The 2019 FLW Zimbabwe Championship took place Aug. 23-25 on Lake Mteri. The Walking Dead team led by Roger Cousens won the event with a three-day total weight of 101.83 pounds. For the win, Cousens will fish as a boater at the Costa FLW Series Championship Oct. 31-Nov. 2 on Lake Cumberland, and Miles Bennet (from team Keepnet) will compete on the co-angler side.
Mteri is a small lake located in southeastern Zimbabwe, and August falls in the middle of the largemouth spawn, so big bags were expected. In fact, the average size of fish weighed was more than 5 1/2 pounds, and the average bag weighed was nearly 29 pounds.
Sight-fishing and working topwaters were the main tactics at play, and the 10 teams competing brought their A game.
Cousens’ team sacked up 32.83 on day one and 26.19 on day two. However, it was the final-day monster bag that helped push Cousens to the top after dropping a massive 42.81-pound limit on the scale.
Team Starbell Auto took a close second with 101 pounds over three days. Right behind them with 97.11 pounds was team Keepnet.