Illinois’ Howard Wins Co-angler Title

LA CROSSE, Wis. (April 30, 2018) – Boater Rob Leidholdt of Milton, Wisconsin, caught five bass weighing 17 pounds, 11 ounces, Saturday to win the 2018 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Great Lakes Division opener on the Mississippi River presented by Navionics. Leidholdt earned $5,046 for his victory.

“I stayed in Pool No. 8 all day, throwing a spinnerbait all day long on a shallow flat near Stoddard,” said Leidholdt, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. “There were around 15 boats fishing the same flat, but I was fishing slower than most of them. I caught around 10 fish all day long.”

Leidholdt’s spinnerbait of choice was a Spot Remover-colored War Eagle Finesse Spinnerbait with a white Zoom Swimmer Paddle Tail swimbait.

“I think only having one day to practice actually really helped me,” Leidholdt said. “The river has had so much water fluctuation in the past few weeks, so even if I would have had time to practice it likely would have been very different come tournament time.

“It’s the first time in a long time that I can remember that I put the jig down and picked up the spinnerbait,” Leidholdt joked. “I’ve been fishing BFL tournaments for 15 years, so I definitely put my time in to earn the win.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:

1^st:          Rob Leidholdt, Milton, Wis., five bass, 17-11, $5,046

2^nd:         Michael Hanrahan, Pleasant Hill, Iowa, five bass, 16-15, $2,523

2^nd:         Ryan Lewis, Glasford, Ill., five bass, 16-14, $1,682

4^th:         Mike Brueggen, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 16-0, $1,177

5^th:         Ben Potaracke, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 15-15, $1,209

6^th:         Dan Mohn, Lansing, Iowa, five bass, 15-12, $925

7^th:         Bob Downey, Hudson, Wis., five bass, 15-8, $841

8^th:         Nick Trim, Galesville, Wis., five bass, 15-1, $857

9^th:         Frank Cipra, Prairie du Chien, Wis., five bass, 14-10, $673

10^th:       Jeff Ritter, Prairie du Chien, Wis., five bass, 14-1, $589

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Tony Seiler of River Falls, Wisconsin, caught a bass weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $770.

David Howard of Farmington, Illinois, won the Co-angler Division and $2,523 Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 9 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers were:

1^st:          David Howard, Farmington, Ill., five bass, 16-9, $2,523

2^nd:         Kory Kreinke, Annandale, Minn., five bass, 14-9, $1,262

3^rd:         Mike Frazer, DeForest, Wis., five bass, 14-1, $841

4^th:         Jake Lambrecht, Davenport, Iowa, five bass, 13-14, $589

5^th:         Alexandru Spiac, Chicago, Ill., five bass, 12-6, $505

6^th:         Brad Juen, La Crosse, Wis., four bass, 11-6, $663

7^th:         Jason Wulf, Crown Point, Ind., three bass, 10-2, $471

8^th:         Chad Schultz, Rockton, Ill., four bass, 9-10, $378

9^th:         Jason Swanson, Waterloo, Iowa, three bass, 9-5, $336

10^th:       Chad Smith, Davenport, Iowa, three bass, 8-4, $294

Bill McBride of Rockford, Illinois, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a 5-pound, 12-ounce fish. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $385.

The T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Great Lakes Division opener on the Mississippi River presented by Navionics was hosted by the La Crosse County 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. 25-27 BFL Regional Championship on Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri. 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.