Houston resident Dicky Newberry broke the weight record for a single-day BFL event Saturday when he caught a 36-05 bag en route to winning a Cowboy Division derby at Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
Newberry now has seven BFL wins (three at Rayburn). He also topped the 2008 Rayburn Texas EverStart.
“I had located these fish a few weeks ago and have been doing quite well on them,” he said. “I'd been catching 20- to 25-pound stringers off the spot for a solid 3 weeks in a row. It was my planned starting point of the day and I was boat (No.) 22, so I was able to get there first.
“When I arrived at the spot I caught a 6-pounder fairly quickly, but had some trouble getting anymore bites for the next 15 to 20 minutes. I finally moved over to another location on the same ridge and caught a fish that weighed almost 9 pounds. I quickly made another cast in there and broke one off. Immediately on the next cast I caught my biggest fish of the day, the 10-07. It all happened so fast.”
Newberry described the spots he was fishing as staging areas in 6 to 10 feet of water. They were located on clay points, adjacent to the lake’s large spawning flats.
His winning margin over runner-up Kevin Lasyone was more than 14 1/2 pounds.
"Most of the fish came on a 1-ounce football jig. This is the largest stringer I've ever caught in an individual tournament. It was a very exciting day.”
The previous record was 35-05, set by Brent Riley of Ridgeville, S.C. in 2001 at Santee Cooper.
