Sukowatey wins co-angler title
Ryan Doty of East Dubuque, Illinois, weighed three bass totaling 9 pounds, 7 ounces Saturday to win the fourth Walmart Bass Fishing League Great Lakes Division tournament on the Wolf River Chain. For his victory, Doty earned $4,507.
“It’s very exciting to finally win a tournament,” said Doty of his first victory in FLW competition. “It’s not every day that I’m able to do what I love and be rewarded for it.
“During practice I hit a 1,000-yard stretch on Fox River pretty hard, so I knew that I would be there on tournament day,” continued Doty. “I just went in there and did my best to figure out what was going on.”
Doty said he targeted grassy areas using a yellow Booyah Pad Crasher Frog.
“I didn’t have a single bite until 10 a.m.,” said Doty. “After the sun came up, things started to heat up. I reeled in my biggest fish around 11:30. I caught my two other fish before 1 p.m. – all in about a foot and a half of water.”
Doty said he caught approximately 15 keepers over the course of the day.
“I probably had 70 fish hit the frog but it was hard to catch them,” Doty said. “It ended up being those three big bites that pushed me to the top of the standings.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Ryan Doty, East Dubuque, Ill., three bass, 9-7, $4,507
2nd: Tom Cordes, Dakota, Minn., three bass, 9-2, $2,253
3rd: Andrew Behnke, Fond Du Lac, Wis., three bass, 8-14, $1,277
3rd: Casey Goode, La Crosse, Wis., three bass, 8-14, $1,277
5th: Jeff Ritter, Prairie Du Chien, Wis., three bass, 8-9, $901
6th: Clayton Reitz, Morton, Ill., three bass, 8-8, $826
7th: Mark Myers, Cedar Falls, Iowa, three bass, 8-4, $751
8th: Jeff Benson, Holmen, Wis., three bass, 8-3, $676
9th: Rick Bosshard, Hartland, Wis., three bass, 8-2, $563
9th: Rick Miller, Eastman, Wis., three bass, 8-2, $563
Cordes caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division, a fish weighing 3 pounds, 13 ounces and earned the day’s Big Bass award of $655.
Art Sukowatey of Greendale, Wisconsin, weighed in three bass totaling 10 pounds, 1 ounce Saturday to win $2,253 in the co-angler division.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Art Sukowatey, Greendale, Wis., three bass, 10-1, $2,253
2nd: Kevin Anderson, Ettrick, Wis., three bass, 8-5, $1,127
3rd: Adam Douglas, Tripoli, Iowa, three bass, 7-12, $751
4th: Pelli Lee, La Crosse, Wis., three bass, 7-11, $526
5th: Cody Hackett, Stoddard, Wis., three bass, 7-7, $432
5th: Matt Knox, Metamora, Ill., three bass, 7-7, $432
7th: Jared Greninger, Rockford, Ill., three bass, 7-5, $376
8th: Tom Lyskawka, Arlington Heights, Ill., three bass, 7-4, $319
8th: Tony Seiler, River Falls, Wis., three bass, 7-4, $319
10th: Paul Vonwald, La Crosse, Wis., three bass, 7-1, $263
Sukowatey also caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division and earned the day’s Big Bass award of $327.
The top 50 boaters and 50 co-anglers based on point standings will qualify for the Oct. 15-17 Regional Championship on Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 50 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and compete to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the Walmart BFL All-American. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.
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 2015 over the course of 240 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.
By: Brian Johnson, FLW
