Boater Dan Mohn of Lansing, Iowa, brought a five-bass limit to the scale weighing 16 pounds, 4 ounces Sunday to win the rescheduled T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Great Lakes Division event on the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien. The event, originally scheduled for June 23 in Wabasha, Minnesota, was rescheduled to Prairie du Chien due to high water levels and flooding conditions. For the victory, Mohn earned the top prize of $4,235.
“We started off the morning with a 2-hour fog delay, and I really wasn’t sure if that was going to hurt me or not,” said Mohn, who earned his first career victory in FLW competition. “Once we got out on the water I ran to the north end of Pool 10 and caught a couple, then I locked to Pool 9 and ended up filling out my limit.
“I was burning a lot of gas and just covering a lot of water, targeting any sort of cover that created a current break – rocks, eel grass, shells. I’d start out throwing a topwater, walking-type bait, then follow it up with a homemade jig with a Big Bite Baits Yo-Mama Craw.”
Mohn said that he caught 8 to 10 smallmouth bass throughout the day with the topwater and the jig each producing about half of his catch. He said that the color pattern of his jig and craw was crucial to his win, but declined to divulge his secrets with a few tournaments left on the river this season. He credited his equipment setup as being the key to his win.
“I was power-fishing and having to make extremely long casts, so the Denali rods spooled with Sunline line that I was using was the absolute right set up for me,” Mohn said. “I also changed out the hooks on my topwater with Gamakatsu treble hooks and once they bit I was able to keep them buttoned up much better.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Dan Mohn, Lansing, Iowa, five bass, 16-4, $4,235
2nd: Jeff Ritter, Prairie du Chien, Wis., five bass, 15-10, $2,318
3rd: Tom Howland, Riceville, Iowa, five bass, 15-6, $1,413
4th: Jim Caulum, Bangor, Wis., five bass, 15-4, $988
5th: Travis Ellefson, Luck, Wis., five bass, 14-10, $1,437
6th: Caleb Kuphall, Mukwonago, Wis., five bass, 14-4, $876
7th: Glenn Walker, Savage, Minn., five bass, 13-14, $670
7th: Mike Brueggen, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 13-14, $670
9th: Jerry Robackouski, Joliet, Ill., five bass, 13-5, $565
10th: Kyler Chelminiak, Franklin, Wis., five bass, 13-2, $794
Ellefson caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 13 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – to earn the Boater’s Big Bass award of $590.
Chad Schultz of Rockton, Illinois, won the Co-angler Division Sunday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds even. Schultz earned $2,118 for his victory.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Chad Schultz, Rockton, Ill., five bass, 12-0, $2,118
2nd: Ovidiu Marginean, Des Plaines, Ill., five bass, 11-8, $1,059
3rd: Cody Hackett, Stoddard, Wis., five bass, 11-3, $906
4th: Alexandru Spiac, Chicago, Ill., five bass, 10-7, $494
5th: Greg Tacheny, Harris, Minn., five bass, 10-0, $424
6th: Kevin Anderson, Ettrick, Wis., four bass, 8-14, $353
6th: Brad Juen, La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 8-14, $403
6th: Richard Conrad, Burnsville, Minn., five bass, 8-14, $353
9th: Alan Bernicky, Joliet, Ill., four bass, 8-13, $282
10th: Arne Young, Shorewood, Ill., four bass, 8-12, $247
Tom Lyskawka of Arlington Heights, Illinois, earned the Co-Angler Big Bass Award of $295 after bringing a bass weighing 4 pounds, 6 ounces to the scale.
The rescheduled T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Great Lakes Division event on the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien was hosted by the Prairie du Chien Tourism Council.
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 the 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. 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: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
