Johnson Earns First BFL Win on Old Hickory Lake

Daniel Johnson of Lebanon, Tennessee, brought five bass weighing 18 pounds, 7 ounces, to the scale Saturday to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Music City Division tournament on Old Hickory Lake presented by Navionics. Johnson took home $3,418 for his victory.

“I caught my fish on the upper end of the lake,” says Johnson, who earned his first career-win in FLW competition. “They were all from isolated wood – the bigger the wood, the better. I focused on bass in 1 to 3 feet of water and caught 11 keepers throughout the day.”

Johnson said he used tubes and beaver-style baits with a 5/8-ounce Jenko Fishing Creature Weight to catch his fish, and that he preferred black-and-blue and green-pumpkin colors.

“I had a limit early, but after the sun poked through I culled four of them out,” says Johnson. “The sunshine concentrated bass in the cover, which made them more predictable. I could hit the high-percentage areas and skip a lot more water. Everything just seemed to align with how I was fishing.”

The top 10 boaters:

1^st: Daniel Johnson, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 18-7, $3,418

2^nd: Dwight Fox, Gainesboro, Tenn., five bass, 17-4, $1,909

3^rd: Jason Lee, Baxter, Tenn., five bass, 14-9, $1,138

4^th: Hunter Bouldin, McMinnville, Tenn., five bass, 13-12, $898

5^th: Beau Grissim, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 13-11, $684

6^th: John Hopkins, Hendersonville, Tenn., five bass, 13-3, $627

7^th: Rodney Allen, Clarkrange, Tenn., five bass, 13-2, $570

8^th: Terry Steele, Sparta, Tenn., five bass, 12-7, $933

9^th: Steve Whitaker, Scottsville, Ky., five bass, 12-5, $456

10^th: Josh Tramel, Smithville, Tenn., five bass, 12-0, $399

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.  

Steele caught a 5-pound, 13-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $420.

Jaylen Andrews of Culleoka, Tennessee, won the Co-angler Division and $1,709 Saturday after catching three bass weighing 11 pounds, 15 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st: Jaylen Andrews, Culleoka, Tenn., three bass, 11-15, $1,709

2^nd: John Davenport, Huntsville, Ala., five bass, 9-6, $712

2^nd: Joey Myers, Gallatin, Tenn., five bass, 9-6, $912

4^th: Matthew Bouldin, Smithville, Tenn., five bass, 8-11, $399

5^th: Greg O’Neal, Winchester, Tenn., four bass, 8-8, $342

6^th: Edward Lovely, Manchester, Tenn., three bass, 7-12, $363

7^th: Roland Wade, Rocky Face, Ga., three bass, 6-15, $285

8^th: Mark Wedan, Freetown, Ind., three bass, 6-11, $256

9^th: Corey Poss, Smithville, Tenn., two bass, 6-10, $438

10^th: Joey D'Andrea, Knoxville, Tenn., three bass, 6-7, $199

Poss caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a fish weighing 4 pounds, 13 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $210.

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.