Not a newcomer to the bass-tournament crowd but a rookie this season on the FLW Tour, Enigma Pro Bradley Dortch came from fifth place to win the third stop on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Leesburg, Florida.
Unlike a lot of the top finishers who were sight fishing for bedding bass, Dortch caught his fish on championship Sunday switching between a lipless crankbait and a large plastic worm in junebug color to sack up 22-2 pounds of Florida largemouths. Starting the day off with a 7-pounder and a fish nearly 4 pounds right behind it proved that deciding to go winding instead of pitching a soft stick bait to grass and lily pads was a great idea.
His gut instinct was right. He figured a lot of the fish had moved due to the incoming front. The decision to move as well as picking up a large worm late in the morning and making a long casts to catch a second bass of nearly 7 pounds was right-on.
Dortch sacked up his huge bag on FLW Live with the huge smile on his face while the current leader Debary Florida native, John Cox was struggling to get his bedding fish to bite. In the end, Dortch bested the three-day leader by about 4 pounds to take home the Tour Trophy and a $100,000 grand check.
All the while, another well-known Florida pro, J.T. Kenny, was having a great day, bringing a huge 27-pound-plus sack to the scale. It was the tournamentâs largest five-fish limit, and Kenny came all the way from tenth place to take second, less than 2 pounds behind Dortch.
Only the top five anglers had the FLW-Live cameras on board, so the updates to the FLW site were coming in via an I-Pad from the Marshall onboard J.T. Kennyâs boat. Kennyâs huge sack had him on the hot-seat until Dortch brought his 22-pound plus sack to the scale.
The three-day leader, Mud Hole Custom Tackle Pro John Cox was last to the weigh scale, and after a tough day trying to get several bedding fish in the 5-pound-plus class to bite, he brought in a limit of just over 14 pounds. He ended up placing third right behind Kenny.
The âAngler of the Yearâ points leader, FLW Pro Brian Thrift, ended up in sixth place after finishing second in the last three tournaments he has fished. This makes five straight top-10 finishes for Thrift, which is the longest streak for any tour angler since Kevin Van Dam had 10 in a row.
With his tournament win, Dortch has now earned 500 total Angler of the Year points on the season and is in second place in the coveted Rookie of the Year (ROY) race. Justin Atkins, of Florence, Ala., the current ROY leader, is one spot ahead of Dortch with 502.