Mitchell Gowen and Jonathan Cimino thanked the good lord for a little divined intervention on Sunday as they carried a 23lb 2oz sack of Wheeler Lake Bass to the Joe Wheeler Sate Park Scales. “This is our home lake and we had not been doing well” stated Gowen who will be a junior this fall. “Today we just stumbled into some great fish in deeper water and used crankbaits to get to them. Fortunately they bit and we didn’t miss any recalled Cimino, also a junior, who shared the teams winning ways with FLW Pro Scott Martin who emceed the event which was held in conjunction with the FLW Tour and the BFL All-American in Florence Alabama. “We have another tournament coming up in a week of so we don’t want to tell too many of our secrets” stated the smiling pair! The winning bag was anchored by a 6lb 1oz beauty which also claimed the Lew’s Big Bass Award for the contest.
Finishing right behind the Decatur Team was Zeke Gossett and Ryan Shields from Hazel Green/Pell City High Schools. They brought in a very respectable 5 fish limit that weighed in at 20lb 13oz to finish second. They also had a 5lb 15oz toad anchoring their bag as well. Rounding out the top three teams which all qualified for the SE Conference Regional event coming up this fall were Lee Mattox and Mason Jones of Cullman High School who had 16lb 4 oz bag to finish third.
The top three teams were honored on the FLW stage just before the pro weigh-in in Florence in front of a huge crowd who had gathered to watch and enjoy the FLW Expo.
The event featured teams from 5 different states and included a team who traveled all the way form Jenks Oklahoma to compete in the event.
The TBF/FLW Open Series will continue on June 28th with another open event at Lake Barkley. Check Highschoolfishing.org for details.
