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Marshall County's Bolton Wins $125,000 FLW Event

Marshall County's Bolton Wins $125,000 FLW Event
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By Joseph Opager, FLW
Jan. 14, 2019 | BROOKELAND
By Joseph Opager, FLW Jan. 14, 2019 | 07:36 PM | BROOKELAND
After fishing the FLW Tour for 23 years, pro angler Terry Bolton of Benton, Kentucky, scored his first tour win in 168 tries during the event held at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in east Texas.

Bolton claimed the $125,000 prize money in a dramatic final-day weigh-in on Monday. On the final day, Bolton brought in a five-bass limit totaling 17 pounds, 6 ounces. His four-day total of 20 bass weighing 91 pounds, 3 ounces earned him the victory by 12 ounces.

"This is pretty big for me," said Bolton, a 13-time FLW Cup qualifier. "I was going to retire at the end of last year, but my wife talked me into coming back. I didn't think that I'd ever see this moment and today, it finally happened. This is only 30 years in the making right here."

Bolton caught most of his fish throughout the event in an area that he described as a drain or void in a grassline. He said the key for him was working his crankbaits at different depths around the grasslines.

Bolton said, "I had one drain that was really special that I found on the last day of practice. I idled across it and saw them all on the depth finder, made two casts and caught a 6-pounder and a 2½-pounder. I left right away and didn't really know what was there.

"I caught 20 pounds, 10 ounces there the first day and left it at 12:30," Bolton continued. "Then, I pulled in the next day and got up to 27-28 pounds and was going to leave but I was afraid that a local boat would get in there. I decided to stay and then, lo and behold, I catch the 9-8 and end up weighing in 33 pounds. I don't know if you call it dumb luck or a good decision, but staying there Friday is what won me this tournament."

Bolton threw a Rapala DT10 (demon), DT14 (demon) and DT16 (Caribbean shad) and also mixed in a chartreuse and white-colored ¾-ounce Accent Lures spinnerbait with double-willow blades to catch a couple of keepers throughout the week. He credited his 7-foot, 11-inch Lew's rod paired with a Lew's BB1 Pro reel as being crucial to his success.

Bolton said, "The key for me was definitely the crankbaits. I had to put the bait just above them in order to get bit."

Ramie Colson, Jr. of Cadiz finished 37th at the event.

The top 10 pros on Sam Rayburn Reservoir:

1st:          Rapala pro Terry Bolton, Benton, Ky., 20 bass, 91-3

2nd:         Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., 20 bass, 90-7

3rd:         Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 15 bass, 88-13

4th:         Chad Warren, Sand Springs, Okla., 20 bass, 83-13

5th:         Evinrude pro Jim Tutt, Longview, Texas, 20 bass, 78-7

6th:         Colby Schrumpf, Highland, Ill., 20 bass, 70-7
7th:         Jordan Osborne, Longview, Texas, 20 bass, 67-10

8th:         Tom Redington, Royse City, Texas, 20 bass, 67-10
9th:         Sam George, Athens, Ala., 15 bass, 67-10

10th:       Charles Sim, Nepean, Ontario, Canada, 19 bass, 60-2

Complete results for the entire field can be found at FLWFishing.com.

On the Net:

FLW Fishing website
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