Murphy earns first FLW Tour co-angler title

Mississippi co-angler caps off phenomenal season with win

DETROIT – After five seasons fishing as a co-angler on the FLW Tour and six FLW Tour top-10’s, Ken Murphy of Meridian, Miss., was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to win one of the events.

He now no longer needs to wonder.

Today, Murphy brought in five smallmouth weighing 18 pounds, 13 ounces to win the Co-angler Division of Wal-Mart FLW Tour Chevy Open on the Detroit River.

“It finally happened!” exclaimed an elated Murphy after collecting $40,000 for his win. “This couldn’t have been any better – what a dream day! I fished with Terry Baksay and we caught them all day long. It was like fishing with my brother – he’s a great guy. We were bouncing around in 5-footers, catching fish, culling fish – it was just so much fun.”

This top-10 marked Murphy’s third top-10 for the season and he finished 11th at Norman, just missing the cut there.

“I’ve carried my boat to each event and practiced by myself or with another co-angler and it’s worked out all season,” he said. “I came to Detroit, practiced in St. Clair and really got a lot of confidence in how to fish over there. And as it turns out, I drew partners going there all three days.”

During his practice, Murphy dialed into a drop-shot bite featuring a Poor Boys Lake Erie Darter.

“I just had so much confidence in what I was doing,” he said. “Early, when the sun was low, I used a 12- to 15-inch leader on my drop-shot; later in the day, when the sun got up, I lengthened my leader to as much as 24 inches. When it was dark early, I used dark colors and as it got brighter I went to lighter colors.”

Murphy, who eventually hopes to move to the front of the boat in FLW competition, says the first things he’ll do with his winnings is donate some to his church and then buy his son a new computer.

Finishing in second place with five bass weighing 18 pounds, 5 ounces was Ben Felton of Marshall, Mich., who took home $10,000.

Felton considers St. Clair his home lake and was fortunate enough to draw pro partners who headed to St. Clair all three days, including Josh Myers today.

“I’d rather fish St. Clair than Erie any day of the week,” Felton said. “I practiced on St. Clair and, as it turned out, got to go there all three days, which helped my confidence tremendously.

Felton dragged a green pumpkin tube on a 3/8-ounce head tied to 6-pound test line all week.

Mike Simpson of Dayton, Ohio, finished third with 18 pounds even and collected $9,000.

Simpson fished with pro Thomas Moleski on Erie today and dragged drop-shot Gulp! minnows to catch his fish.

Scott Leo of Grand Rapids, Mich., finished fourth with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 14 ounces worth $8,000.

James Richardson, Sr., of Harrison, Ohio, finished fifth with four bass weighing 12 pounds, 14 ounces worth $7,000.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers in the Chevy Open on the Detroit River

6th: Bill Gift of Alix, Ark., four bass, 10-11, $6,000

7th: Drew Montgomery of Concord, N.C., three bass, 9-6, $5,000

8th: Jason Sherwood of Damascus, Md., four bass, 8-3, $4,000

9th: James Dixon of Southfield, Mich., 0-0, $3,000

10th: Truman White of Myersville, Md., 0-0, $2,000