In one of the most dramatic finishes in FLW history, Quaker State pro Scott Canterbury of Springville, Alabama, brought a five-bass limit to the scale weighing 17 pounds even to win the Walmart FLW Tour at Beaver Lake presented by Jack Link’s Sunday and the top prize of $125,000.
Canterbury’s four-day total of 62 pounds, 7 ounces narrowly edged out day two leader Darrel Robertson (61-4) who finished second and Keystone Light pro Jeff Sprague (60-13) in third place.
“Beaver Lake has been pretty special this week,” said Canterbury, who earned the first FLW Tour win of his career and surpassed $1 million dollars in career earnings with FLW. “This lake is fishing so good right now, and the best anglers in the world were right behind me. I knew that I was going to have to catch 15 pounds today to even have a shot, and to go out and catch 17 – I have truly been blessed.”
Canterbury won the tournament by covering new water each day in pockets and coves up the White River.
“Every tournament here for the past three months has been won on the lower end of the lake, in the dirtiest water,” Canterbury said. “I fished down there a bit on the first day, but I’m more comfortable with where I’ve fished the last eight times that I have been here and that is up the river.
“I went up there after lunch on day one and caught a couple of decent fish, so I decided to put all of my eggs in that basket,” Canterbury continued. “There wasn’t as much pressure there, and the key to Beaver Lake is being able to run new water each day.”
Canterbury said that 19 of the 20 fish that he weighed in came via flipping and pitching a Dirty Jigs Tackle Scott Canterbury Flippin’ Jig with a NetBait Paca Chunk and a Dirty Jigs Tackle Luke Clausen Compact Pitchin’ Jig with a NetBait Paca Slim. He boated one keeper off of a bed with a Texas-rigged NetBait Paca Craw.
“I started this season with one of the worst tournaments of my career at Lake Okeechobee, and my goal here was to battle back and earn some solid points towards qualifying for the Forrest Wood Cup in my home state,” Canterbury went on to say. “To finally win one of these is unreal.”
The top 10 pros finished the tournament:
1st: Quaker State pro Scott Canterbury, Springville, Ala., 20 bass, 62-7, $125,000
2nd: Darrel Robertson, Jay, Okla., 20 bass, 61-4, $30,500
3rd: Keystone Light pro Jeff Sprague, Point, Texas, 20 bass, 60-13, $25,000
4th: Scott Martin, Clewiston, Fla., 20 bass, 59-8, $20,000
5th: J.T. Kenney, Palm Bay, Fla., 20 bass, 57-15, $19,500
6th: Livingston Lures pro Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., 20 bass, 57-12, $18,000
7th: Quaker State pro Matt Arey, Shelby, N.C., 20 bass, 55-1, $17,000
8th: Chris Whitson, Louisville, Tennessee, 20 bass, 53-4, $16,000
9th: Livingston Lures pro Stetson Blaylock, Benton, Ark., 20 bass, 51-4, $15,000
10th: Andrew Upshaw, Sapulpa, Okla., 20 bass, 51-1, $14,000
For a full list of results visit FLWFishing.com.
Overall there were 50 bass weighing 141 pounds, 9 ounces caught by pros Sunday. All of the final 10 pros weighed in five-bass limits.
Joey Cifuentes of Clinton, Arkansas, won the co-angler division and $25,000 Friday with a two-day total of nine bass weighing 25 pounds, 12 ounces, followed by Mike Devere of Berea, Kentucky, who finished in second place with 10 bass weighing 23 pounds, 6 ounces worth $7,500.
