McNeill Crushes Co-angler Competition
South Carolina pro wins by more than 11 pounds
Fishing in his very first Costa FLW Series event, Spencer McNeill of Ladson, S.C., a 31-year-old engineer technician with Ducks Unlimited, dominated the co-angler division for the win with a three-day total of 42 pounds.
On days one and two McNeill fished with pros Scott Byrd and Mark Abbot and caught limits weighing 20-13 and 19-4, respectively. Today he fished with Daniel Howell and only caught one fish. But since McNeill entered the day with more than a 13-pound lead, he didn’t even need the single fish to win. McNeill still won the event by a margin of 11 pounds, 9 ounces.
No matter where his pros took him, McNeill used an old Santee Cooper standby – a wacky-rigged watermelon Zoom Trick Worm on a spinning rod. He favors spinning tackle for most of his fishing as a co-angler since it makes presentations from the back deck a little easier.
“Both my partners the first two days were sight-fishing,” McNeill recalls. “When they would set up on a bed, I would just cast to anything I could see out behind the boat – a stick, a tree, a dark spot, a clump of grass, lily pads. I soaked that worm on anything that stuck out of the water.”
For his win, McNeill took home a Ranger Z175 with a 90-hp outboard.
Top 10 co-anglers
1. Spencer McNeill – Ladson, S.C. – 42-0 (11) – $28,200
2. Jim Short – Ocean Pines, Md. – 30-7 (8) – $6,050
3. Keith Westrick – Dallas, N.C. – 30-5 (9) – $4,800
4. Mark Lamb – Wake Forest, N.C. – 29-14 (8) – $3,900
5. Coulby Lewis – Macon, Ga. – 29-10 (10) – $3,400
6. James Wegmann – Fruitland Park, Fla. – 29-9 (12) – $2,900
7. Gerald Bozeman – Sylvester, Ga. – 27-6 (12) – $2,400
8. Brian Scott – Sumter, S.C. – 23-5 (9) – $1,950
9. Dearal Rodgers – Camden, S.C. – 22-5 (8) – $1,580
10. Shawn York – Sarasota , Fla. – 20-8 (8) – $1,330