Fishing in his first MLF event, Kelsey Ray of Joplin, Missouri, won the Strike King co-angler title in the Toyota Series presented by A.R.E. event. His winning total was 36 pounds, 12 ounces. The top co-angler prize for the event, which was presented by Berkley, was a brand new Phoenix bass boat package.
“My cousin Marco Vaca fishes the pro side and he’s been telling me to do this for a couple years,” Ray says of committing to fishing as a co-angler. “And my wife has given me a lot of support for it, too.”
Never falling outside of the top 10, Ray got the ball rolling on day one with a limit worth 14-11 to sit in sixth. He’d catch another, yet smaller, limit (9-4) on day two to slide up to third. Today, fishing with Jason Conn, Ray weighed the biggest bag on the co-angler side despite not bringing in a limit. Weighing 12-13 with four bass, it was more than enough to give him the W.
“I had great pros all three days and that’s what we did in practice,” Ray says. “It was basically a ChatterBait, a lipless crankbait and a flat-sided crankbait all week.”
Using an “ol’ faithful” Rayburn red XCalibur One Knocker lipless crankbait and a black and red Z-Man ChatterBait Jack Hammer all week, Ray was in his element.
“I’d rather be power fishing up shallow,” Ray says. “Anything from about 2 foot of water to 8 foot of water is about where we caught ‘em.”
Hailing from Missouri, Ray doesn’t make it Rayburn often, but the fact he could get the win here means a lot to him.
“This is my second trip down here, and my first co-angler event, so it’s awesome,” says Ray. “I love this lake. Big bass. A lot of grass; it’s awesome.”