Oklahoma's Zack Birge caught a 19-pound sack, the second-biggest stringer of the event, to win the Rayovac FLW Series Championship at Wheeler Lake in Alabama on Saturday with a 3-day total of 47-00.
He earned $50,000, plus a berth in the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup.
“It was an awesome day and I’m very blessed,” said Birge, who started the day tied for 3rd place, yet won by 7 pounds. “On the last day of practice I ran into some fish and it completely changed my mood and my game plan.
“I only caught 11 pounds on day 1, but I knew they were there. I just didn’t get any big bites. I went back Friday and had a good day, and thankfully they bit again today.”
Birge said his primary area featured big log jams on shallow sandbars with deep-water channels nearby.
“It reminds me a lot of Grand Lake,” he said of his area. “Where I found my fish was absolutely identical to the places I find the fish back home.
“The first couple of days I was just throwing a spinnerbait up to the logs. They pulled current in the morning and I was able to get some good bites. Today I was also slow-rolling my spinnerbait on the bottom. You had to really crawl it along. If you thought you were reeling slow enough, you had to slow down.”
Birge said that he averaged eight to 12 keeper bass per day and threw two shad-colored spinnerbaits – one a 3/4-ounce Santone Lures model and the other a 1/2-ounce River2Sea Ish Monroe Bling spinnerbait. Full details of his winning pattern will be published soon.
In addition to Birge, who represented the Texas Division, the highest finishing pros from each division who qualified for next year's Forrest Wood Cup were Casey Gallagher (Central), Chris Baumgardner (Northern), Todd Auten (Southeast) and Roy Hawk (Western).
Additionally, Bryan Thrift, Richard Peek, George Kapiton, Chris McCall and Jay Yelas also qualified for the '15 Forrest Wood Cup as they were the five highest finishers after the division leaders were removed.
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Zack Birge: 47-00
2. Chris Baumgardner: 40-00
3. Casey Gallagher: 40-00
4. Todd Auten: 38-10
5. Bryan Thrift: 36-09
6. Richard Peek: 36-07
7. George Kapiton: 34-15
8. Chris McCall: 34-10
9. Jay Yelas: 31-03
10. Randy Haynes: 26-15
