BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. (May 17, 2014) – Mark Daniels Jr. of Fairfield, Calif., weighed a five-bass limit totaling 26 pounds, 12 ounces Saturday to win the Rayovac FLW Series Western Division tournament on the California Delta with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 72 pounds, 7 ounces. For his victory, Daniels Jr. earned $38,664.
“I’m just speechless,” said the reigning TBF National Champion on stage immediately after finding out he had secured the win. “Looking out in the crowd, there are so many people here who supported me. It’s great to get home and relax and get a win in this tournament.
“I came home to surprise my mom and I hooked up with a couple of my buddies. We went out fishing and had a really good day,” said Daniels Jr. “We caught a really good fish that I posted on Instagram, and that gave me an idea of what I could do to win the tournament. I made up my mind and signed up for the tournament the next day.
“I was targeting pre-spawn fish,” Daniels Jr. explained. “I was targeting fish that wanted to actually bite. I don’t like looking at them on beds. There are so many different ways you can catch them pre-spawn on the Delta. That was the way to go.
“Today, I didn’t have any really big ones,” said Daniels Jr. “I had some six-pounders, though. I started out throwing topwaters and I was just catching small fish. Around 8 o’clock in the morning I swapped over and started flipping and immediately caught a four-pounder. After that I pretty much locked that rod in my hand the whole day.”
Daniels Jr. said he caught most of his fish on a white-colored River2Sea Bully Wa Frog, a black-colored D&M Custom Baits Slow Roller Buzzbait, a Yamamoto Senko and an undisclosed beaver-style bait. The top 10 pros on the California Delta were:
1st: Mark Daniels Jr., Fairfield, Calif., 15 bass, 72-7, $38,664
2nd: Kyle Grover, Trabuco Canyon, Calif., 15 bass, 65-9, $14,982
3rd: Vu Au, Tuscon, Ariz., 15 bass, 63-7, $11,599
4th: Roy Hawk, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 15 bass, 59-9, $9,666
5th: Stephen Tosh Jr., Turlock, Calif., 15 bass, 58-10, $8,699
6th: Jerred Jennings, Stockton, Calif., 15 bass, 57-11, $7,733
7th: Greg Leonard, Elk Grove, Calif., 15 bass, 57-7, $6,766
8th: Tai Au, Glendale, Ariz., 15 bass, 52-3, $5,800
9th: Timothy Venkus, Wilton, Calif., 15 bass, 51-9, $4,833
10th: Benjamin Byrd, Moab, Utah, 15 bass, 50-12, $3,866
Marco Valdez of Gilbert, Ariz., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division Thursday – a 11-pound, 7-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Rayovac FLW Series Big Bass award of $284. Darren Vieira of Martinez, Calif., won the co-angler division and a Ranger Z117C with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 42 pounds, 2 ounces. The top 10 co-anglers on the California Delta were:
1st: Darren Vieira, Martinez, Calif., 15 bass, 42-2, Ranger Z117C with a 90-horsepower outboard
2nd: Brandon Cabrales, Huntington Beach, Calif., 15 bass, 42-1, $4,841
3rd: Sunny Hawk, Salt Lake City, Utah, 14 bass, 40-6, $3,873
4th: Matthew Bynum, Concord, Calif., 15 bass, 39-1, $3,389
5th: Chris Shrader, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, 13 bass, 38-11, $2,905
6th: Rob Larrabee, Livermore, Calif., 15 bass, 38-7, $2,420
7th: Josh Unruh, Winnemucca, Nev., 15 bass, 36-15, $1,936
8th: Troy Stokes, Huntington Beach, Calif., 15 bass, 36-14, $1,694
9th: Keith Adams, Redding, Calif., 13 bass, 35-4, $1,452
10th: Ryan Diatte, Gilroy, Calif., 11 bass, 32-4, $1,210
Darius Turner of Elk Grove, Calif., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division Friday – a 9-pound, 3-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $189.
The Rayovac FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the no-entry-fee Rayovac FLW Series Championship. The 2014 Rayovac FLW Series Championship is being held Oct. 30-Nov.1 on Wheeler Lake in Rogersville, Ala.