Vieira wins co-angler title
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 event on the California Delta presented by Mercury 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 Rayovac FLW Series 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.
The Rayovac FLW Series on the California Delta presented by Mercury was hosted by Hook Line & Sinker, Sugar Barge RV Resort & Marina, Providence Eatery, Black Bear Restaurant and Russo’s Marina. It was the second of three Western division events in 2014. The final Rayovac FLW Series Western Division tournament of 2014 will be held Oct. 9-11, at Clear Lake in Lakeport, Calif. For a complete schedule, visit the FLWOutdoors website.
For complete details and updated information visit the FLWOutdoors website. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow FLW on Facebook at Facebook/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter/FLWOutdoors.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2014 over the course of 229 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit the FLWOutdoors website and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube.
By: Jody White, Communications Specialist, FLW Outdoors
