North Port’s Keyso Wins T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League Gator Division Event on Lake Okeechobee

Perry’s Wiles Grabs Co-angler Title

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. – Boater Mikey Keyso Jr. of North Port, Florida, caught a five-bass limit Saturday weighing 24 pounds, 12 ounces, to take top honors at the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Gator Division tournament on Lake Okeechobee. For his efforts, Keyso earned $7,663.

Keyso spent his day fishing south of the Monkey Box targeting postspawn bass in dollarweed pads. He said he rotated between two areas, and used a Texas-rigged Junebug-colored Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper with 3/8- and ¼-ounce weights to catch his fish.

“There was a new moon and most people focused on spawning bass,” said Keyso, who earned his second career win on Lake Okeechobee in BFL competition. “A wave of bluegill were also spawning, so I Power-Poled down and just slow-rolled my bait through the pads.”

The Florida angler said he used a Fitzgerald Fishing Bryan Thrift Series Frog Rod with 50-pound-test braid line, and estimated that he caught 45 keepers throughout the tournament.

“The water had to be a little dirty. The big ones committed to the bait in dirty water,” said Keyso. “And when they committed, they just destroyed it. It was a fun bite.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

               1st:          Mikey Keyso Jr., North Port, Fla., five bass, 24-12, $5,663 + $2,000 Ranger Cup Bonus

               2nd:         Matthew Jerdan, Cape Coral, Fla., five bass, 22-13, $2,232

               3rd:          Jesus Villegas, Virginia Gardens, Fla., five bass, 20-10, $1,489

               4th:          Chris Crow, Lake Placid, Fla., five bass, 19-14, $1,041

               5th:          Mark Blevins, Palatka, Fla., five bass, 19-7, $1,633

               6th:          Nathan Thomas, Weirsdale, Fla., five bass, 18-15, $818

               7th:          Fred Chivington Jr., Welaka, Fla., five bass, 18-13, $744

               8th:          Greg Harp, Vero Beach, Fla., five bass, 17-11, $669

               9th:          Kyle Giella, Parrish, Fla., five bass, 17-5, $595

               10th:        George Kapiton, Inverness, Fla., five bass, 16-12, $521

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Blevins weighed a 7-pound, 14-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $640.

Michael Wiles of Perry, Florida, won the Co-angler Division and $2,432 Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 13 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

               1st:          Michael Wiles, Perry, Fla., five bass, 19-13, $2,432

               2nd:         Justin Brown, Frostproof, Fla., five bass, 17-7, $1,166

               3rd:          Delfin Pernas, Miami, Fla., five bass, 16-8, $743

               4th:          Jeffrey Shaffer, Orlando, Fla., five bass, 15-14, $521

               5th:          Junior Iriban, Lantana, Fla., five bass, 15-11, $446

               6th:          Tom Jessup, Sarasota, Fla., five bass, 14-8, $409

               7th:          Shannon Bryson, Merritt Island, Fla., five bass, 14-5, $372

               8th:          Bruce Greer, Lake Worth, Fla., five bass, 14-2, $335

               9th:          Timothy Hibbs, Bradenton, Fla., five bass, 13-13, $298

               10th:        Jackie Barber, Cocoa, Fla., two bass, 13-9, $580

Barber caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 9 pounds, 10 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $320.

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Gator Division event on Lake Okeechobee was hosted by the Okeechobee County Tourist Development Council.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five winners in each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 11-13 BFL Regional Championship on the St. Johns River in Palatka, Florida. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.

The 2018 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2018 BFL All-American will be held May 31-June 2 at Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

About FLW

FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

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