Mull Wins Walmart Bass Fishing League Event on Percy Priest Lake
Category: press release
Mar 9th, 2009 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Mar 9th, 2009 at 12:00 AM
SMYRNA, Tenn. (March 9, 2009) – Steve Mull of Lebanon, Tenn., won the Walmart Bass Fishing League® Music City Division tournament on Percy Priest Lake Saturday with a five-bass catch weighing 16 pounds, 0 ounces. The victory earned Mull $3,632 and placed him one step closer to qualifying for the Clarks Hill Lake Regional Championship in Appling, Ga., Oct. 15-17, where he could ultimately win a new Ranger boat and a Chevy truck.
“During practice, I started at one end of the lake and went to the other,” said Mull. “The fish were biting late in the day and I was concerned I didn’t have the weight.”
Mull caught his last three fish thirty-five minutes before time to weigh-in fishing shallow waters mid lake.
“I was one of the last ones to weigh-in,” Mull said. Some of his friends looked in the boat to see what he had and they told him, “You’ve got it!”
Rounding out the top five boaters are Andrew Crabtree of Cane Ridge, Tenn. (five bass, 13-7, $1,816); Billy Hinson of Mount Juliet, Tenn. (four bass, 11-15, $1,210); Donnie Rubel of Murfreesboro, Tenn. (three bass, 11-12, $847) and Dayton Blair of Mount Juliet, Tenn. (four bass, 11-5, $726).
Andrew Crabtree took home the Boater Division Big Bass award, earning $465 for a 6-pound, 4-ounce bass he caught.
Steve Davis of Smyrna, Tenn., earned $1,816 as the co-angler winner Saturday thanks to five bass weighing 13 pounds, 12 ounces that he caught on a Rapala jerkbait.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Jerrod Steward of Paris, Ky. (five bass, 10-10, $908); Lewis Qualls of Sparta, Tenn. (five bass, 9-10, $606); Chase Bradford of Dowelltown, Tenn. (three bass, 7-6, $424); and Doug Fraser of Ashland City, Tenn. (four bass, 7-3, $363).
Steve Davis earned $232 as the co-angler Big Bass winner after catching a 5-pound, 10-ounce bass.
The next Music City Division event will be held on the Old Hickory Lake in Gallatin, Tenn., March 28.
The top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers in each of the BFL’s 28 divisions at the end of the season advance to a no-entry-fee Regional Championship where boaters fish for a new Ranger boat and a Chevy truck and co-anglers fish for a new Ranger boat. Seven regional championships will each send six boaters and six co-anglers to the no-entry-fee Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy, which features a $1 million purse and a top award of $140,000 in the Boater Division and $70,000 in the Co-angler Division. Anglers who compete in all five regular-season events within a division but do not advance to a Regional Championship are eligible to compete in the Chevy Wild Card, which will also send six boaters and six co-anglers to the All-American for a total of 48 boaters and 48 co-anglers advancing through BFL competition.
The winning boater and winning co-angler at the All-American will advance to the no-entry-fee $2.5 million Forrest Wood Cup in Atlanta in 2010. This event, featuring a top award of $1 million, is the most lucrative tournament in all of competitive bass fishing. In all, the BFL offers weekend anglers the opportunity to qualify for three no-entry-fee championships with total cash awards exceeding $3.5 million. Plus, the top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers from each BFL division may move up to the Stren Series™ for 2010 while All-American champions have the option to advance directly to the Walmart FLW Tour®.
In BFL competition, boaters supply the boat and compete from the front deck against other boaters. Co-anglers compete from the back deck against other co-anglers.
As the nation’s leading provider of affordable, close-to-home weekend tournaments, the BFL is widely credited with opening competitive bass fishing to the masses. It also serves as a steppingstone for anglers who wish to advance to the Stren Series and ultimately the FLW Tour – bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament circuit.
Total awards are based on a full field of 200 boats in every tournament.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. FLW Outdoors also is taking fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports, $10 million in cash and prizes. Sign up for Player’s Advantage for only $10 to get your edge and win.