Quick Bites: FLW Series Western, Cal Delta, Day 4
Wal-Mart FLW Series National Guard Western Division
California Delta, Bethel Island, Calif.
Final round, Saturday
Delta invasion … Nine out of the 10 pro finalists hail from California, and most of those are old Delta veterans well used to jig-wrestling 10-pound largemouths out of river tules under intense competition. So who won the heaviest tournament in FLW Outdoors history this week? The light-line, short-worm, drop-shotting desert angler from Arizona. “This is unbelievable,” said $100,000 winner Michael Rooke, a native of Lake Havasu City. “I never would have dreamed of coming up here and winning the Delta. I just wanted to get into that check range in the top 50. But you know what? Fishing chicken this time paid off.” Bobby Barrack, the local favorite who fell victim to Rooke’s big bag Saturday, said, “That Southern California, desert fishing is actually a great style for what’s going here. Fishing that lighter stuff and staying to the outside weedlines is a great way to go about it right now.” As for his being the only non-Californian in the finals, Rooke said, “But I was born in California.”
Ouch … Brian Carpenter caught a good sack of fish Saturday (17-1), but it could have been even better. He had a 10-pounder hooked, but ultimately lost it in the weeds. “Oh man, when you get into a fish like that, it’s a battle. And I lost,” he said. “I don’t know if the camera guy got it or not, but I just about cried right there.”
Steady, solid, a champion … Brent Ehrler also caught a good final-round sack (17-7) and ran way up the leaderboard to finish in fourth place after starting the day in 10th. “I love the Delta, but I’ve never really done that well here,” he said. “I was really happy with that.” With top-10 finishes in the first two events, Ehrler now leads the inaugural FLW Series Western Division with 391 points. That’s no surprise. As you may know, he also won the inaugural Stren Series Western Division points title in 2003. Oh, and don’t forget the $500,000 FLW Championship victory in 2006 as well. He’s not just a great fisherman, either; he’s also a pretty swell guy, too. Meet him sometime, if you can. Easy to talk to, easy to root for.
D’oh, part three … Maybe it’s something in the water (literally), but on Saturday a competitor in the heat of battle at the Delta misculled his stringer yet again. “I threw a fish back that I should have kept,” Leon Knight said. However, unlike Edgar Uyema and Tim Edington the first two days, he was able to make up for it and brought in a full limit. “Fortunately, it worked out that I didn’t need it anyway,” Knight said.
Quick numbers
11-10: Weight, in pounds and ounces, of Michael Rooke’s kicker largemouth bass in the Delta finals.
16: Rank of Rooke’s bass on the all-time heaviest list for FLW Outdoors tournaments.
2: Rank of Rooke’s bass at this tournament. Only Mike O’Shea’s 12-3 Friday beat it.
3,704: Amount, in dollars, of Rooke’s FLW Outdoors career earnings prior to the Delta win. He now has $103,704 in career earnings.
13,767-10: Total weight, in pounds and ounces, of all the bass weighed in at the 2007 FLW Series Cal Delta event, setting a new FLW Outdoors record for a bass tournament.
Sound bites
“I’m a quarter Irish. If you’ll notice, only a quarter of my limit is green fish.”
– Charley Almassay, using some Irish math to describe the five fish he caught on St. Patrick’s Day.
“This is just great. The West has really needed this, and I’m just elated about it. I just wish I was a little younger.”
– Venerable Mike Folkestad, describing the advent of the big-money, big-exposure FLW Series Western Division.
“On Tuesday at noon, I really thought I was going to go home.”
– Michael Rooke, describing how terrible his Delta practice was right up until the point he caught two good keepers late Tuesday, the day before the tourney started. He pulled the winning 93 pounds, 5 ounces of bass out of the same spot all week.