The Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division opener on Sam Rayburn Reservoir presented by Mercury happened this past Saturday. The winner of the tournament was Ricky Guy of Humble, Texas.
He weighed a five-bass limit totaling 11 pounds, 7 ounces Saturday to win with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 61 pounds, 3 ounces. Guy earned a prize package worth $95,300, which includes a new Ranger Z518 bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury outboard engine.
“I’m feeling pretty dang good right now,” said Guy, who earned his first career win in FLW Series competition. “I’ve fished a lot of these tournaments, so to finally come out on top is special. The FLW Series is truly one of the toughest tournament circuits in the country.”
Guy said he spent his first day running a red Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap in three mid- to upper-lake areas in Caney Creek and Veach Basin. He said he primarily targeted creek channels near spawning flats.
“I had four keepers in the boat within 20 minutes,” said Guy. “Around 11:30 a.m., I caught an 8-pound, 10-ouncer out of a ditch that had some grass in it. That really got me fired up.”
Guy said it was his technique that proved to be most effective in getting bass to bite the Trap.
“You had to be touching the grass with the bait,” said Guy. “It’s a lot of work to run it in all of that grass, but you had to fight through it. If you weren’t touching it, you weren’t going to catch the big ones.”
Guy said he returned to the same areas on day two, but found them overrun with tournament traffic. Confident in a flipping pattern that he had found in practice, the Texas angler made a run to a small area north of the Highway 147 Bridge known as The Canyons.
“I had a small, productive area where I focused on prespawn bass,” said Guy. “I flipped flooded brush that was mixed with Cypress and Willow trees using a black and blue-colored Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver. I also mixed in a Texas-rigged Strike King Rodent of the same color, but the Beaver ended up being far more productive.”
Guy said his day-two catch was anchored by a 10-pounder that he caught in buck brush around 10:30 a.m.
On day three, Guy said he returned to his original areas from day one, but again didn’t find any action on the Rat-L-Trap. He said he decided to go with what was working and made a run back north to The Canyons and flip for prespawn bass using the same Sweet Beaver presentation.
“I decided I was going to live or die by flipping,” said Guy. “It didn’t get me a lot of bites day on day three, but luckily the five I managed to get in the boat were enough to push me to the top.”
The top 10 pros on Sam Rayburn were:
1st: Ricky Guy, Humble, Texas, 15 bass, 61-13, $95,300
2nd: Lendell Martin Jr., Nacogdoches, Texas, 15 bass, 59-8, $20,500
3rd: Cory Rambo, Orange, Texas, 15 bass, 55-7, $14,500
4th: Kris Wilson, Montgomery, Texas, 15 bass, 55-1, $12,500
5th: Chris McCall, Brookeland, Texas, 15 bass, 53-14, $11,500
6th: James Caldemeyer, Gilmer, Texas, 15 bass, 53-3, $8,000
7th: Joel Baker, Talala, Okla., 15 bass, 53-3, $9,250
8th: Russell Cecil, Willis, Texas, 15 bass, 50-14, $7,000
9th: Brandon Mosley, Choctaw, Okla., 15 bass, 50-6, $6,000
10th: Kyle Cortiana, Tulsa, Okla., 14 bass, 48-14, $4,500
Gene Eisenmann of Frisco, Texas, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division Thursday, a brute weighing 10 pounds, 2 ounces that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $300.
Matt Williams of Nacogdoches, Texas, won the co-angler division and a prize package which includes a Ranger Z117 with a 90-horsepower Mercury outboard motor. Williams earned his win with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 45 pounds, 15 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers on Sam Rayburn were:
1st: Matt Williams, Nacogdoches, Texas, 15 bass, 45-15, $28,450
2nd: Randy Hicks, Lumberton, Texas, 14 bass, 44-8, $6,250
3rd: Dan Wilson, Pilot Point, Texas, 15 bass, 44-0, $5,000
4th: Paul Villarreal, Dallas, Texas, 12 bass, 42-10, $4,000
5th: Chaz York, Vidor, Texas, 13 bass, 38-7, $3,500
6th: Bill Fussell, Thibodaux, La., 13 bass, 36-8, $3,000
7th: Larry Foster, Galena, Mo., 14 bass, 35-13, $2,500
8th: Kerry Barnett, Waldron, Ark., 12 bass, 35-3, $2,000
9th: Taylor Ramey, Brandon, Miss., 15 bass, 34-15, $1,600
10th: Trey Sammons, Sherman, Texas, 12 bass, 34-10, $1,350
Michael Haffelder of Pearland, Texas, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division Thursday, a bass weighing 9 pounds, 11 ounces that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $200.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2016 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 3-5 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri.
The Costa FLW Series on Sam Rayburn Reservoir was hosted by the Jasper-Lake Sam Rayburn Area Chamber of Commerce. It was the first Southwestern Division tournament of 2016. The next Costa FLW Series tournament will be a Southeastern Division event, held March 10-12, on Lake Santee Cooper