CLEWISTON, Fla. (April 4, 2022) – Boater Stanley Hunt of Jacksonville, Florida, caught five bass Saturday weighing 23 pounds, 13 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League on Lake Okeechobee. The tournament was the fourth event for the Bass Fishing League Gator Division. Hunt earned $5,349 for his victory.
“What a great tournament,” Hunt said. “I caught fish all day long on a Heddon Zara Spook on the north end near Buckhead Ridge. I was just trying to stay in clean water near spawning flats where they had just finished spawning.”
Hunt said he targeted bass that were two feet deep with a white and yellow Spook, retrieved in a traditional fast walk-the-dog retrieve. Hunt said he caught 15 fish throughout the competition – all keepers – with the smallest one weighing 2 pounds.
“I found those fish earlier in the week when they were on beds,” Hunt said. “I went back in there on Thursday and picked up the Spook and started throwing it. The first fish I caught in there was a 6½-pounder, and then I caught a 5-pounder, and I said, ‘O.K. I’ve got to get out of here.’
“Saturday, we got there at 8 o’clock and stayed until 2 o’clock,” Hunt added. “When they hit the Spook it was explosive. And when they hit it, they were pulling drag right out of the gate.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Stanley Hunt, Jacksonville, Fla., five bass, 23-13, $5,349
2nd: Ronnie Buck, Miami, Fla., five bass, 22-12, $3,525
3rd: Dillon McMillan, Vero Beach, Fla., five bass, 21-4, $1,782
4th: Timothy King, Fort Myers, Fla., five bass, 20-11, $1,248
5th: Bradley Macqueen, West Palm Beach, Fla., five bass, 19-0, $1,070
6th: Michael Johns, Davenport, Fla., five bass, 18-11, $1,281
7th: Bo Boyles, Deltona, Fla., five bass, 18-1, $1,092
8th: Mark Lundgren, Saint Cloud, Fla., five bass, 17-1, $802
9th: Trevor Hamlin, Cape Coral, Fla., five bass, 16-13, $713
10th: Garrett Thomas, Mulberry, Fla., five bass, 16-12, $624
Buck had largemouth that weighed 7-pounds even that was the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division and earned the day’s Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $850. Adam Giran of Wesley Chapel, Florida, won the Strike King Co-angler Division and $2,775 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 20 pounds even.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Adam Giran, Wesley Chapel, Fla., five bass, 20-0, $2,775
2nd: Jake Suvak, Plantation, Fla., five bass, 19-9, $1,762
3rd: Aleksandar Rak, Jacksonville, Fla., five bass, 16-13, $891
4th: Brian Cole, Sebastian, Fla., five bass, 15-8, $579
4th: Joshua Dunn, Mulberry, Fla., five bass, 15-8, $579
6th: Kevin Bilbrey, Leesburg, Fla., five bass, 13-11, $490
7th: Art Burgess, Delray, Fla., five bass, 12-5, $446
8th: Larry Mullikin, Jacksonville, Fla., five bass, 11-11, $401
9th: Ben Jacobi, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., four bass, 11-9, $357
10th: Dan Timms, Moore Haven, Fla., five bass, 10-13, $312
Suvak caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Berkley Big Bass Co-angler award of $425.
After four events, Mark Lundgren of Saint Cloud, Florida, leads the Bass Fishing League Gator Division Boater Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 898 points, while David DiMauro of Miramar, Florida, leads the Co-Angler Division AOY race with 955 points.
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