. Keith Honeycutt – Temple, Texas – 19-12 (7) – $2,000
8. Allen Armour – Cumming, Ga. – 19-12 (7) – $1,800
9. Scott Towry – Lawrenceburg, Tenn. – 18-13 (6) – $1,700
10. Wataru Iwahori – Palestine, Texas – 18-8 (6) – $1,600