The Costa FLW Series is headed to Clear Lake on April 21-23 for a tournament presented by Mercury when as many as 300 pros and co-anglers will take to the water for the second stop of 2016 in the Western Division.
“Guys are going to be doing a little bit of everything in this tournament,” said FLW Series pro Joe Uribe Jr. of Surprise, Arizona, who won this tournament in 2015. “The lake is completely full – the highest that I’ve ever seen it. That’ll really change things up and a lot of areas that guys are used to fishing will look very different than years past.”
“The tournament is also being held during a full moon, so that means another wave of fish should be moving up to spawn,” Uribe continued. “There has already been one wave of spawning fish, and the next wave is coming. That means we’re going to be catching them prespawn, spawn and postspawn. It’s going to be very versatile and guys are going to be fishing their strengths.
“I imagine we’ll see anglers sight-fishing, flipping, throwing a Yamamoto Senko, drop-shotting, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some guys catching them on a topwater. A lot of the locals love to throw the huge hand-poured swimbaits, and ChatterBaits are always popular there, year round.”
Uribe said that right now the north end of the lake is fishing a little more dominant than the south, as the shallow, warmer water with more spawning fish can be found there. He expected bass found on the south end to be staging and getting ready for the spawn.
“To win this tournament you’re going to have to crack 30 pounds one day and then back it up with 22 to 25 pounds on the other two days,” Uribe went on to say. “I think that 75 to 80 pounds will win the event, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see someone crack a couple of 30-pound limits and really blow this tournament out. It’s going to be an exciting event.”
Anglers will take off from the Konocti Vista Casino Resort & Marina, located at 2755 Mission Rancheria Road in Lakeport, at 6:30 a.m. PDT each day. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will also be held at the marina, but will begin at 3 p.m. All takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The event is being hosted by the Konocti Vista Casino Resort & Marina.
Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger Z175 with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2016 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 3-5 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri.
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 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. 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
