Elrod Wins Bass Fishing League Tournament on Smith Mountain Lake

HUDDLESTON, Va. (May 13, 2019) – Boater Bryan Elrod of Mechanicsville, Virginia, won the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Piedmont Division tournament on Smith Mountain Lake Saturday with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 1 ounce. For his efforts, Elrod pocketed $3,766.

“I targeted the shad spawn. I’d found multiple areas where the shad were spawning, but only one had fish in it – It was a point up the Roanoke River,” said Elrod, who notched his third career win in BFL competition. “I caught them from rip-rap in about 2 feet of water using a shad-colored [Heddon Zara] Spook. I caught four that I weighed on the Spook and one on a [shad-colored Rebel] Pop-R.

Elrod said he caught about 8 keepers during the tournament, citing the first hour of the day as the most productive.

“We went all over the lake running other stuff. The fish had spawned, and there were some areas with fry-guarders, but those fish were small. I only caught a few of those and they didn’t help me any,” said Elrod. “That area was really the only productive stop.”

Elrod went on to say that his winning limit consisted of four largemouth and one smallmouth.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1^st:          Bryan Elrod, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 17-1, $3,766

               2^nd:         Stephen Miller, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 16-15, $1,933

               3^rd:          Matt Hicks, Evington, Va., five bass, 15-15, $1,155

               4^th:          Keith Joyce, Apex, N.C., five bass, 15-14, $1,159

               5^th:          Dennis Burdette, Pembroke, Va., five bass, 15-9, $693

               6^th:          Rick Tilley, Moneta, Va., five bass, 15-4, $635

               7^th:          Tommy Little, Chester, Va., five bass, 15-1, $578

               8^th:          Powell Kemp, Scotland Neck, N.C., five bass, 14-13, $520

               9^th:          Justin Hicks, Roanoke, Va., five bass, 14-8, $462

               10^th:        Kevin Kane, Woodbridge, Va., five bass, 14-6, $404

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Taylor Godsey of Chester, Virginia, caught a 5-pound, 7-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $435. David Deciucis of Chester, Virginia, won the Co-angler Division and $1,896 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 15 pounds even.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1^st:          David Deciucis, Chester, Va., five bass, 15-0, $1,896

               2^nd:         Scott Howard, Bedford, Va., five bass, 14-4, $1,044

               3^rd:          Roland Burton, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 13-9, $614

               4^th:          Pat Kendrick, Bumpass, Va., five bass, 12-7, $394

               5^th:          Brian LaClair, Denton, Md., five bass, 12-6, $338

               6^th:          Timothy  Kinder, Manassas, Va., five bass, 12-3, $310

               7^th:          Mickey Bergeron, Amherst, Va., five bass, 11-14, $281

               8^th:          Gerald Heffler, Chester, Va., five bass, 11-12, $253

               9^th:          Tim Privette Jr., Wendell, N.C., five bass, 11-11, $225

               10^th:        Shawn Huwar, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 11-9, $197

Deciucis also caught the heaviest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 4 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $207.