Joe Uribe Jr. of Surprise, Ariz., caught a 26-07 stringer Saturday, anchored by a 9-pound largemouth, to win the Lake Havasu Western Rayovac. His 3-day total of 67-03 was nearly 15 pounds more than runner-up Josh Bertrand.
“This victory is ever so sweet,” said Uribe. “I’ve been so patient, and I knew that sooner or later it would be my time. This has been a really exciting tournament and I’ve had a fantastic week. My co-angler and I had a great time today – we must have caught 30 fish, and we caught them all day long.”
Uribe’s monster final-day stringer was anchored by a 9-pound largemouth that bit right away in the morning.
“I thought it was a striper,” Uribe said. “As I was pulling it up I realized that it was green. My co-angler was battling a big carp at exactly the same time and it was a pretty crazy few minutes. I was feeling pretty good when I got it into the boat.”
Uribe said his two main baits throughout the week were an original Z-Man ChatterBait with a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper and a Basstronix umbrella rig with Skinny Dippers as the primary bait and smaller Keitech Swimbaits rigged as teasers.
Additional details of his winning pattern will be published later this week.
Here's how the 10 finalists finished up:
1. Joe Uribe, Jr.: 67-03
2. Josh Bertrand: 52-05
3. Scott Hellesen: 48-03
4. Shaun Bailey: 45-06
5. J.J. Gibbs: 42-08
6. Hunter Schlander: 38-05
7. Mark Shura: 38-05
8. Mark Williams: 38-00
9. Gary Pinholster: 36-13
10. Charlie Weyer: 36-07
