Arkansas River Bass Fishing League May 7, 2018

[Mike Cork]

Arkansas River Bass Fishing League May 7, 2018. Boater Eric Faucett of Norman, Oklahoma, caught five bass Saturday weighing 15 pounds, 7 ounces, to win the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Okie Division tournament on the Arkansas River. For his efforts, Faucett pocketed $6,019.
"I worked through shallow flats in Kerr Reservoir that had scattered cover – stumps, grass, laydowns – a lot of different stuff," said Faucett, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. "There were eight other boats in there, and I ended up fishing behind them."
Faucett said two of his fish came on a 3/8-ounce chartreuse and white-colored War Eagle spinnerbait with a gold willow-leaf blade and a red Colorado kicker blade, noting that they were two of his more quality bites. Of the other three bass that filled his limit, one came on a black Booyah Poppin' Pad Crasher Frog and the other two came on a black Stanley Top Toad.
"The reason I switched to the Top Toad was because the fishing slowed down and I wanted to give them something they had to react to," said Faucett. "I threw it on a high-speed Quantum S3 Tour reel with 7-to-1 ratio. The high-speed reel gave them as little time as possible to think about it."
Faucett said he caught around 30 fish throughout the day.
"They loved the frogs – after a while it was about sifting through the keepers," said Faucett.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
               1st:          Eric Faucett, Norman, Okla., five bass, 15-7, $6,019
               2nd:         Billy Hardin, Tuttle, Okla., five bass, 15-6, $2,860
               3rd:          Joe Erwin, Cleora, Okla., five bass, 14-12, $1,837
               4th:          Dale Hightower, Mannford, Okla., five bass, 14-0, $1,288
               5th:          John Shore, Owasso, Okla., five bass, 13-12, $1,104
               6th:          Jeff Dobson, Bartlesville, Okla., five bass, 13-9, $1,012
               7th:          Mark Johnson, Weleetka, Okla., five bass, 12-10, $920
               8th:          Jeff Peterson, Pryor, Okla., five bass, 12-6, $828
               9th:          Jason Beem, Gravette, Ark., four bass, 12-1, $736
               10th:        Jay Nyce, Rogers, Ark., five bass, 12-0, $644
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Jason Sandidge of Centerton, Arkansas, brought a 5-pound, 12-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day's Boater Big Bass award of $885.
Aaron Hemphill of Tulsa, Oklahoma, won the Co-angler Division and $2,960 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 11 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
               1st:          Aaron Hemphill, Tulsa, Okla., five bass, 11-8, $2,960
               2nd:         Stephen Delgado, Lee's Summit, Mo., three bass, 9-11, $1,430
               3rd:          Nathan Christie, Claremore, Okla., three bass, 9-3, $918
               4th:          Chase Williams, Riverton, Kan., four bass, 9-1, $644
               5th:          Shane McGlothlin, Anadarko, Okla., four bass, 8-11, $552
               6th:          Keith Baucom, Oklahoma City, Okla., four bass, 7-15, $506
               7th:          Darrin Allen, Mounds, Okla., three bass, 7-14, $460
               8th:          Lang Yang, Miami, Okla., three bass, 7-12, $635
               9th:          Jacob Girty, Porum, Okla., three bass, 7-3, $368
               10th:        Darin Comstock, Denison, Texas, three bass, 6-13, $322
Wyatt Asbill of Gans, Oklahoma, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 4 pounds, 5 ounces. The catch earned him the day's Co-angler Big Bass award of $221.
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. 25-27 BFL Regional Championship on the Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri. 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.