GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (March 17, 2025) – Boater Brad Kell of Benton, Kentucky, caught a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 14 ounces, Sunday to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Kentucky-Barkley Lakes. The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL LBL Division. Kell earned $4,244 for his victory. Mother Nature presented a big challenge to the LBL anglers, giving them muddy water, high water and a north wind to contend with. Kell fell back on one of his tried-and-true tactics for the big Tennessee River reservoir.
“I did the same thing I’ve been doing for years – throwing a (lipless crankbait) on river bars and current breaks, looking for schools of smallmouth with my eyeballs and not necessarily forward-facing sonar. I never turned it on,” he said. “I found them just by fishing; fishing by the seat of my pants.”
To be clear, Kell wasn’t sight-fishing. It was way too muddy for that. But these days, casting and winding on main-lake bars without sonar can feel a little like stepping back in time. And time was also a factor for Kell.
“These were places that I’ve been fishing since I was 15 years old,” he said. “Sweet spots that I’ve found since I was a little kid. It’s related to the time of year. The fish are coming up to do their thing, and they get ganged up.”
Kell ran far enough south that he could see the Paris Landing bridge. There, he caught a limit of smallmouth bass, primarily from two schools. He had three other schools located, but the weather shut those fish down.
“It took a little bit (to get a bite),” he said. “My first spot didn’t pan out. I hung out there for about an hour. The second spot, it was on like Donkey Kong – 4- or 5-pounders on every cast. I lost a 7. I had a 7-pounder straighten out a split ring, and then it jumped up by the boat, and my co-angler (Kristin Hamilton), she saw it too. It was a 7-pound smallmouth all day long.”
Kell figures that giant bass created such a commotion that the rest of the school shut down because he never got another bite.
“The next spot, I caught them really good,” he continued. “They were smaller, but I did catch one that I weighed in. And when she (Hamilton) went to net the fish, it came off and the hook caught her right in the nose. The fish came off and fell in the net. She was bleeding. The fish was bleeding. It was pandemonium.”
After those two flurries, bites were tough to come by, but Kell had all he needed to sew up the win. He caught his fish primarily with Duo Realis G-Fix lipless crankbaits.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Brad Kell, Benton, Ky., five bass, 24-14, $4,244
2nd: Kane Hackemack, Georgetown, Ind., five bass, 23-7, $2,122
3rd: Levi Kohl, Edinburg, Ill., five bass, 22-8, $1,413
4th: Garrett McDowell, Windsor, Ill., five bass, 22-5, $990
5th: Harlan Thomas, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 21-14, $849
6th: Randy Stone, Dexter, Ky., five bass, 21-1, $778
7th: Josh Dowdy, Mayfield, Ky., five bass, 19-15, $707
8th: Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., five bass, 18-11, $637
9th: Harold Buchmeier, Gilbertsville, Ky., five bass, 18-5, $566
10th: Harrison Terry, Burns, Tenn., five bass, 18-0, $495
John Riegger of Metropolis, Illinois, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $600. Mike Westfall of Norris City, Illinois, won the co-angler division and $2,122 Sunday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 12 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Mike Westfall, Norris City, Ill., three bass, 12-12, $2,122
2nd: Philip Thomas, Clarksville, Tenn. three bass, 12-8, $1,061
3rd: Eric Law, Primm Springs, Tenn., three bass, 11-13, $707
4th: Jerry North II, Three Way, Tenn., three bass, 11-8, $495
5th: Jeff McWhorter, New Concord, Ky., three bass, 11-1, $424
6th: Jack Ryan, Salem, Ill., three bass, 10-12, $389
7th: Daniel Nolen, Lexington, Tenn., three bass, 10-4, $354
8th: Mike Raymer, Paris, Tenn., three bass, 9-9, $318
9th: Joshua Smith, Benton, Ky., three bass, 9-7, $283
10th: Bo Bivins, Evansville, Ind., three bass, 9-6, $248
Anthony Cancelli of Clarksville, Tennessee, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $300, catching a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
In addition to winning the tournament, Brad Kell of Benton, Kentucky, has the early lead the Fishing Clash LBL Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 250 points, while Mike Westfall of Norris City, Illinois, leads the Fishing Clash LBL Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 250 points.
The next event for BFL LBL Division anglers will be held May 10, at Kentucky-Barkley Lakes out of Gilbertsville, Kentucky.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-kentucky-barkley-31725.html
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