BROOKELAND, Texas (Jan. 8, 2024) – Boater Hayden Heck of Lufkin, Texas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 29 pounds, 3 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. The tournament kicked off the season for the BFL Cowboy Division. Heck earned $6,199 for his victory.
“I decided to go to a spot where I had been seeing fish for a couple of weeks,” Heck said. “It’s been really spotty, though – one day they’d be there and the next they wouldn’t.
“I was fishing a little bit offshore,” Heck continued. “Nothing super deep. I was using a brown and purple football jig and a drop-shot rig. There was a lot of bait around the area, and that kept the fish around for a bit.”
Heck said his boat was sitting in about 10 feet of water while fishing the jig, and his efforts produced 20 bites from the south part of Sam Rayburn during the event.
“I fish Rayburn a lot,” Heck said. “It’s the only lake I fish, and the last couple of weeks have been tough here. The fish seem to be moving around a lot, like saltwater fish. They’re on the move daily with the bait. So, if you can time it right, you can really catch them.
“On Rayburn, unless you bust a really big bag, you don’t think you really ever have a chance to win,” Heck said. “Once it gets cold on Rayburn anyone can come in with 40-plus pounds. So, I’m really happy to get the win.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Hayden Heck, Lufkin, Texas, five bass, 29-3, $6,199
2nd: Wesley Baxley, Cypress, Texas, five bass, 25-2, $2,675
3rd: Jeffery Rice, Shreveport, La., five bass, 22-4, $1,782
4th: Glen Webb, Bethel, Okla, five bass, 20-9, $1,248
5th: Riley Harris, Orange, Texas, five bass, 19-5, $1,070
6th: Tater Reynolds, Florien, La., five bass, 18-11, $1,236
6th: Bobby Vice, Orange, Texas, five bass, 18-11, $936
8th: Jaden Parrish, Liberty, Texas, five bass, 17-3, $802
9th: Colby Miller, Elmer, La., five bass, 16-14, $713
10th: Darren Taylor, Coldspring, Texas, five bass, 16-2, $624
Heck caught a bass that weighed 9 pounds, 14 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $850.
Tim Sink of San Antonio, Texas, won the Strike King co-angler division and $3,088 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 14 pounds, 13 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Tim Sink, San Antonio, Texas, five bass, 14-13, $3,088
2nd: Brad Poole, Roanoke, Texas, five bass, 14-4, $1,334
3rd: Derek Swindler, Waxahachie, Texas, five bass, 12-9, $888
4th: Robert Joslin, Fort Smith, Ark., five bass, 11-12, $623
5th: Dakota Posey, Orange, Texas, five bass, 11-1, $534
6th: Mitchel Martin, Washington, La., five bass, 10-15, $489
7th: James Moore, Jr., Lampasas, Texas, five bass, 10-12, $595
8th: Kenneth Venable, Fred, Texas, five bass, 10-11, $378
8th: Michael Wall, Montgomery, Texas, five bass, 10-11, $378
10th: Bradley Sullivan, Shawnee, Okla., four bass, 10-10, $295
10th: Casey Craig, Nacogdoches, Texas, five bass, 10-10, $295
Sink also earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $420, catching a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
https://dev.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-sam-rayburn-1824.html
BFL News Archive