LA CROSSE, Wis. (May 2, 2022) – Boater Darren Zumach of Onalaska, Wisconsin, caught five bass Saturday weighing 17 pounds, 8 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League tournament on the Mississippi River . The tournament, hosted by the La Crosse County Convention and Visitors Bureau, was the season-opener for the Bass Fishing League Great Lakes Division. Zumach earned $4,884 for his victory.
“The wind really helped me out a lot,” Zumach said. “It actually set me up against the current with the current coming down and the wind coming up, so it kept me in one spot. Once I figured out the fish had moved to shell beds, that wind did nothing but help me.”
Zumach said he fished a shad-colored Strike King KVD Jerkbait and a lipless crankbait in eight feet of water to target the shell-bed bass.
Zumach is a veteran Phoenix Bass Fishing League tournament angler, with a total of 111 MLF events fished since the mid-1990s. Zumach said he caught only seven fish during the course of the tournament – all keepers – but those fish resulted in the right five weigh-in fish on the right day.
“This feels amazing to finally pull off a win,” Zumach said. “I’ve been close and fishing these for a long time, and I finally got the win.
“When I got the 6-pound, 4-ounce smallmouth at 11 o’clock, I thought, ‘Yeah, I might have a chance here,’” Zumach added.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Darren Zumach, Onalaska, Wis., five bass, 17-8, $4,884
2nd: Kyle von Ruden, Stoddard, Wis., five bass, 16-14, $2,740
3rd: Mike Brueggen, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 16-12, $1,426
4th: Dan Mohn, Lansing, Iowa, five bass, 16-7, $998
5th: Devin Teigen, Nelson, Wis., five bass, 16-5, $1,320 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
5th: Jeremy Nokken, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 16-5, $820
7th: Kevin Ruh, Onalaska, Wis., five bass, 15-15, $713
8th: Joe Pollak, Lake Geneva, Wis., five bass, 15-8, $942
9th: Hunter Litchfield, Macomb, Ill., five bass, 15-7, $571
10th: Austin Brimeyer, Dubuque, Iowa, five bass, 15-6, $499
Zumach earned the day’s Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $605 with a smallmouth that weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces. Lee Lewis of Peoria, Illinois, won the Strike King Co-angler Division and $2,140 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 16 pounds, 4 ounces.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers were:
1st: Lee Lewis, Peoria, Ill., five bass, 16-4, $2,140
2nd: Alan Bernicky, Joliet, Ill., five bass, 15-13, $1,520
3rd: Shawn Overton, Coal Valley, Ill., five bass, 13-3, $712
4th: Justin Bowder, Rochester, Minn., five bass, 11-8, $499
5th: Thomas Bridges, Kankakee, Ill., four bass, 10-14, $428
6th: Mongshoua Xiong, La Crosse, Wis., four bass, 10-7, $392
7th: Mark Folsom, Waterville, Iowa, five bass, 10-6, $357
8th: Richard Conrad, Arcadia, Wis., four bass, 9-14, $321
9th: Michael Watson, Trempealeau, Wis., four bass, 9-9, $285
10th: Hertz Skaer, Holmen, Wis., three bass, 9-4, $552
Skaer caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Berkley Big Bass Co-angler award of $302.