Springfield’s Lloyd Wins Co-angler Title

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (April 30, 2018) – Boater Zach Bechtel of Cuba, Missouri, brought a five-bass limit to the scale weighing 21 pounds, 7 ounces to win the 2018 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Ozark Division event on Lake of the Ozarks. For his win, Bechtel earned the first place prize of $5,020 plus a $2,000 Ranger Cup contingency bonus.

“I had been fishing in a few local tournaments over the past few weeks and had been catching a lot of fish,” said Bechtel. “But, when I went out on Friday to practice for this event, the fish were gone. I looked and looked and I couldn’t find them anywhere. I knew I was in trouble.

“Saturday, I woke up without a real plan and just decided to go fishing,” Bechtel said. “Everyone else kept saying that the fish had moved shallow to spawn, but I decided that I was going to fish in areas where I believed the fish were still staging. On my first spot I caught a 4½- and a 5-pounder and I just dialed it in from there.”

Bechtel said that he fished around 20 different points through the day with a ¾-ounce silver and red-colored War Eagle spinnerbait with a smoke shad-colored Keitech Fat Impact swimbait on it. He estimated that he caught 10 or 11 keepers throughout the day.

“I think the wind was pretty important to my pattern,” Bechtel said. “The points had to be wind-blown in order to get bit.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Zach Bechtel, Cuba, Mo., five bass, 21-7, $5,020 + $2,000 Ranger Cup

2^nd:         Mark Tucker, Kirkwood, Mo., five bass, 19-8, $2,560

3^rd:         Keith Nickell, Warsaw, Mo., five bass, 19-1, $1,574

4^th:         Rob Bueltmann, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 18-2, $1,201

5^th:         David Ryan, Levasy, Mo., five bass, 17-12, $944

6^th:         Ronnie Kane, Gardner, Kan., five bass, 17-8, $865

7^th:         Tom Alsop, Overland Park, Kan., five bass, 15-5, $787

8^th:         Tom Silber, Labadie, Mo., five bass, 15-2, $708

9^th:         Jason Rhyne, Foristell, Mo., five bass, 15-1, $629

10^th:       Shawn Kowal, Linn Creek, Mo., five bass, 14-6, $551

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Doug Henzlik of Leawood, Kansas, caught a bass weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $695.

Tom Lloyd of Springfield, Missouri, won the Co-angler Division and $2,560 Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds even.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Tom Lloyd, Springfield, Mo., five bass, 16-0, $2,560

2^nd:         Spencer Clark, Maryland Heights, Mo., five bass, 12-15, $1,180

3^rd:         Taylor Day, Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., two bass, 9-0, $787

4^th:         Lang Yang, Miami, Okla., three bass, 8-10, $551

5^th:         Jordan Williams, Oak Grove, Mo., three bass, 8-4, $522

6^th:         Dennis Spell, Bonne Terre, Mo., three bass, 7-10, $433

7^th:         Bryan Barnard, Harrison, Ark., two bass, 7-8, $393

8^th:         Walter Hammond, Lees Summit, Mo., three bass, 7-3, $354

9^th:         Terry Misenhelter, Four Seasons, Mo., two bass, 6-13, $315

10^th:       Kory Ries, Union, Mo., two bass, 6-12, $275

Jeffrey Miller of Fredericktown, Missouri caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a 5-pound, 12-ounce bass that earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $347.

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Ozark Division event at Lake of the Ozarks was hosted by the Lake of the Ozarks Tri-County Lodging Association and Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five winners in each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 18-20 BFL Regional Championship on Kentucky and Barkley lakes in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.

The 2018 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2018 BFL All-American will be held May 31-June 2 at Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.