Virginia’s Brown Wins T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League Northeast Division Opener Presented by Navionics on Potomac River

Pennsylvania’s Heivly Takes Co-angler Title

MARBURY, Md. – Derek Brown of Charlottesville, Virginia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 5 ounces to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Northeast Division opener on the Potomac River presented by Navionics. Brown took home $5,057 for his victory.

“We had rain and 15 mile-per-hour winds almost all day,” said Brown, who earned his third career-victory in BFL competition. “I fished Aquia Creek and had an area that I liked from practice, but once I got there it was blown out so I had to move to somewhere I hadn’t hit before.”

Brown said he settled for a spawning bay near the mouth of the creek. He said he went up and down the grassline and was able to put three bass in the boat.

“I used a Z-Man ChatterBait as I moved toward the rear and a white Strike King Tour Grade Swim Jig as I came back out,” said Brown. “I was in about 5 feet of water. All of my fish came from the grass.”

Brown said he rounded out his limit in a nearby bay with the same arsenal of baits.

“I only caught six keepers all day,” said Brown. “I just kept slow-rolling my lures. They didn’t want to eat anything fast at all.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1^st:          Derek Brown, Charlottesville, Va., five bass, 20-5, $5,057

               2^nd:         Bill Duckardt, Pittsgrove, N.J., five bass, 19-12, $2,528

               3^rd:          Joe Zombek II, Scranton, Pa., five bass, 19-11, $1,685

               4^th:          Terry Stevens, Sterling, Va., five bass, 18-8, $1,380

               5^th:          Brian Sullivan, Hagerstown, Md., five bass, 17-15. $1,011

               6^th:          John Lorenzo, Kane, Pa., five bass, 17-13, $927

               7^th:          Richard Haber, Linthicum, Md., five bass, 17-0, $843

               8^th:          Joseph Amberg Sr., Hawley, Pa., five bass, 16-12, $674

               8^th:          Edward Barton, Crofton, Md., five bass, 16-12, $674

               8^th:          Travis Manson, Conshohocken, Pa., five bass, 16-12, $674

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.  

Marvin Reese of Randallstown, Maryland, caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – which earned him the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $780.

Andrew Heivly of Malvern, Pennsylvania, weighed in five bass totaling 17 pounds, 13 ounces Saturday to win the Co-angler Division and the top prize of $2,528.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1^st:          Andrew Heivly, Malvern, Pa., five bass, 17-13, $2,528

               2^nd:         Damon Reid, Bowie, Md., five bass, 17-8, $1,264

               3^rd:          Richard Falcon, Arlington, Va., five bass, 17-6, $845

               4^th:          Martin Schaffmeir, Washington Depot, Conn., five bass, 15-15, $548

               4^th:          Mike Wotanowski, Lake Hopatcong, N.J., five bass, 15-15, $548

               6^th:          Richard Pace, Fredrick, Md., five bass, 15-10, $464

               7^th:          Alonzo Mealing, Alexandria, Va., five bass, 15-8, $421

               8^th:          Christopher Trovinger, Smithsburg, Md., five bass, 15-7, $379

               9^th:          Curtis Glover, Wynnewood, Pa., five bass, 15-6, $437

               10^th:        Teina McQuay, Harrisburg, Pa., five bass, 15-5, $280

               10^th:        Ray Betts, Centreville, Va., five bass, 15-5, $280

Michael Seamon of Ovid, New York, caught the biggest bass among Co-angler Division anglers, a fish weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $390.

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 the James River in Williamsburg, Virginia. 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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