LAKEPORT, Calif. – Pro Kyle Grover of Rancho Santa Margarita, California, caught a five-bass limit weighing 26 pounds, 2 ounces, Saturday – the heaviest limit weighed in the three-day tournament – to win the Costa FLW Series on Clear Lake presented by Ranger Boats. Grover’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 66 pounds, 13 ounces, was enough to earn him the victory by an 8-pound, 13-ounce margin and the top prize of $80,303, including a new Ranger Z518L boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.
Grover said he started out the tournament Thursday flipping tules with jigs and wacky-rigged, green-pumpkin-colored Yamamoto Custom Baits Senkos. Friday he started at an area he’d fished only a couple of times on Thursday, and caught a 7-pounder within the first few casts.
“I didn’t realize the area’s potential, but when I caught the 7-pounder on my second cast that made me hunker down,” said Grover, who earned his first win in FLW competition. “I ended up staying there all Saturday today, too. I think on my second cast I caught a 6-pounder and then a 3¾ right after that.
“I was catching them on jigs the past two days,” continued Grover. “The area we were fishing had so many in there. I caught 40 yesterday, and probably 30 today. You’d just rattle off 2½- to 3¾-pounders, and then you’d catch a big one.”
Grover said his key area was a 300-yard stretch called Henderson Point, near Soda Bay.
“It’s a popular community hole, but I think the weather made it difficult to fish,” said Grover. “I stuck it out though, and had a special day out there today.”
Grover said he primarily used a 3/8-ounce, brown with green-pumpkin-colored Phenix football jig with a 3-inch, green-pumpkin Berkley PowerBait Chigger Craw, as well as a ½-ounce version of the jig with a Falcon Lake Craw-colored Strike King Rage Bug. He also had some key bites on a Chili Bowl-colored Norman DD22 crankbait.
The top 10 pros on Clear Lake finished:
1st: Kyle Grover, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., 15 bass, 66-13, $80,303
2nd: Gary Collins, Upper Lake, Calif., 15 bass, 58-0, $13,099
3rd: Joe Uribe Jr., Surprise, Ariz., 15 bass, 56-13, $10,456
4th: David Valdivia, Norwalk, Calif., 15 bass, 56-9, $8,551
5th: Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., 15 bass, 56-8, $7,606
6th: Ryan German, Fairfield, Calif., 15 bass, 53-8, $6,761
7th: Lane Olson, Forest Grove, Ore., 15 bass, 53-4, $6,031
8th: Bryant Smith, Roseville, Calif., 15 bass, 51-15, $5,070
9th: Travis Archer, Covington, Wash., 15 bass, 48-13, $4,225
10th: Jim McLaughlin, Bakersfield, Calif., 15 bass, 48-7, $4,880
A complete list of results will be posted at FLWFishing.com.
Uribe and Olson both weighed in 8-pound, 11-ounce bass on Thursday – the heaviest fish of the tournament in the Pro Division. The each shared the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $230.
Logan Huntze of Discovery Bay, California, won the Co-angler Division with a three-day total catch of 15 bass weighing 57 pounds, 15 ounces. For his win, Huntze took home a $27,000 prize package, including a Ranger Z175 with a 115-horsepower outboard motor.
The top 10 co-anglers on Clear Lake finished:
1st: Logan Huntze, Discovery Bay, Calif., 15 bass, 57-15, $27,000
2nd: Andrew Wallar, Lakeport, Calif., 15 bass, 50-0, $4,564
3rd: Jesse Parks, Avondale, Ariz., 15 bass, 49-3, $3,779
4th: Joe Bolen, Durham, Calif., 15 bass, 46-1, $3,288
5th: Tom White, Costa Mesa, 15 bass, 45-4, $2,697
6th: Austin Bonjour, Broken Arrow, Okla., 15 bass, 44-13, $2,206
7th: Jack Farage, Discovery Bay, Calif., 15 bass, 44-2, $1,865
8th: Bailey Hurst, Placerville, Calif., 15 bass, 42-7, $1,544
9th: Tara Borofka, Salinas, Calif., 15 bass, 41-10, $1,324
10th: Dominic Amato, Las Vegas, Nev., 14 bass, 39-2, $1,103
Wallar caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday, a fish weighing 7 pounds even. Wallar earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $152.
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