FLW Headed to Lake of the Ozarks

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) is heading to Lake of the Ozarks Oct. 25-27 for one of six BFL Regional Championship Tournaments. The three-day event, presented by Mercury, will feature the highest-ranked 45 boaters and 45 co-anglers from each of the Arkie, Cowboy, Great Lakes, and Okie BFL divisions, along with the five individual qualifying event winners.

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) is heading to Lake of the Ozarks Oct. 25-27 for one of six BFL Regional Championship Tournaments. The three-day event, presented by Mercury, will feature the highest-ranked 45 boaters and 45 co-anglers from each of the Arkie, Cowboy, Great Lakes, and Okie BFL divisions, along with the five individual qualifying event winners.

The winning boater will receive a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Evinrude outboard and a check for $20,000, while the winning co-angler will receive a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Evinrude outboard. The top six boaters and co-anglers at each regional will advance to one of the longest-running championships in bass fishing – the 2019 BFL All-American, which will take place May 30-June 1 on the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland.

A variety of tactics will likely be in play for competitors. When the Costa FLW Series visited Lake of the Ozarks Oct. 11-13, tournament champion Jeremy Lawyer focused on areas in and around the Gravois Arm, catching fish flipping a Zoom Magnum Trick Worm on a prototype JaKKed shaky-head rig. He also had key bites on a River2Sea Whopper Plopper. On the second day of the event, Lawyer also targeted wind-blown points and the first few docks inside a pocket close to the main lake with a Freedom Tackle Swing Buzz buzzbait and a Whopper Plopper.

Second-place finisher Garrett Paquette used a Texas-rigged Zoom Magnum Trick Worm with a ¼-ounce weight to fish docks, while Dennis Berhorst, who finished third, preferred a ¾-ounce Strike King jig with a NetBait Paca Chunk Sr. trailer or a Texas-rigged Chompers Boss Hawg on a 5/0-sized Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover Flipping Hook for offshore rock piles in 20 to 25 feet of water.

Anglers will take off from the Public Beach No. 2 ramp, located at 711 Public Beach Road in Osage Beach, at 7:30 a.m. CDT each day. Weigh-ins each day will be held at the ramp beginning at 3:30 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

The T-H Marine BFL Regional Tournament on Lake of the Ozarks is hosted by Tri-County Lodging Association.

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 2019 BFL All-American will take place May 30-June 1 on the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

About FLW: FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.