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 FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Ozark Division tournament 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:
1st: Zach Bechtel, Cuba, Mo., five bass, 21-7, $5,020 + $2,000 Ranger Cup
2nd: Mark Tucker, Kirkwood, Mo., five bass, 19-8, $2,560
3rd: Keith Nickell, Warsaw, Mo., five bass, 19-1, $1,574
4th: Rob Bueltmann, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 18-2, $1,201
5th: David Ryan, Levasy, Mo., five bass, 17-12, $944
6th: Ronnie Kane, Gardner, Kan., five bass, 17-8, $865
7th: Tom Alsop, Overland Park, Kan., five bass, 15-5, $787
8th: Tom Silber, Labadie, Mo., five bass, 15-2, $708
9th: Jason Rhyne, Foristell, Mo., five bass, 15-1, $629
10th: Shawn Kowal, Linn Creek, Mo., five bass, 14-6, $551
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:
1st: Tom Lloyd, Springfield, Mo., five bass, 16-0, $2,560
2nd: Spencer Clark, Maryland Heights, Mo., five bass, 12-15, $1,180
3rd: Taylor Day, Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., two bass, 9-0, $787
4th: Lang Yang, Miami, Okla., three bass, 8-10, $551
5th: Jordan Williams, Oak Grove, Mo., three bass, 8-4, $522
6th: Dennis Spell, Bonne Terre, Mo., three bass, 7-10, $433
7th: Bryan Barnard, Harrison, Ark., two bass, 7-8, $393
8th: Walter Hammond, Lees Summit, Mo., three bass, 7-3, $354
9th: Terry Misenhelter, Four Seasons, Mo., two bass, 6-13, $315
10th: 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.