| Boater Josh Womack of Gallatin, Tennessee, and Strike-King co-angler Ricky England of Sparta, Tennessee. |
| Sparta’s England Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division GALLATIN, Tenn. (June 17, 2024) – Boater Josh Womack of Gallatin, Tennessee, caught a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 9 ounces, Sunday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Old Hickory Lake . Hosted by Sumner County Tourism, the tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL Music City Division. This was a makeup event for the tournament originally scheduled for May 11 at Center Hill Lake, which had to be cancelled due to unsafe boating conditions. Womack earned $2,748 for his victory. When asked to break it down to the most important key for him on Old Hickory, Womack kept it simple: “Covering a lot of water.” He spent Sunday running and gunning in the mid-lake area. “I was fishing a mixture of brush piles and grass,” he said. “Just a jig and a crankbait in brush piles and a ChatterBait in grass. The brush piles were offshore a little deeper. The grass was shallow, like 1 to 3 feet.” In Saturday’s Old Hickory tournament, Womack finished 25th and spent most of the day trying to “make a deep bite work.” He didn’t make that same mistake on Sunday. “At the end of the day yesterday (Saturday) I went up shallow and caught a few,” he said. “And it kind of clued me in that the fish were not as deep as I tried to make them be. I spent a lot more time up shallow today (Sunday).” Womack started the day shallow, then worked some deeper brush. Then Womack went back shallow to the grass and made a couple key culls. Later in the day, he culled a couple more times from the brush. That back-and-forth, shallow-to-deep-to-shallow approach got him over the hump and into the winner’s circle for a Father’s Day victory. Womack’s go-to lure up shallow was a white Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer. His main brush pile bait was a homemade 3/8-ounce jig with a green pumpkin skirt with some blue mixed in. The top 10 boaters finished the tournament: 1st: Josh Womack, Gallatin, Tenn., five bass, 16-9, $2,748 2nd: Jacob Woods, Loudon, Tenn., five bass, 14-15, $1,374 3rd: Josh Tramel, Smithville, Tenn., five bass, 14-0, $916 4th: Jeremy Walker, Mount Juliet, Tenn., five bass, 13-12, $1,141 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus) 5th: Tim Messer, Hendersonville, Tenn., five bass, 13-9, $550 6th: Anthony Guffie, Lafayette, Tenn., five bass, 13-3, $504 7th: Joey Mallicoat, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 12-10, $458 8th: Willie McMullen, Covington, Ga., five bass, 12-4, $412 9th: Mickey Beck, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 11-15, $366 10th: Brady Duncan, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 11-12, $321 Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com. Jay Melton of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $305.  Ricky England of Sparta, Tennessee, won the Strike King co-angler division and $1,370 Sunday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 3 ounces. The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished: 1st: Ricky England, Sparta, Tenn., five bass, 11-3, $1,370 2nd: Barry McEntire, Lebanon, Tenn., four bass, 9-14, $832 3rd: Ike Gillentine, Quebeck, Tenn., five bass, 9-5, $457 4th: Roderick Green, Columbia, Tenn., five bass, 9-2, $320 5th: Alex Roberts, Franklin, Tenn., four bass, 9-1, $274 6th: Earl Ross Jr., Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., five bass, 9-0, $251 7th: Kyle Pillars, Ashland City, Tenn., five bass, 8-6, $228 8th: Taylor McMullen, Oxford, Ga., three bass, 7-13, $206 9th: Adam Radovic, Brecksville, Ohio, four bass, 7-10, $183 10th: Rodney Powell, Many, La., four bass, 7-3, $160 Barry McEntire of Lebanon, Tennessee, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $147, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 4 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day. After four events, Jacob Woods of Loudon, Tennessee, leads the Fishing Clash Music City Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 971 points, while Wayne Crouch of Jamestown, Tennessee, leads the Fishing Clash Music City Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 975 points. The next event for BFL Music City Division anglers will be held Sept. 7-8, at Dale Hollow Lake in Byrdstown, Tennessee. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 17-19 BFL Regional tournament on Clarks Hill Lake in Appling, Georgia. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard. The 2024 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 45 boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL 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. |
