OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (May 20, 2019) – Boater Adam Boehle of Warrenton, Missouri, caught five bass Saturday weighing 20 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Lake of the Ozarks. Boehle pocketed $4,938 for his win in the event presented by Navionics and 250 points in the Ozark Division presented by Bassing Bob standings. The winner of the division’s Angler of the Year title after five tournaments will win $3,000.
“The competition in the Ozark division is some of the best in the nation and to just compete alongside these guys is an honor, but to actually win is quite the feat,” said Boehle, who earned his first career BFL victory. “It definitely feels real good and I’ll be thinking about this tournament for awhile.”
Boehle said he fished from the Glaize Arm of the lake to the dam, throwing a ¾-ounce green-pumpkin-colored Crock-O-Gator Reaction Jig with a Strike King Rage Structure Bug, a 5-inch shad-colored Zoom swimbait and a gizzard shad-colored 6th Sense crankbait.
“I was keying on the shad spawn in the morning, then switched to points,” Boehle said. “I think I had 12 keepers throughout the day, with the majority coming on the swimbait. I made a bait change mid-morning and caught two big ones on the crankbait. I still needed a kicker, so I went flipping with the Crock-O-Gator jig and caught my biggest of the day, a 5½-pounder.
“I need to make sure to give credit to Jim Dill, owner of the Crock-O-Gator bait company,” Boehle went on to say. “My jig order didn’t come in before the event, and Jim was fishing in this event. He hooked me up with a couple of jigs, no big deal. That jig was what I caught my kicker on and turned out to be what won me the tournament.”
.The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Adam Boehle, Warrenton, Mo., five bass, 20-12, $4,938
2nd: Mark Wiese, High Ridge, Mo., five bass, 20-7, $2,669
3rd: Jason Rhyne, Foristell, Mo., five bass, 19-3, $1,646
4th: James Dill, Sunrise Beach, Mo., five bass, 18-7, $1,452
5th: Cole Findley, Forsyth, Mo., five bass, 18-0, $988
6th: Rob Bueltmann, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 17-11, $964
6th: Lance Williams, Billings, Mo., five bass, 17-11, $964
8th: Chuck Austin, Saint Peters, Mo., five bass, 17-6, $741
9th: Mike Malone, Lake Ozark, Mo., five bass, 17-2, $658
10th: Dustin Lippe, Lampe, Mo., five bass, 17-0, $576
Wes Proctor of Manhattan, Kansas, caught a 6-pound, 3-ounce bass – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $745. Cody Carl of Lake Lotawana, Missouri, won the Co-angler Division and $2,436 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 16 pounds, 15 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Cody Carl, Lake Lotawana, Mo., five bass, 16-15, $2,436
2nd: Lang Yang, Miami, Okla., five bass, 16-7, $1,218
3rd: Johnny Ward Jr., Waynesville, Mo., five bass, 16-2, $1,181
4th: Brian Abella, Marshfield, Mo., five bass, 14-12, $568
5th: Michael Fey Sr., Cuba, Mo., five bass, 14-9, $487
6th: Malachi Raymer, Dittmer, Mo., five bass, 13-12, $447
7th: Michael Clark, Richland, Mo., five bass, 13-11, $406
8th: Lucas Basler, Desloge, Mo., four bass, 13-6, $565
9th: James Kelley, Maryland Heights, Mo., five bass, 13-5, $325
10th: Morgan McClain, Lenexa, Kan., five bass, 13-1, $284
Ward caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 5 pounds, 10 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $367.