Search Results

Casey Ashley of Donalds finished a dominating week in dominating fashion on Sunday, bringing home the biggest bag of the day and winning the FLW Tour event on Lake Hartwell by almost 15 pounds.

Bass pro Casey Ashley of Donalds moved a big step closer to a $125,000 payday Saturday by bringing in the biggest bag of the day on the third day of the FLW Tour event on Lake Hartwell. Ashley will enter Sunday's final round with a lead of almost 10 pounds.

Weights were generally lower on Friday’s second day of the FLW Tour event on Lake Hartwell, but that didn’t hurt Casey Ashley of Donalds, who added a 5-fish limit that weighed 15 pounds, 13 ounces, to his leading first-day total to grab a lead of almost three pounds at the halfway point.

GREENVILLE -- Three pro bass fishermen from South Carolina are in the top 10 after the first day of the FLW Tour event on Lake Hartwell on Thursday, including leader Casey Ashley of Donalds. Ashley brought in a 5-fish limit that weighed 21 pounds, 7 ounces, good for a lead of better than two pounds over Skip Johnson of Goodells, Mich., who had 19-4

The Upstate will once again play host to 150 pro bass fishermen s and 150 co-anglers when the Walmart FLW Tour visits Lake Hartwell March 6-9. Daily takeoffs will take place at Clemson Marina in Seneca at 7 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 7:30 on Sunday. Weigh-ins will be at Clemson Marina at 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and at the Walmart in Seneca at 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Rain muddied the water at last weekend’s Bassmaster Classic, but it couldn’t stop South Carolina’s Casey Ashley from a finish among the leaders. Ashley, 30, from Donalds, finished 11th in the tournament, held on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville. His catch of 57 pounds, nine ounces got him his second 11th-place finish in a Classic; he was fourth after the first day and sixth after the second day

Casey Ashley stuck with the pattern and area that had him sitting sixth place going into the final day of competition in the 2014 Bassmaster Classic. And that decision cost him.

“People were saying it was going to clear up, and it did,” Ashley said. “I could see the bottom where I was fishing. And that’s not good.”

Ashley managed 15 pounds, 13, and slipped to 11th place.

Alabama’s Randy Howell had only two B.A.S.S. wins to his credit when his twelfth Bassmaster Classic competition began on Friday. He went into today’s final round in 11th place, 9 pounds behind the leader.

No one, including Howell really thought he had a shot.

“I didn’t expect to have the chance to win after the first day, and especially after yesterday,” Howell said.

But he whacked the bass today, putting 29 pounds, 2 ounces on the scales to seal the 2014 Bassmaster Classic championship and pocketing the $300,000 first-place prize.

Casey Ashley returned to the same ares of Lake Guntersville and fished the same pattern he identified on the first day of the 2014 Bassmaster Classic.

His reward was an 18-pound, 10-ounce stringer of bass that kept him in the hunt for the Classic title. His two-day total of 41-12 earned him a sixth-place ranking going into the final round of competition.

He is less than 6 pounds behind leader Edwin Evers — and that’s a weight that can easily be overcome on Guntersville.

Oklahoma’s Edwin Evers was the last to weigh in during the second day of the Bassmaster Classic, and when the scales settled he had claimed the lead of the so-called Superbowl of Fishing — but just barely.

Emcee Dave Mercer announced Evers needed 20 pounds, 9 ounces to claim the lead, and that’s exactly what the scales read.

The stringer brought Ever’s two-day weight to 47 pounds, 6 ounces.

Casey Ashley logged in 23 pounds, 2 ounces during the first day of competition in the 2014 Bassmaster Classic — and he wasn’t surprised at all.

“I really expected to catch them today,” the Donalds Bassmaster pro said. “I couldn’t sleep last night. My eyes popped open at 12:30 (a.m.), and I just laid in the dark for the next three hours.”

The day’s catch put him into fifth place going into Day 2.

Randall Tharp said local knowledge was one of the keys to his 27-pound, 8-ounce showing today that put him in lead of the 2014 Bassmaster Classic on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville.

“The fish are in some places I haven’t seen them in five to seven years,” the Florida pro said. “Every time I fish a tournament here this time of year, I make a point to check these places — and the fish haven’t been there in years.”

The Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) made the official announcement on Thursday that the Bassmasters Classic will return to Lake Hartwell and Greenville in 2015. Tournament dates – Feb. 20-22 – and other details were announced at a press conference at the Bon Secours Arena in Greenville, where daily weigh-ins will be held.

The Bassmaster Classic will return to Lake Hartwell and South Carolina’s Upstate in 2015, bringing with it an approximate $30 million impact on the local economy. 

“We are excited about it,” Tommy Dunn, chairman of the Anderson County Council told the Anderson Independent Mail. “It is the Super Bowl of fishing tournaments.”