Nick Thliveros of Saint Augustine, Fla. caught a 10-15 stringer on Saturday to win the Lake Okeechobee Southeastern FLW Series with a three-day total of 46-01. The son of longtime tour pro Peter Thliveros bested runner-up Cody Nichols of Fayette, Ala. by more than 4 pounds.
For his victory, Thliveros earned the grand prize package worth $54,000.
“This feels amazing – one of those things that you lay in bed and dream about at night,” said Thliveros, who was fishing in his 11th career tournament as a boater in FLW competition. “I’ve won fishing as a co-angler before, but to win as a pro in an event that I fished alongside my father is really, really cool. He is an amazing mentor, a heck of a teacher, and I wouldn’t be here today without him.”
Thliveros’ limits weighing 15-14 on Thursday and 19-04 on Friday came from the same area of Lake Okeechobee – the Hendry Canal. He threw a crack-colored Lucky Craft RC 2.0 square-bill crankbait to catch all of his fish on the first two days of competition, an estimated eight keepers on Thursday and 10 on Friday.
“The key for me was the condition of the lake,” Thliveros said. “I went and found the most stable water that I could find, where the weather and low water wouldn’t affect the fish. That was in the rim ditches, catching fish that were trying to spawn.
“Today, the fish moved up and I couldn’t figure them out. I only had two little fish on the crankbait this morning, so I had to scrap that whole pattern around 10:45 (a.m.) and just went junk-fishing. I made my way to the back of the Monkey Box and was able to salvage 10 pounds and thankfully that was enough.”
Thliveros fished a black and blue Nichols jig with a blue bug-colored Strike King Rage Craw and a Texas-rigged black, blue and silver-colored Bitters Salty Sling with a 1/32-ounce tungsten Bullet Weight to catch his limit Saturday.
“The rest of the Southeastern Division events set up really well for me, so I’m excited to see how everything shakes out this season,” Thliveros said.. “This was definitely a great way to start the year.”
Here are the final totals for the top 10:
1. Nick Thliveros: 46-01
2. Cody Nichols: 42-00
3. Jason Abram: 42-00
4. Brett Preuett: 39-09
5. Sandy Melvin: 38-02
6. Bryan New: 38-02
7. Lance Oligschlaeger: 38-01
8. David Parsons: 35-10
9. Billy Hall: 34-06
10. Val Osinski: 32-04
