BROOKELAND, TEXAS (Jan. 10, 2022) – Boater Austin Casteel of Sulphur, Louisiana, caught five bass Saturday weighing 19 pounds, 3 ounces, to win the MLF Bass Fishing League tournament on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Casteel earned $6,000 for his victory.
“The lake is fishing tough right now, and I knew the wind was going to be kicking, so I just tried to make the right decisions,” Casteel said. “It was tough.”
The win was Casteel’s first entry as a boater – his only previous Major League Fishing BFL event was as a co-angler. Casteel said he relied on a drop-shot rig tipped with a watermelon red Zoom Finesse Worm during the tournament to bag his limit.
“I caught my kicker fish on my fourth or fifth cast of the day,” Casteel said. “The only pressure I felt after that was that I didn’t want to catch just one big fish.”
Casteel said he boated 30 to 40 fish during the course of the day.
“The only time it kind of slowed up was when a storm blew through and it was tough to get bit,” Casteel said. “But as soon as that started calming down, they started biting again.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Austin Casteel, Sulphur, La., five bass, 19-3, $6,000
2nd: Lee Livesay, Longview, Texas, five bass, 18-15, $3,000
3rd: Cole Moore, Anacoco, La., five bass, 16-15, $2,000
4th: Chris Diberardino, Jasper, Texas, five bass, 16-9, $1,900 (includes $500 Phoenix Bonus)
5th: Easton Heigley, Brookeland, Texas, five bass, 16-7, $1,200
6th: Tater Reynolds, Florien, La., five bass, 15-13, $1,100
7th: William Hillebrandt, Ragley, La., five bass, 15-9, $1,000
8th: Rickey Elliott, Spring, Texas, five bass, 15-6, $1,850
8th: Randy Kvapil, Crandall, Texas, five bass, 15-6, $850
10th: Benji Gulett, Converse, La., five bass, 15-4, $700
Elliott caught 7-pound, 12-ounce largemouth that was the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division and earned the day’s Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $1,000.
J.J. Matzke of League City, Texas, won the Strike King Co-angler Division and $3,000 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 21 pounds, 4 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: J.J. Matzke, League City, Texas, five bass, 21-4, $3,000
2nd: Case Singleton, Orange, Texas, four bass, 17-6, $2,000
3rd: James Moore Jr., Lampasas, Texas, five bass, 15-9, $1,000
4th: Cameron Petras, Biloxi, Miss., five bass, 14-3, $700
5th: Cole Ashby, Orange, Texas, five bass, 14-0, $600
6th: Steve Barnett, Conroe, Texas, five bass, 13-7, $550
7th: Samuel Riche, Maurice, La., five bass, 13-2, $475
7th: Luke Allendorf, McKinney, Texas, five bass, 13-2, $475
9th: William Young, Livingston, Texas, four bass, 12-6, $400
10th: Jerry Morgan, New Caney, Texas, four bass, 12-3, $350
Singleton caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 8 pounds, 14 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Berkley Big Bass Co-angler award of $500.