BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. – Team National Guard pro Brent Ehrler of Redlands, Calif., caught a five-bass limit weighing 31 pounds, 10 ounces Friday to capture the lead in the $1 million Wal-Mart FLW Series National Guard Western Division tournament on the California Delta. With a three-day catch of 15 bass weighing 83-11, he holds a 4-pound, 9-ounce lead over his closest competitor, Team Coppertone pro Brett Hite of Phoenix heading into the final day of competition.
“The low water helped me today,” said Ehrler, who has won more than $773,000 in FLW Outdoors events. “I caught a lot of my fish later in the day when the tide was going out.”
After ending the day Thursday without much confidence in his flipping bite, Ehrler began Friday morning throwing a crankbait. Ehrler said by 11 a.m., he had 17 pounds of fish in the livewell.
“I drove by my flipping bank and said, `It looks pretty good over there,'” Ehrler said. “I ended up catching a five-pounder, but didn’t get another bite. So I left and started fishing my crankbait again and kept catching them.”
Ehrler said his success on the final day of competition will depend on the water level as the 3 p.m. weigh-in time approaches. The earlier weigh-in time will give Ehrler less time to fish the lower water levels he prefers.
“Tomorrow the tide will be coming in in the morning and going out at the end of the day,” Ehrler said. “I don’t think I can catch them flipping, so I have to crank. I’m going to try it and see what happens.”
Hite caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 79-2 to advance to the final round as the No. 2 seed.
“I probably had 22 pounds by 11 a.m.,” said Hite, who has two wins and four top-10 finishes in FLW Outdoors events. “I started off the day with an 8-pounder. Everything just went right.”
Hite said he is fishing a wide-open area of water that is being overlooked by almost the entire field.
“I’m throwing back 31/2-pounders,” Hite said. “There’s a lot of fish in my area. It’s a big section and nobody’s fishing there. There are some people buzzing by using the canal as a passage way, but I’ve only seen one or two other boats in my giant area.”
Hite said the tides are not affecting his bite as much as it seems to be affecting other anglers.
“I’m catching them all day long,” Hite said. “The tides are getting better for me. I like them higher, so I’m excited.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Louis Fernandes of Santa Maria, Calif. (15 bass, 72-10); Dee Thomas of Brentwood, Calif. (15 bass, 71-3) and Randy McAbee Jr. of Bakersfield, Calif. (15 bass, 70-10).
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 67 pounds, 2 ounces in the Pro Division are Cody Meyer of Redding; Andre Moore of Alabaster, Ala.; Ken Wick of Star, Idaho; Kelly Kellogg of Kelso, Wash.; and Ronald Hobbs of Graham, Wash.
Sean Stafford of Fairfield, Calif., set the FLW Series single-day catch record – which was first broken two days ago with a 35-pound, 10-ounce sack by Chad Frie of Livermore, Calif. – with a 35-pound, 12-ounce five-bass catch Friday.
Brett Davies of Davis, Calif., earned the day’s $476 Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 12-pound, 7-ounce bass he caught.
Overall there were 823 bass weighing 2,744 pounds, 4 ounces caught by 183 pros Friday. The catch included 133 five-bass limits.
Pros are competing this week for a top award of $125,000 plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the BP East-National Guard West Fish-Off and a shot at advancing to the $2 million, 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where the winning pro will earn as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award.
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Robert Jones of Clayton, Calif., won the Co-angler Division and $20,000 Friday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 58 pounds, 11 ounces followed by Aaron Reitz of Soda Springs, Calif., in second place with 15 bass weighing 53-5 worth $9,665.
Jones opened the tournament in fourth place Wednesday with five bass weighing 20-1 while fishing with pro Tim Edington of Bakersfield. On Thursday he jumped to first place on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 23-6 while fishing with pro Jim Hawkes of Apache Junction, Ariz. He wrapped up the win Friday with a five-bass catch weighing 15-4 while fishing with Team National Guard pro Tim Klinger of Boulder City, Nev.
“I thought I needed 10 pounds to win, but every time I looked in my bag, those bass kept getting smaller and smaller,” said Jones, who earned his win in only his second FLW Series event. “I didn’t know if I had nine pounds or 15 pounds. I was pretty nervous.”
Jones said he knew the bite during the prefish period was a finesse one, but he hoped he could rely on other methods when the tournament began.
“I love to powerfish,” Jones said. “I love to spinnerbait and I love to crank, but I just wasn’t catching big fish on that type of pattern so I stuck with the finesse stuff and I caught the five-pounder that gave me the championship in the last two hours.”
Jones said his big fish came on a junebug-colored creature bait in three feet of water. Klinger focused on areas where current was coming through openings as well as rock walls and tule berms.
“We never went more than two miles from the ramp,” Jones added. “I was hoping my pros would stay close. I was really lucky to have the three pros I did that stayed pretty close to (the ramp).”
A 25-year resident of the California Delta region, Jones said he thought he knew the area pretty well, but learned during the tournament that you can always learn more.
“I’ve been driving by just about every area the pros fished and didn’t know there were fish there,” Jones said. “I knew there were fish other places. These guys are just fantastic fishermen and they know how to find the fish.
“The Delta is such a fabulous fishery,” Jones added. “I’m really happy I’m able to live in the area.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Greig Sniffen of Saratoga, Calif. (15 bass, 51-10, $8,698); Robert Faaborg of Ramona, Calif. (15 bass, 51-0, $7,732) and James Lima of Reno, Nev. (15 bass, 49-15, $6,765).
Ramon Fonseca of Antelope, Calif., earned $290 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 10-pound, 9-ounce bass he caught while fishing with pro Michael Free of Milton, Wash.
Overall there were 559 bass weighing 1,489 pounds, 14 ounces caught by 170 co-anglers Friday. The catch included 58 five-bass limits.
The 10 remaining pros will take off at 7:30 Saturday morning from Russo’s Marina located at 3995 Willow Rd. in Bethel Island. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 4893 Lone Tree Way in Antioch, Calif., beginning at 4 p.m. Children will also be treated to a Family Fun Zone prior to Saturday’s weigh-in from noon to 4 p.m. at Wal-Mart. Activities in the Family Fun Zone include the Kellogg’s trout pond, a Ranger boat simulator and assorted fishing-themed games. All activities are free and open to the public.
Coverage of the California Delta FLW Series tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing April 20. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast in Canada on WFN (World Fishing Network) and to more than 429 million households in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through a distribution agreement with Matchroom Sport, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. The program airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time in most markets. Check local listings for times in your area.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.
FLW Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its bass tournaments.