OAKLEY, Calif. – Pro Ishama “Ish” Monroe of Hughson, Calif., caught a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 7 ounces Saturday to win the Stren Series Western Division tournament on the California Delta with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 66 pounds even. For his victory, Monroe earned $21,605 cash and a fully rigged Ranger boat.
“This event featured the best Delta guys around in it, and I am so happy to win it,” said Monroe, who won the 2008 FLW Series National Guard Western Division event on the California Delta.
Monroe said his tournament began with a quick limit of small fish on the first day of competition. Then he began the routine that led to his eventual win.
“I picked up my flipping stick and started catching them big,” Monroe said. “I culled two good ones on the Ish’s Phat Frog.”
Monroe opened the tournament in first place Thursday with five bass weighing 21-0. He then caught five bass weighing 27-9 Friday to make the crucial top-10 cut in first place.
Monroe said he used a Sprayed Grass-colored Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver topped with a 11/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten weight on his flipping rod and a solid black Phat Frog to fish topwater mats. The strategy worked the first two days of competition and got Monroe through the cut with an 11-pound lead.
“Saturday I had a bed fish I started out on, but I left real quick and started throwing the frog,” Monroe said. “I had to go with what got me to where I was.”
The B.A.S.S. Elite Series angler said the competition in the Stren Series event was a challenge because of local talent, but the win is one he had pursued for a while.
“One of my goals has been to win a Stren event because I’ve been fishing them since they’ve been around,” Monroe said. “Now I get to focus on another goal of mine – winning a FLW Tour event.”
Rounding out the top five pros were Stephen Tosh Jr. of Modesto, Calif. (15 bass, 53-12, $8,642); Lorenzo Rossetti of Stockton, Calif. (15 bass, 53-5, $6,914); Rob Wenning of Sparks, Nev. (14 bass, 50-14, $6,049); and Sean Minderman of Spokane, Wash. (15 bass, 49-7, $5,185).
Brandon Burress of Discovery Bay, Calif., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – an 8-pound, 13-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Folgers Big Bass award of $362.
Roy Desmangles Jr. of Lincoln, Calif., won the Co-angler Division and a 177TR Ranger boat and trailer, with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 41-10.
Desmangles caught five bass weighing 12-14 Thursday while fishing with pro Dugan McIntosh of Palermo, Calif., to open the tournament in sixth place. On Friday he added five more bass weighing 14-11 to make the top-10 cut in third place while fishing with pro Brody Bramlett of Kelseyville, Calif. Finally, on Saturday, he sealed the win with five bass weighing 14-1 while fishing with pro Tommy Cardoza of Lakeport, Calif.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were Greig Sniffen of Saratoga, Calif. (11 bass, 33-4, $3,548); Nick Drabec of Castro Valley, Calif. (11 bass, 31-13, $2,661); Pat Wilson of Penngrove, Calif. (15 bass, 31-12, $2,218); and Mark White of Tucson, Ariz. (14 bass, 31-9, $1,996).
Sniffen caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Thursday – an 8-pound, 8-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Folgers Big Bass award of $181.
After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series division – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western – the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on the points standings from each division advance to the Stren Series Championship on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., Nov. 5-7 for a shot at $150,000 in the Pro Division and $60,000 in the Co-angler Division. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2010 Walmart FLW Tour® and Walmart FLW Series®, bass fishing’s top professional circuits. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship also qualify for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup, where anglers will compete for the $1 million grand prize – the most lucrative award in bass fishing
In Stren Series competition, pros supply the boats, fish from the front deck against other pros and control boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on. The full field competes on days one and two, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day three based on their two-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all three days.
Total awards are based on a 200-boat field in every tournament.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. FLW Outdoors also is taking fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports, $10 million in cash and prizes. Sign up for Player’s Advantage for only $10 to get your edge and win.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.