Pennsylvania’s Frymoyer Grabs Co-angler Title
Boater Ronald Caldeira of Middletown, Delaware, caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 6 ounces, Saturday to win the 2018 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Northeast Division opener on the Potomac River presented by Navionics. For his efforts, Caldeira took home $6,796.
“I caught them all on main-river points in the mouths of Mattowoman and Quantico creeks,” said Caldeira, who notched his first win in FLW competition. “I had five points that I cycled through, and each had pebble rock and sand. I think the big females were transitioning to the points right outside those main creeks, getting ready to spawn. I only had seven bites, but they were the right ones. Some of the fish were tanks – they’d been eating for a while.”
Caldeira said he used a Rapala DT-6 crankbait for bass in 3 to 5 feet of water and a Chartreuse and Black Back-colored Strike King KVD 1.5 HC Shallow Squarebill for bass in 1 to 3 feet.
“I’d start far off the point with the Rapala and then switch to the Strike King as I got shallow so I wouldn’t get hung up as much,” said Caldeira. “As soon the lure would bounce off the rock and free itself, that’s when they loaded up on it.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Ronald Caldeira, Middletown, Del., five bass, 21-6, $6,796
2nd: Anthony Ebel, Davidsonville, Md., five bass, 19-12, $3,843
3rd: Rick McFaul, Phoenix, Md., five bass, 19-11, $2,134
4th: Jeremy Mathias, Monrovia, Md., five bass, 19-7, $1,352
5th: Brian Barnes, Seaford, Del., five bass, 18-14, $1,159
6th: Andrew Heivly, Malvern, Pa., five bass, 18-8, $1,063
7th: Kenny Garippa, Tobyhanna, Pa., five bass, 18-7, $869
7th: Matt Stoupa, Colonial Heights, Va., five bass, 18-7, $969
7th: Daniel Gray, Butler, Pa., five bass, 18-7, $869
10th: Thomas Arens, Purcellville, Va., five bass, 18-2, $676
Ebel brought a 6-pound, 3-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $945.
Steven Frymoyer of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, won the Co-angler Division and $2,898 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 15 pounds, 15 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Steven Frymoyer, Wyomissing, Pa., five bass, 15-15, $2,898
2nd: Jodi Werner, Tatamy, Pa., five bass, 15-2, $1,449
3rd: James Easley, Middletown, Del., five bass, 14-13, $967
4th: Ethan Luta, Bradford, N.Y., five bass, 14-10, $676
5th: Michael Nelms, Hartwood, Va., five bass, 14-8, $780
6th: Michael Bahnweg, Union Dale, Pa., five bass, 14-7, $531
7th: Mark Fenstermaker, Allentown, Pa., five bass, 14-4, $483
8th: Richard Falcon, Arlington, Va., five bass, 14-1, $435
9th: Frank Hutchinson, Sewell, N.J., five bass, 13-10, $436
10th: Cherif Zaher, Orangeville, Pa., five bass, 13-7, $321
10th: Roland Gittings, Perryville, Md., five bass, 13-7, $321
Henry McKee of Haddon Heights, New Jersey, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $472.
The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five winners in each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 11-13 BFL Regional Championship on Chesapeake Bay in North East, Maryland. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.
The 2018 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2018 BFL All-American will be held May 31-June 2 at Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros.
By: Brian Johnson, FLW
