Joplin’s Matherly Wins T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League Tournament on Stockton Lake
Cuba’s Fey Takes Co-Angler Division
GREENFIELD, Mo. – Boater Marty Matherly of Joplin, Missouri, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Ozark Division tournament on Stockton Lake Saturday with five bass weighing 14 pounds, 3 ounces. Matherly pocketed $5,279 for his day on the water.
“The night before the tournament, my buddy told me to fish the moment, so I did,” said Matherly, who earned his first win FLW competition. “I told my co-angler I was going to throw a topwater because of the cloud cover and how calm it was, but in Son’s Creek my co-angler immediately caught a 3-pounder flipping. I decided to go with what they were biting. I started flipping bushes and immediately caught fish. They were on the outside edge of the bushes.
“By 9 [a.m.], I think I had three largemouth,” continued Matherly. “I had a feeling that fish were both coming from the spawn and going to spawn, so I moved out 20 yards past the main-lake point outside Son’s Creek, and that’s where I caught a 5-pounder in some bushes.”
Matherly said he used a Texas-rigged, Sooner Run-colored Gene Larew Hoodaddy with a 3/8th-ounce WOO! tungsten weight to catch his initial fish. After hooking one and losing it nearby, he said he went two hours without a bite. After some more time spent in Son’s Creek, he headed back toward the dam to finish out his limit.
“My fifth fish came from 20 feet of clear water at the dam, on a flat with rocks,” said Matherly. “I caught a few small ones at other spots before going to a main-lake point, also by the dam. With about 30 minutes left to fish, I caught a 3-pound largemouth. It was my winning fish.”
Matherly’s final two fish were caught on a ¾-ounce PBJ-colored Omega football-head jig with a green-pumpkin Strike King Rage Tail Space Monkey.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Marty Matherly, Joplin, Mo., five bass, 14-3, $5,279
2nd: Brock Reinkemeyer, Lone Jack, Mo., five bass, 13-10, $2,140
3rd: Bob Renken, Linn Creek, Mo., five bass, 13-0, $1,426
4th: Quenten Reed, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 12-10, $1,603
5th: Jeremy Montgomery, Overland Park, Kan., five bass, 12-8, $1,106
6th: Eric Poindexter, Eufaula, Okla., four bass, 11-11, $1,085
7th: Marcus Sykora, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 11-2, $877
7th: Chad G. Allison, Carl Junction, Mo., five bass, 11-2, $877
9th: Greg Berhorst, Holts Summit, Mo., five bass, 11-0, $671
10th: Cory Steckler, Rocky Mount, Mo., five bass, 10-14, $474
10th: Glenn Harrison, Arma, Kan., five bass, 10-14, $474
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Reed caught a 5-pound, 14-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $605.
Michael Fey Sr. of Cuba, Missouri, won the Co-angler Division and $2,291 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 12 pounds, 9 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Michael Fey Sr., Cuba, Mo., five bass, 12-9, $2,291
2nd: Daniel Ashby, Independence, Mo., five bass, 12-3, $1,070
3rd: Jeff Moss, Oronogo, Mo., five bass, 11-13, $863
4th: Joshua Dyrland, Imperial, Mo., five bass, 9-14, $699
5th: Christopher Cross, Kansas City, Kan., five bass, 9-1, $428
6th: Dennis Whitaker, Smithville, Mo., four bass, 8-14, $392
7th: Ben Freeman, Oronogo, Mo., four bass, 8-6, $357
8th: Anthony Johnson, Excelsior Springs, Mo., five bass, 8-5, $321
9th: Andrew Messina, Valley Park, Mo., five bass, 8-0, $285
10th: Mark Hancock, Olathe, Kan., three bass, 7-10, $250
Moss caught the heaviest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 1 ounce. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $151.
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. 24-26 BFL Regional Championship on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard.
The 2019 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 2019 BFL All-American will be held May 30-June 1 at the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland, and is hosted by the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism and the Commissioners of Charles County. 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, and YouTube.
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 2019 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct more than 290 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 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, and YouTube.
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