HENDERSON, Nev. (March 2, 2019) – Pro angler Tim Klinger of Boulder City, Nevada, brought the second-largest stringer of the entire tournament to the scale Saturday – a five-bass limit weighing 15 pounds, 4 ounces – to win the Costa FLW Series tournament at Lake Mead. Klinger’s three-day total of 13 bass weighing 34 pounds, 12 ounces gave him the win by 4-pound, 12-ounce margin over second-place pro Lane Olson of Forest Grove, Oregon, and earned him the $32,778 prize in an exciting finale to the three-day event that kicked off the 2019 FLW Series Western Division season.
“The key for me this week was my confidence in my flipping,” said Klinger, who pushed his career earnings over the $600,000 mark in FLW competition. “I was born and raised on this lake, and I’m very comfortable fishing here.”
Klinger said he spent the first two days of the event flipping bushes in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead. He said that he caught four fish on the first day throwing a Beast Coast Tungsten Flipping jig with a Super Pork Bubba Frog trailer. On the second day, he switched to a Texas-rigged 4-inch green-pumpkin-colored craw and added another four keepers. On Day 3, the wind kept him closer to the takeoff so he spent the day in Boulder Basin, throwing a white ¾-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait, and caught 11 keepers, and the second-largest limit of the tournament.
“I caught a couple of smallmouth throughout the week, but all 13 of my keepers that made it to the scale were largemouth,” Klinger said. “All week long I was throwing my baits on a 7-foot, 6-inch, Taipan Rods Flipping Stick, with 20-pound fluorocarbon or 50-pound-test braided line.”
Klinger spent all three days of competition fishing shallow, and said that every fish he caught came between 2- and 9-feet-deep. The two-time FLW Cup qualifier was fishing in his 107th career event in FLW competition.
The top 10 pros on Lake Mead finished:
1st: Tim Klinger, Boulder City, Nev., 13 bass, 34-12, $32,778
2nd: Lane Olson, Forest Grove, Ore., 12 bass, 30-0, $12,724
3rd: Benjamin Byrd, Moab, Utah, 12 bass, 29-7, $9,774
4th: Roy Hawk, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 14 bass, 29-1, $8,145
5th: David Valdivia, Norwalk, Calif., 14 bass, 28-13, $7,330
6th: Brett Leber, Dixon, Calif., nine bass, 28-9, $6,516
7th: Rusty Salewske, Alpine, Calif., 11 bass, 26-11, $5,701
8th: Sean Coffey, Mesa, Ariz., 10 bass, 25-1, $4,887
9th: Wade Curtiss, Lincoln, Calif., eight bass, 20-12, $4,072
10th: Tyler Rempe, Sierra Vista, Ariz., nine bass, 19-10, $3,258
Ed Arledge of Valley Center, California, weighed a 6-pound, 12-ounce, bass Friday – the biggest of the tournament in the Pro Division. For his catch, Arledge earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $216. Jesse Parks of Avondale, Arizona, won the Co-angler Division and a Ranger Z175 with a 115-horsepower outboard motor with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 23 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers on Lake Mead finished:
1nd: Jesse Parks, Avondale, Ariz., nine bass, 23-8, Ranger Z175 w/115-horsepower outboard + $5,000 Ranger Cup
2nd: Dante Ray, Fernley, Nev., nine bass, 20-5, $4,351
3rd: Lynn Irwin, Las Vegas, Nev., nine bass, 19-5, $3,401
4th: Tom White, Costa Mesa, Calif., seven bass, 15-14, $3,025
5th: Mark Bowman, San Dimas, Calif., eight bass, 15-6, $2,550
6th: Ted Romero, Lakewood, Calif., six bass, 13-14, $2,125
7th: Jacob Traba, Pacifica, Calif., six bass, 13-5, $1,844
8th: Gabriel Diaz, Nuevo, Calif., four bass, 13-0, $1,560
9th: Doug Hutchison, Santa Rosa, Calif., five bass, 10-14, $1,275
10th: Robin Oh, Valencia, Calif., four bass, 10-10, $1,063
Diaz and Dean Sexton of Costa Mesa, California, both caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 2 ounces, out of the back of the boat Friday – the largest in the Co-angler Division – to split the Co-angler Big Bass award of $144.