Competing in his first EverStart Series event as a boater, Oroville, Calif. resident Ryan Friend weighed a 13-00 sack today to win the Western Division derby at Lake Oroville with a 3-day total of 37-05.
"Basically, I had a really good practice,” he said. “I started getting on the fish pretty good the first part of January. Once I found those good areas, I left them alone and focused on finding more areas. I fished up the West Branch, which required almost 50 minutes of idling if you wanted to fish up there. I knew that would lock a lot of guys out from fishing there.
“Today I had a small limit by 9 o’clock and just upgraded from there. I think a lot of that pressure really got to those fish."
He threw finesse jigs on spinning gear with 6-pound line. Full details of his winning pattern will be posted soon.
Here are the total for the Top 10 finishers:
1. Ryan Friend: 37-05
2. Jeff Michels: 33-06
3. Brett Leber: 33-00
4. Wayne Breazeale: 32-05
5. Richard Dobyns: 32-03
6. John Maes: 31-12
7. Cody Meyer: 30-03
8. Alax Parker: 30-03
9. Jason Borofka: 30-01
10. Glen Lockhart: 28-05
