Florida’s York Wins T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League Bulldog Division Tournament on Lake Oconee Presented by Navionics

Gainesville’s Grizzle claims Co-angler title

EATONTON, Ga. – Jeremy York of Pompano Beach, Florida, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 20 pounds, 9 ounces, Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Bulldog Division event on Lake Oconee presented by Navionics. York pocketed $4,686 for his victory.

“I took off down the lake and turned into a little place where no one was fishing,” said York, a former FLW Tour pro who earned his first career-win in BFL competition. “I hadn’t caught anything there in weeks, but I pulled in and was able to catch a couple keepers off of a seawall.

“Those two catches told me what the bass were doing,” continued York. “When I caught them in that area, I knew I could concentrate on seawalls for the rest of the day. I fished in there for another 90 minutes, and then went to a couple of other spots that looked similar nearby.”

York said his bait of choice throughout the tournament was a green-pumpkin-colored Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver.

“I threw the Sweet Beaver up to the seawall and worked it back 3 or 4 feet,” said York. “I’m usually popping and shaking that type of bait, but on Saturday dragging it slow was the deal.”

York said he caught his biggest bass around 2:30 p.m.

“I fired the Sweet Beaver out to a seawall in one of my pockets and caught it,” said York. “It was just one of those days you knew where they’d be active.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1^st:          Jeremy York, Pompano Beach, Fla., five bass, 20-9, $4,686

               2^nd:         Miles Burghoff, Santa Cruz, Calif., five bass, 17-10, $2,543

               3^rd:          Chris Baxter, Winder, Ga., five bass, 17-6, $1,962

               4^th:          Roger Stubbs, McDonough, Ga., five bass, 17-0, $1,093

               5^th:          Rob Jordan, Flowery Branch, Ga., five bass, 16-13, $937

               6^th:          John Christopher, Watkinsville, Ga., five bass, 16-2, $859

               7^th:          Steve Phillips, Douglas, Ga., five bass, 15-11, $781

               8^th:          Michael Conley, Bainbridge, Ga., five bass, 15-7, $703

               9^th:          Barry Stokes, Oxford, Ga., five bass, 15-5, $625

               10^th:        Barry Hooper, Monticello, Ga., five bass, 15-1, $547

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.  

Thomas Phares of Buckhead, Georgia, caught a bass weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces – the largest of the event – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $690.

Harold Grizzle of Gainesville, Georgia, weighed in five bass totaling 15 pounds, 9 ounces Saturday to win the Co-angler Division and the top prize of $2,443.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1st:         Harold Grizzle, Gainesville, Ga., five bass, 15-9, $2,443

               2^nd:         David Wright, Franklin, Ga., four bass, 14-4, $1,172

               3^rd:          Michael Smith, Piedmont, S.C., five bass, 12-11, $831

               4^th:          Ryan Stewart, Roswell, Ga., four bass, 12-9, $547

               5^th:          Ronald Harris, Jefferson, Ga., five bass, 11-6, $469

               6^th:          Chance Hebert, Norcross, Ga., five bass, 10-3, $410

               6^th:          Harold Addison II, Columbia, S.C., four bass, 10-3, $410

               8^th:          Bryan Price, Canton, Ga., four bass, 9-14, $351

               9^th:          Robert Gilliam, Macon, Ga., five bass, 8-9, $312

               10^th:        Deron Burdette, Fayetteville, Ga., three bass, 8-3, $273

Stephen Clay of Milledgeville, Georgia, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce, and earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $345.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five winners in each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 12-14 BFL Regional Championship on Wheeler Lake in Decatur, Alabama. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.

The 2017 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they 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 performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the 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 2017 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 274 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa 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 Snapchat.

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