FLW Tour pro and reigning TBF national champion Mark Daniels Jr. of Fairfield, Calif., weighed a 26-12 sack on Saturday to win the California Delta Western Rayovac with a 3-day total of 72-07.
“I’m just speechless,” he said. “Looking out in the crowd, there are so many people here who supported me. It’s great to get home and relax and get a win in this tournament.
“I came home to surprise my mom and I hooked up with a couple of my buddies. We went out fishing and had a really good day. We caught a really good fish that I posted on Instagram, and that gave me an idea of what I could do to win the tournament. I made up my mind and signed up for the tournament the next day.
He said he focused on pre-spawn fish.
“I was targeting fish that wanted to actually bite. I don’t like looking at them on beds. There are so many different ways you can catch them pre-spawn on the Delta. That was the way to go.
“(Saturday), I didn’t have any really big ones. I had some 6-pounders, though. I started out throwing topwaters and I was just catching small fish. Around 8 o’clock in the morning I swapped over and started flipping and immediately caught a 4-pounder. After that I pretty much locked that rod in my hand the whole day.”
Full details of his winning pattern will be published soon.
Here are the totals for the final Top 10:
1. Mark Daniels Jr.: 72-07
2. Kyle Grover: 65-09
3. Vu Au: 63-07
4. Roy Hawk: 59-09
5. Stephen Tosh Jr.: 58-10
6. Jerred Jennings: 57-11
7. Greg Leonard: 57-07
8. Tai Au: 52-03
9. Timothy Venkus: 51-09
10. Benjamin Byrd: 50-12
