Johnson Gets No. 1 on Lanier
Georgia pro finally breaks the ice on his home pond
Boater Jason Johnson of Dawsonville, Georgia, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 19 pounds, 1 ounce to win the 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine at Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Georgia. For his victory, Johnson earned a total of $13,596, including the lucrative $7,000 FLW PHOENIX Bonus contingency award. The victory was the first win of Johnson’s FLW career.
“I’ve been close in the Bass Fishing League events several time, and it feels great to finally get a win,” says Johnson, who earned his first victory after eight prior top-10 finishes in FLW competition. “It’s even sweeter with the new Phoenix contingency award. It made for a really good payday.”
Johnson spent his tournament day fishing on the south end of the lake, near the Buford Dam. He targeted timberlines in 35 to 50 feet of water – where the timber met off of a point or hump – and had 12 bites all day, landing nine.
“It was pretty much Lanier staples – a shaky head and drop-shot,” he says. “I’ve fished quite a few local tournaments over the past couple of weekends and I just got lucky that the fish have been there every week and are staying in their wintertime patterns.”
Johnson's key drop-shot bait was a hologram dawn-colored Zoom Z3 original worm, as he caught three of his five keepers by dropping the bait directly to them after seeing them on his Lowrance units. He also added a few fish on a Georgia Blade ½-ounce green-pumpkin-colored jig and a ½-ounce SpotSticker Underspin with an albino-colored Zoom Fluke Jr.
“I’m signed up for all of the Savannah River Division events as well,” Johnson went on to say. “I’m looking forward to fishing at Lake Keowee next weekend and I’m going to try my best to qualify for that BFL Regional tournament on Lanier in October.”
The top 10 boaters:
1st: Jason Johnson of Dawsonville, Ga., five bass, 19-1, $6,596
2nd: Mitchell Mullins of Gainesville, Ga., five bass, 18-11, $2,798
3rd: Nathan Ragsdale of Athens, Ga., five bass, 17-10, $1,867
4th: Joe Eubanks of Marietta, Ga., five bass, 17-8, $1,306
5th: Jason Densmore of Dawsonville, Ga., five bass, 16-13, $1,119
6th: Clabion Johns of Social Circle, Ga., five bass, 16-10, $1,931
7th: Rusty Evans of Roswell, Ga., five bass, 16-3, $933
8th: Jerry Brumfield of Cumming, Ga., five bass, 16-1, $839
9th: Phil Johnson of Alpharetta, Ga., five bass, 15-11, $746
10th: Brad Wiley of Alto, Ga., five bass, 15-8, $653
Complete results can be found at FLWFishzing.com.
Johns brought a 5-pound, 2-ounce bass to the scale to win the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $905.
Johnson took home an extra $7,000 as the highest finishing FLW PHOENIX BONUS member. Boaters are eligible to win up to an extra $7,000 per event in each Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine tournament if all requirements are met. More information on the FLW PHOENIX BONUS contingency program can be found at PhoenixBassBoats.com.
Justin Thompson of Gainesville, Georgia, won the Co-angler Division and $2,798 Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 14 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers:
1st: Justin Thompson of Gainesville, Ga., five bass, 14-8, $2,798
2nd: David Quintero of Flowery Branch, Ga., five bass, 14-7, $1,851
3rd: David Uselton of McDonough, Ga., five bass, 14-5, $931
4th: William Mercer of Cumming, Ga., five bass, 14-0, $653
5th: Tyler Pendley of Jasper, Ga., five bass, 13-4, $560
6th: Brent Thomas of Cleveland, Ga., five bass, 13-0, $513
7th: Kyle Rogers of Cleveland, Ga., five bass, 12-13, $466
8th: Levon Fattal of Suwanee, Ga., five bass, 12-7, $420
9th: Tim Greene of Loganville, Ga., five bass, 12-4, $373
10th: Nicholas Ray of Milledgeville, Ga., five bass, 11-15, $326
Quintero caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $452.
The 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine on Lake Lanier was hosted by the Gainesville Convention & Visitors Bureau. It was the opening event of five qualifying tournaments in the Bulldog division.
The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the Bulldog division based on point standings, along with the five winners of each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 16-18 Bass Fishing League Regional Championship on Lake Cherokee in Jefferson City, Tennessee, hosted by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce. Boaters will compete for a $60,000 prize package, including a new 18-foot Phoenix bass boat with a 200-horsepower outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new 18-foot Phoenix bass boat with a 200-horsepower outboard.
The 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine 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 Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American.
The 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American will be held April 30 through May 2 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina and is hosted by Visit Anderson. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers plus tournament winners from each Phoenix Bass Fishing League division earn priority entry into the FLW Series, the pathway to the FLW Pro Circuit and ultimately the MLF Bass Pro Tour, where top pros compete with no entry fees.