Cuba’s Fey Takes Co-Angler Division

GREENFIELD, Mo. (May 6, 2019) – Boater Marty Matherly of Joplin, Missouri, won the T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Ozark Division tournament on Stockton LakeSaturday with five bass weighing 14 pounds, 3 ounces. Matherly pocketed $5,279 for his day on the water.

“The night before the tournament, my buddy told me to fish the moment, so I did,” said Matherly, who earned his first win FLW competition. “I told my co-angler I was going to throw a topwater because of the cloud cover and how calm it was, but in Son’s Creek my co-angler immediately caught a 3-pounder flipping. I decided to go with what they were biting. I started flipping bushes and immediately caught fish. They were on the outside edge of the bushes.

“By 9 [a.m.], I think I had three largemouth,” continued Matherly. “I had a feeling that fish were both coming from the spawn and going to spawn, so I moved out 20 yards past the main-lake point outside Son’s Creek, and that’s where I caught a 5-pounder in some bushes.”

Matherly said he used a Texas-rigged, Sooner Run-colored Gene Larew Hoodaddy with a 3/8th-ounce WOO! tungsten weight to catch his initial fish. After hooking one and losing it nearby, he said he went two hours without a bite. After some more time spent in Son’s Creek, he headed back toward the dam to finish out his limit.

“My fifth fish came from 20 feet of clear water at the dam, on a flat with rocks,” said Matherly. “I caught a few small ones at other spots before going to a main-lake point, also by the dam. With about 30 minutes left to fish, I caught a 3-pound largemouth. It was my winning fish.”

Matherly’s final two fish were caught on a ¾-ounce PBJ-colored Omega football-head jig with a green-pumpkin Strike King Rage Tail Space Monkey.

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Marty Matherly, Joplin, Mo., five bass, 14-3, $5,279

2^nd:         Brock Reinkemeyer, Lone Jack, Mo., five bass, 13-10, $2,140

3^rd:          Bob Renken, Linn Creek, Mo., five bass, 13-0, $1,426

4^th:          Quenten Reed, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 12-10, $1,603

5^th:          Jeremy Montgomery, Overland Park, Kan., five bass, 12-8, $1,106

6^th:          Eric Poindexter, Eufaula, Okla., four bass, 11-11, $1,085

7^th:          Marcus Sykora, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 11-2, $877

7^th:          Chad G. Allison, Carl Junction, Mo., five bass, 11-2, $877

9^th:          Greg Berhorst, Holts Summit, Mo., five bass, 11-0, $671

10^th:        Cory Steckler, Rocky Mount, Mo., five bass, 10-14, $474

10^th:        Glenn Harrison, Arma, Kan., five bass, 10-14, $474

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Reed caught a 5-pound, 14-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $605.

Michael Fey Sr. of Cuba, Missouri, won the Co-angler Division and $2,291 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 12 pounds, 9 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          Michael Fey Sr., Cuba, Mo., five bass, 12-9, $2,291

2^nd:         Daniel Ashby, Independence, Mo., five bass, 12-3, $1,070

3^rd:          Jeff Moss, Oronogo, Mo., five bass, 11-13, $863

4^th:          Joshua Dyrland, Imperial, Mo., five bass, 9-14, $699

5^th:          Christopher Cross, Kansas City, Kan., five bass, 9-1, $428

6^th:          Dennis Whitaker, Smithville, Mo., four bass, 8-14, $392

7^th:          Ben Freeman, Oronogo, Mo., four bass, 8-6, $357

8^th:          Anthony Johnson, Excelsior Springs, Mo., five bass, 8-5, $321

9^th:          Andrew Messina, Valley Park, Mo., five bass, 8-0, $285

10^th:        Mark Hancock, Olathe, Kan., three bass, 7-10, $250

Moss caught the heaviest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 1 ounce. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $151.

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. 24-26 BFL Regional Championship on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518L with a 200-horsepower outboard.

The 2019 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 2019 BFL All-American will be held May 30-June 1 at the Potomac River in Marbury, Maryland, and is hosted by the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism and the Commissioners of Charles County. 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, and YouTube.