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7 . PHOENIX BASS FISHING LEAGUE PRESENTED BY T-H MARINE REGION 6 REGIONAL Lake Ouachita October 21 – 23 |
Kevin Brown has been fishing Lakes Ouachita and Hamilton for “ 20 to 30 years ,” so winning on one lake to have a chance at winning on the other ( after receiving an automatic bid to the All-American on Lake Hamilton in 2022 ) was his ultimate goal in the BFL Regional Championship for Region 6 .
Brown checked the first box with an impressive showing in late October , weighing in 15 keepers for 40-13 to outpace second-place finisher Mike Brueggen by more than 7 pounds . He did so by virtue of a Yum Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr . tipped with Yum Pulse swimbaits and a War Eagle finesse jig , which he fished on channel swings in 23 to 28 feet of water that featured some brush and rock .
Throughout the event , Brown totally ignored the bank , opting instead for about 30 offshore spots
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that were holding fish . Each spot was a little different , though , with some fish setting up on the bottom and others suspending above structure and cover .
8 . TOYOTA SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY GUARANTEED RATE Pickwick Lake October 28 – 30
Brent Crow , who guides on Pickwick Lake , had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do to secure a win on his home lake when the Toyota Series Championship began — plying the tailrace waters below the Wilson Dam — but it became apparent pretty quickly that the fast-moving current wasn ’ t going to be conducive in weighing in the winning bags .
Instead , Crow called an audible and moved closer to the Natchez Trace Bridge on Days 1 and 2 to tally just enough to make the Top 10 ( by virtue of a tiebreaker over Randy Blaukat ), though he was still in 10th place entering Day 3 with a ton of work to do .
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Fortunately for Crow , conditions finally lined up to put in some real work at the Wilson Dam tailrace . With the Tennessee Valley Authority only pulling 35,000 cubic feet per second the morning of the final day , Crow ran to his honey hole and put on a clinic , hooking up on nearly every cast for an hour .
When the dust had settled , Crow brought 23-1 to the scales on the final day to tally 52-2 for the event to hoist the winner ’ s trophy and a $ 247,500 check that included a $ 35,000 Phoenix bonus and other contingencies .
9 . PHOENIX BASS FISHING LEAGUE PRESENTED BY T-H MARINE WILD CARD Fort Loudoun and Tellico Lakes November 5-6
Despite weighing in just five keepers over two days of competition , Ryan Deal found the right quality at the right times to take down the $ 5,076 top prize and a berth in the 2022 All-American with a 1-pound , 1-ounce slim margin of
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victory in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Wild Card event on Fort Loudon and Tellico Lakes in Lenoir City , Tennessee .
Deal knew the fishing would be tough after one day of practice on Tellico , so he changed gears and decided to go find some current . He ran upriver after that , spending both tournament days running up the Tennessee River , past Knoxville , and into the French Broad and Holston Rivers where he was able to target smallmouth that eclipsed the 18-inch minimum for keeping .
There , Deal probed current breaks with a 1 / 2-ounce Lunker Lure Rattleback Flipping Jig paired with a Zoom Super Chunk Jr . on 20-poundtest fluorocarbon line due to the size of the fish he was targeting and the jagged , rocky shoreline they were often set up on .
Depending on the ferocity of the current — which dictated where the smallmouth were setting up — Deal either swam his jig or let it get down deep , often needing 30 or 40 casts at each spot to get the bites he needed .
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