FLW Cup heads to Lake Hamilton
by Justin Onslow, FLW Fishing 7 Aug 2019 15:47 BST
Lake Hamilton - FLW Cup © FLW, LLC
The FLW Cup is a week away, and 52 of the best bass anglers on the planet are all gearing up for a chance at the $300,000 top prize and a slice of bass fishing immortality.
The Cup hasn't been to Lake Hamilton since 2005, but Hot Springs, Ark., is familiar to a large portion of the field, as it played host to the 2018 FLW Cup on neighboring Lake Ouachita. The weather conditions are poised to be similar to last year's Cup, but the fishery is a whole different playing field.
Here's a closer look at Lake Hamilton, the Cup field and the history of the FLW Cup, by the numbers.
0
Number of pros who have won multiple FLW Cups.
2
Number of times Billy McCaghren has fished an FLW tournament on Hamilton (both T-H Marine Bass Fishing League tournaments). He's the only angler in the Cup field to have fished multiple FLW events on the fishery prior to the 2019 Cup.
6-3
Largest bass weighed in for Big Bass honors across all FLW events on Hamilton. Randall Clark weighed in the Arkansas giant in an Arkie Division BFL event back in April.
7
FLW Tour wins for Scott Martin. He leads the Cup field in Tour wins, followed by Bryan Thrift (5), and David Dudley and John Cox (4 each).
16-5
Largest one-day-tournament winning weight on Lake Hamilton across all FLW competition. Brady Gentry weighed in the stringer in the 2017 High School Fishing Open.
16-8
Weight of the Arkansas state-record largemouth, caught on Mallard Lake by Aaron Mardis in 1976. While there probably isn't a bass close to that size in Lake Hamilton, there has been mention of some Florida-strain genetics in the lake, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see a 6- or 7-pounder or two weighed in during the Cup.
17-3
Weight of the largest one-day stringer on Lake Hamilton across all FLW competition. Adam Wright weighed in the five-fish limit in an Arkie Division BFL last year.
20
Age of Blake Albertson and Adam Puckett, the two youngest anglers in the Cup field. The Murray State teammates qualified for the Cup with their 2019 YETI FLW College Fishing National Championship win. This is the first year both winning teammates earned a Cup berth.
22
Number of tournaments FLW has held (across all circuits) on Lake Hamilton, dating back to 2000. This will be just the second time Hamilton has hosted a Tour-level event.
26
Average depth (in feet) of Lake Hamilton.
26-3
Four-day total for George Cochran in his 2005 FLW Cup win. Weights stand to be significantly more impressive this time around, though summer tournaments in the South always have the potential to be grind-it-out affairs.
60
Maximum depth (in feet) of Lake Hamilton.
68
Age of Larry Nixon, the oldest angler in the Cup field. He's also the only angler in the 2019 Cup field who also fished the 2005 Cup on Hamilton.
68-8
Weight of the Arkansas state-record smallmouth buffalo, landed from Lake Hamilton by Jerry Dolezal in 1984.
92-5
Weight of Brad Knight's four-day total at St. Clair in 2018, the heaviest four-day total for any angler in the Cup field in FLW Tour competition. Knight won the FLW Cup in 2015 on neighboring Lake Ouachita.
198
Miles of shoreline on Lake Hamilton.
1,165
Length (in feet) of the Carpenter Dam, which impounds the Ouachita River to create Lake Hamilton. The dam is also 115 feet high. It was completed in 1931 and named after Flavius Josephus Carpenter, who chose the location of the dams on the Ouachita.
1932
Year Lake Hamilton was completed. Hamilton (along with neighboring Lake Catherine) was created by Arkansas Power & Light (now Entergy) for hydroelectric generation.
7,200
Surface area (in acres) of Lake Hamilton. It's not a big lake, but there's plenty of room for 52 anglers to run all the docks and brush piles they could want.
156,000
Cubic yards of concrete used in the construction of the Carpenter Dam.
3,694,409
Career FLW earnings of 2019 FLW Tour Angler of the Year David Dudley. He's FLW's all-time leading money winner and has a chance to tack on another $300,000 at Lake Hamilton.