Conner Cunningham, a 30-year-old beverage distributor from Springfield, Missouri who competes in the BFL Ozark Division, made his Whopper Plopper bites pay off in a big way this week by winning the 39th annual BFL All-American Championship on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Cunningham led the event from start to finish and ended the job Saturday with an 11-pound, 10-ounce limit, which gave him the win with a three-day total of 44-04 – an 11-11 margin of victory. Cunningham would have won if he had not even made a cast on Saturday.
“Lake Hamilton fishes a lot like my lakes from back home in Missouri, so I’ve just kind of applied what I know from fishing back home over the years and it worked out well here,” Cunningham said.
While many competitors spent the event offshore targeting the numerous Lake Hamilton brush piles, Cunningham caught all but one of his 15 weigh-in fish in just 2 feet of water or less.
“I fished pretty much the whole entire lake – I ran 30 to 40 spots, and that was easy because this lake is so small,” Cunningham said. “I tried to conserve my fish throughout the week. On Day 1 it took me until around 11:30 (a.m.) to get my weight, then until 12:30 (p.m.) on Day 2. Then I’d go deep and try to help my co-angler out as best as I could. And I knew that I could catch a good one out there, too – I did yesterday.”
Cunningham credited a bone-colored River2Sea Whopper Plopper 110 as being his key bait throughout the week, but he also mixed in a white Crock-O-Gator X-Bite buzzbait with a (Zoom) Horny Toad trailer and a football jig. He caught a key fish Friday deep-cranking a Strike King 6XD crankbait.
“I had been down here in April and knew that I could catch 10 pounds out deep fairly easily,” Cunningham said. “I spent our optional practice day committed to topwater and it didn’t take me long to find a good bite. The key was just covering water.”
Cunningham has aspired to taking his bass-fishing career to the next level – he had planned to compete as a boater in the Toyota Series this season, until a scheduling conflict forced him to scrap those plans and concentrate on the BFLs. Now, with a $120,000 payday, Cunningham says he is ready to make the move up.
“This money means a lot, and it gives me the security as I take that next jump up,” Cunningham said. “This is huge for me in my journey to doing this full-time. I aspire to fish professionally one day and this win certainly helps with that. I’m just speechless and so blessed and honored to be here and win. This is a good group of guys in this field, so to win this one is really special.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1st: Conner Cunningham, Springfield, Mo., 10 bass, 44-04, $120,000
2nd: Hunter Eubanks, Inman, S.C., 10 bass, 32-09, $20,000
3rd: Sean Wieda, Alexandria, Ky., 15 bass, 31-12, $15,000
4th: Brian Bean, Hot Springs, Ark., 15 bass, 30-12, $14,000
5th: Andy Wicker, Cayce, S.C., 15 bass, 29-12, $13,000
6th: David Lowery, Milledgeville, Ga., 15 bass, 29-06, $12,000
7th: Ryan Powroznik, Hopewell, Va., 15 bass, 28-04, $11,000
8th: Jonathan Crossland, Chapin, S.C., 15 bass, 26-10, $10,000
9th: Justin Kimmel, Athens, Ga., 15 bass, 28-05, $9,000
10th: Mike Reid, Greenville, Texas, 15 bass, 28-09, $8,000
The eight boaters who finished highest from their region and earned an automatic qualification in to the 2022 Toyota Series Championship on Lake Guntersville are:
Brian Bean, Hot Springs, Ark.
Connor Cunningham, Springfield, Mo.
Hunter Eubanks, Inman, S.C.
David Lowery, Milledgeville, Ga.
Matthew Marinelli, Salem, Conn.
Ryan Powroznik, Hopewell, Va.
Wade Ramsey, Choctaw Okla .
Sean Wieda, Alexandria, Ky.
