OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – Prior to the day-four launch of the Stren Series Western Division event on Lake of the Ozarks, co-angler leader Leo Reiter said he’d be ecstatic with just two fish. About eight hours later, he had exactly two fish, and he was indeed ecstatic – with his victory.
Hailing from Goshen, Ind., Reiter entered day four with a 15-pound lead. By day’s end, that lead had shrunk to a winning margin of merely 13 pounds, 12 ounces. His two final-round fish weighed 2-13, and that gave him a final score of 43-10.
“Once I got that first fish, I was relaxed, but this was the toughest day yet,” Reiter said. “They just didn’t bite well today. It could be the pressure – guys were running out of fish and fishing the areas too hard.”
Reiter grabbed the lead on day one with his eye-popping limit weighing 19 pounds, 14 ounces. That performance – the event’s biggest in both divisions – gave him a 9-pound, 1-ounce lead. A day later, he added 10-7 and retained the top spot with a lead of 13-15. Reiter put another 10-8 on the pile for day three, raising his number to 40-13 and essentially locking up a victory that he could have claimed even if he had slept in on day four. He earned $5,000 plus a Ranger boat and trailer.
Throughout the tournament, Reiter fished a green-pumpkin shaky-head worm to get his limits, after which he would swim a 5/16-ounce white jig for big fish. He skip-cast the jig under docks and swam it along the shadows in a steady retrieve.
With shallow docks, Reiter found that he needed to zip the jig as far back as he could reach, while deeper docks held big fish closer to their outer ends.
Sage advice leads Young to second
Tony Young of Depauw, Ind., had the most productive final round of all co-anglers by far. He caught three fish – including a kicker of at least 4 pounds – that weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces and boosted his total to 29-14 good for second place and $3,177.
Young fished with two of the top five pros during qualifying rounds – Guido Hibdon (fourth place) on day one and Dion Hibdon (first) on day three. He partnered with Stacy King on day two. Learning Guido’s technique of swimming a jig made the difference for him.
“What more can you ask for? Three legends in our sport, and I get to fish with all of them,” Young said. “Every fish I weighed in, I have to thank Guido for showing me how to catch them.”
Best of the rest
Phil Shafer of Lake Ozark, Mo., zeroed on day four, but his previous three days gave him enough weight to finish third with 25-13 and earn $2,582. Bradley Rice of Pine Bluff, Ark., took fourth with 19-10 for $1,986, and Robert Prebeck of Norwood, Mo., finished fifth with 18-4 for $1,589.
Rounding out the top 10 co-angler leaders at the Stren Series Lake of the Ozarks event:
6th: Max Wilson of Everton, Mo., 16-6
7th: Darrell Durham of Saint Peters, Mo., 16-4
8th: Juan Steenkamp from the Republic of South Africa, 15-0
9th: Andre Pretorius of the Republic of South Africa, 14-9
10th: Charles McConnell of Jefferson City, Mo., 14-9