Catawba’s Queen Wins T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League North Carolina Division Opener on Lake Norman presented by Navionics

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Boater Jeff Queen of Catawba, North Carolina, caught five bass weighing 22 pounds, 1 ounce, Saturday to win the 2018 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) North Carolina Division opener on Lake Norman presented by Navionics. Queen earned $3,918 for his victory.

“I was fishing on the south end of the lake, targeting sandy flats and boat docks,” said Queen, who earned his third career win in BFL competition. “I like these early in the year tournaments because they fit my pattern real well.”

Queen said that he caught his fish on two baits – a 3/8-ounce KJ Camo-colored Queen Tackle Flippin jig and a ½-ounce Greenpumpkin Green-colored Queen Tackle Hammerhead jig.

“I threw the Flippin jig around docks, and used the Hammerhead on the sandy flats,” Queen said. “The Hammerhead is a football-head jig that has a tungsten bead in the head, and it gives a crayfish clicking noise that makes the bass go crazy. I had it trailered with a Bizz Baits Cutter Craw and I was just imitating a crayfish as close as I could.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

              1st:          Jeff Queen, Catawba, N.C., five bass, 22-1, $3,918

              2nd:         Nick Miller, Terrell, N.C., five bass, 19-9, $2,344

              3rd:         Preston Harris, State Road, N.C., five bass, 16-6, $1,638

              4th:         Dylan Fulk, Concord, N.C., five bass, 15-5, $867

              5th:         Alvin Shaw, Roaring Gap, N.C., five bass, 14-9, $744

              6th:         Mark Carpenter, Lincolnton, N.C., five bass, 14-3, $682

              7th:         Rob Digh, Denver, N.C., five bass, 14-1, $620

              8th:         Doug Easton, Huntersville, N.C., five bass, 14-0, $558

              9th:         Carson Orellana, Mooresville, N.C., five bass, 13-15, $496

              10th:       Hank Cherry, Maiden, N.C., five bass, 13-13, $434

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Miller caught a bass weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $485.

Tristen Trull of Mount Holly, North Carolina, won the Co-angler Division and $1,859 Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 8 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

              1st:          Tristen Trull, Mount Holly, N.C., five bass, 12-8, $1,859

              2nd:         Cameron Baker, Monroe, N.C., five bass, 10-15, $929

              3rd:         Brian Souza, Cornelius, N.C., five bass, 10-13, $819

              4th:         Nathan Grose, Summersville, W. Va., five bass, 10-12, $484

              5th:         Jeff Scism, Shelby, N.C., five bass, 9-13, $372

              6th:         Matt Markland, Blowing Rock, N.C., five bass, 9-11, $341

              7th:         Brian Transon, Sherrils Ford, N.C., five bass, 9-9, $310

              8th:         Greg Bragg, Kings Mountain, N.C., four bass, 9-3, $279

              9th:         John Carroll, Galax, Va., five bass, 9-2, $248

              10th:       Steve Cannon, Wilkesboro, N.C., four bass, 9-0, $459

Cannon caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a 4-pound, 9-ounce fish. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $242.

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) North Carolina Division event on Lake Norman presented by Navionics was hosted by the Mooresville Convention & Visitors Bureau.

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. 11-13 BFL Regional Championship on the Chesapeake Bay in North East, Maryland. 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 2018 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. The 2018 BFL All-American will be held May 31-June 2 at Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

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 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. 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.

# # #