FLW Tour pro Wesley Strader weighed a 13-01 sack on Saturday to win the Kissimmee Chain Bassmaster Southern Open by 2 ounces over local stick Cody Detweiler. Strader, who compiled a 3-day total of 50-05, earned a berth in the 2017 Classic (contingent upon his participation in the next two events in the division).
Throughout the week, Strader caught most of his fish on a Zoom Fluke or Speed Craw and an Old School Baits Twin Spin topwater.
“Yesterday I got on a little deal in some hydrilla and caught some on a (homemade bladed jig), so this morning I decided to start there,” he said. “So when I pulled up on that hydrilla bed, they were biting like crazy.”
Despite fishing in 58-degree water, Strader was able to coax bass into slamming the topwater bait.
“Those fish came up and smoked it, so I caught every fish on that Twin Spin in about 20 minutes.”
Detweiler relied on a variety of lures to catch his bass throughout the week. He threw a ChatterBait in the rain the whole first day of competition, and when the weather turned sunny the next day, he threw a Humdinger swim jig and flipped a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver with a 1 1/2-ounce weight to isolated mats. He also relied on the swim jig and flipped the Sweet Beaver to mats the final day to catch a 15-08 limit.
Full details of Strader's winning pattern will be published in the coming days.
Here are the final totals for the Top 12:
1. Wesley Strader: 50-05
2. Cody Detweiler: 50-03
3. Mark Rose: 50-01
4. Eric Panzironi: 48-02
5. Chad Morgenthaler: 45-04
6. Stetson Blaylock: 43-01
7. Bobby Lane: 42-12
8. Kazuki Kitajima: 40-09
9. Ish Monroe: 39-00
10. Jason Williamson: 36-00
11. Terry Scroggins: 35-15
12. Brad Knight: 34-00
