Cotten clobbers co-angler field

Huge final round sack delivers victory for Texan

MANY, La. – His limit catch was nearly 9 pounds more than any other co-angler’s bag and his winning margin was a tidy 6 pounds, 12 ounces. Sounds like Larry Cotten lacked not for motivation on this final day of the FLW American Fishing Series Texas Division event on Toledo Bend.

After placing second on day one with 16-9, the Huffman, Texas, angler slipped to fourth on day two with 6-6. He more than made up for that stumble with a final-round sack weighing in at 23-7.

Cotten caught his fish on a Texas-rigged Zoom Old Monster worm over brush piles in 18-20 feet of water.

“I practiced with that worm, I got bit on it, and so I decided to throw it in the tournament,” he said. “Everything was very slow.”

Cotten said he had his weigh fish by 10:30 a.m. and he did not catch any more after that point.

“I caught the three big ones right off the bat and my boater was telling me `You’ve got it won,'” Cotten said. “But I wasn’t going to quit fishing until I got the fifth one in the boat.”

Points winner Sprague takes second

Jeff Sprague of Forney, Texas, led the co-angler field going into the final round, but ended up dropping one spot to second with a three-day total of 39-10. Sprague fished a football-head jig with Lake Fork Hyper Freak trailer and a shaky head with a trick worm over main lake structure in about 15-20 feet.

Sprague said he caught his better fish shortly before day’s end. Slowing down his retrieve was important for securing a limit, but some of his better fish got the better of him.

“I had some missed opportunities today – I had some big fish break off,” Sprague said. “I saw them; they’d go down and get in the (submerged trees).”

Sprague’s Toledo Bend finish gave him the Texas Division points title and earned him a spot at the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup.

David Underwood of Waco, Texas, placed third with 37-13, while Chris Weaver of Lawton, Okla., took fourth with 34-4. Kelly Stevens of Alexandria, La., was fifth at 33-3.

Best of the rest

Rounding out the top-10 co-angler leaders at the American Fishing Series Toledo Bend event:

6th: Kevin Burks of Kountze, Texas, 32-14

7th: Pete Lowe of Woodworth, La., 32-11

8th: Ronald Milton of Maurepas, La., 28-0

9th: Darrell Denton of Georgetown, Texas, 27-6

10th: Myron Watts of Malvern, Ark., 20-14