LAKE DARDANELLE SET TO HOST COSTA FLW SERIES CENTRAL DIVISION OPENER PRESENTED BY MERCURY
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (March 22, 2016) – The Costa FLW Series is headed to Lake Dardanelle March 31 to April 2 for a tournament presented by Mercury when as many as 400 pros and co-anglers will take to the water for the first stop of 2016 in the Central Division.
“Lake Dardanelle is well-populated with bass so I think we’re going to see anglers utilizing a lot of different areas and techniques,” said Walmart FLW Tour pro Scott Suggs of Alexander, Arkansas, the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup Champion. “Both prespawn and spawning bass will be in play which means more options for catching fish.
“In areas closer to the main river, they’ll be targeting prespawners,” Suggs continued. “The majority of the lake is stained, so we’ll likely see a lot of moving baits in play such as vibrating jigs and spinnerbaits. If the water is clear, competitors will be able to slow things down with a Texas-rigged worm or a swimbait.”
Suggs said that anglers who choose to focus on spawning bass will catch them ”blind fishing” – a term he uses to describe catching spawning bass in dirty water.
“We’ll likely see competitors dialing in on what depth and cover the bass are spawning at to find a pattern,” said Suggs. “Basically they’ll be catching spawners they can’t see. Typical spawning baits like wacky-rigged worms will be the deal. That’s how I think a lot of fish are going to be caught at this tournament.”
Suggs went on to say that a three-day total nearing 55 pounds should be enough to win the event.
“The lake is right on the verge of producing some really big weights,” said Suggs. “If someone gets the right thing going, they should be able to bring in at least two 20-pound stringers with an additional 15-pounder to round it out.”
Anglers will take off from Lake Dardanelle State Park located at 2428 Marina Road in Russellville at 7 a.m. CST each day. Weigh-in on Thursday and Friday will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at Walmart located at 2409 E. Main St. in Russellville beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The tournament is being hosted by the Russellville Advertising and Promotions offices.
Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger Z175 with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2016 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 3-5 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Costa FLW Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
For Beebee, it was his second High School Fishing state championship win. In 2014 he and partner Will Brady caught the largest five-bass limit ever weighed in FLW/TBF High School Fishing history – 32 pounds – to win the title on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson. 
“The key for me was fishing the docks and banks that the wind was blowing into,” said Kitts, who earned the first victory of his career in FLW competition. “It was extremely windy and most people were trying to avoid it as much as possible, myself included. But once I started catching them I realized I needed to fish the areas where the bait was being blown.
“The win really caught my by surprise,” said Daughtry, who earned his first win in his 29th career tournament in FLW competition. “I knew that my 9-pounder was likely to win the big bass award, but I really didn’t think that I had enough weight to go with it to win. It was a very nice surprise.”
“I fished around 12 to 15 different staging areas and caught the majority of my fish in 10 to 14 feet of water,” said Johnson, who earned his second career BFL win on Dale Hollow Lake. “I caught 11 largemouth, with a few smallmouth mixed in. My limit that I weighed consisted of all largemouth, though, and all of the fish that went to the scale came on a Yum Baits Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr.”
