He tallied 22.28 pounds at Mead, as fishing proved to be tough for the entire field. He edged Tim Klinger of Boulder City, NV, who also is a two-time winner at Mead on the circuit, who finished only 0.78-pound behind Folkestad.
Klinger led the first round with 13.74 and Folkestad was second at 10.70 pounds, but Folkestad made up the ground on Sunday.
"I found the fish in the shallows in pre-fish, but when the cold front moved through Thursday and Friday, the water temperature dropped about 4 degrees. I felt the fish had moved from the shallows to the deeper ledges just outside the spawning areas. I caught my fish on Roboworm's 'Folkestad Special' colored in 15-20 feet of water," said Folkestad.
Klinger fished the lower basin with jigs, spinnerbaits and drop-shot worms in 5 to 15 feet of water to score his bass, which included a 3.52 pounder, and ended up with 21.50 pounds to win $8,790 in cash.
Folkestad added $3,700 in cash to his first place of a $36,000 Ranger 519 boat and trailer with a Mercury outboard, Lowrance Electronics, MotorGuide trolling motor and Trojan batteries.
In third place was Eric Brewer of Nuevo, CA, who scored 21.17 pounds and $5,500 for his best WON BASS finish ever.
In the AAA division, the winner was Mike Clark of South Jordan, Utah, who bagged $4,200 for his catch of 20.59 pounds.
The largest fish of the tournament was caught on Sunday by Mike Baldwin of Mohave Valley, AZ, with a 4.63 pounder to win $1,500 in the Miller High Life Daily Double big fish payoff. Brewer had a 3.32 pounder to take $500 in the pool. The Saturday winner of the Daily Double $1,500 was Bruce Martin of North Las Vegas with a 4.31 pounder, while the $500 winner was Dino Caporuscio of Cota de Casa, CA, with a 3.91 pounder.
This tournament was the second of four events in the South Region of the WON BASS Pro Tour, with the next South event returning to Lake Mead in May 17-18.
The next tournament in the North is at the California Delta, out of Antioch, on April 12-13.