LAKEPORT, Calif. – In his 18th season fishing the Toyota Series Western Division, Elk Grove, California’s Ken Mah has finished 11 times in the Top 10. He’s been close so many times before, and Friday at Clear Lake, he finally added the big No. 1 to his MLF résumé.
Mah didn’t just eke by, either. The veteran went absolutely nuclear the final two days of the event, weighing in close to 30 pounds on Day 2 (29-12) and putting the cherry on top on Friday with the largest bag of the tournament (31-10) that was anchored by a behemoth Clear Lake 11-pounder. In total, he weighed in 15 fish for 82 pounds, 6 ounces over three days.
As was the case for many anglers this week, Mah didn’t pile up big weights with big numbers – he had just nine bites on Day 1, 11 on Day 2 and seven on Day 3 – but he got the right bites at the right times, as evidenced by the tournament-best 11-pounder, which he caught mid-morning Friday.
What separated Mah from many in the field was the way he caught his fish, namely, flipping shallow cover. While the majority of anglers were casting big swimbaits offshore, Mah spent his time flipping, at first somewhat offshore and eventually near the bank.
“I caught my biggest one near the bank,” he said. “That was late in the day on Day 1. And that kind of clued me in a little bit. As the tournament went on, I started to catch less and less of them out of the brush and more and more on the bank. That was a key move for me.
“I followed those big fish. They want to move shallow right now. Me being able to follow them shallow was a key adjustment.”
Adjusting on the fly was perhaps part of Mah’s plan, though. After snowfall during practice and with forecasts calling for increasingly warmer weather throughout the week, he knew he’d have to move with the fish and try something a little different at some point.
For his flipping setups, Mah relied on a black-and-blue jig with a 3-inch Big Bite Baits YoMama trailer tied to 65-pound-test braid spooled on a Shimano Chronarch 150 MGL reel paired with a G. Loomis GLX 894. He also flipped just the YoMama on 22-pound-test Sunline Shooter with the Chronarch and a G. Loomis GLX JWR895.
Mah isn’t one to play up his accomplishments (and despite this being his first MLF win, he’s won all over the place out West on other tournament trails), so he was somewhat understandably subdued about catching more than 61 pounds over the final two days of the tournament. Still, it wasn’t entirely lost on him what a crazy tournament he put together.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said. “I knew the weather conditions were getting better for what I wanted to do. Things came together. It was [just] one of those things.”
With the win, Mah not only finally has a shiny red trophy to add to his mantle but also finds himself in the driver’s seat for Western Division Angler of the Year. Of course, there’s still two tournaments to go – and he’s not overlooking either of them – but he’s experienced enough with the West Coast slate to really put an exclamation point on what has been a terrific FLW/MLF career to this point, not to mention the fact that the Western Division finale takes place on his home fishery of the California Delta.
First, though, is Havasu in May, which is a timeframe that presents some new challenges for Mah and the rest of the division.
“My attitude about the season and each tournament is a microcosm,” he said. “Getting off to a great start is a great thing, but it’s not about how you start – it’s how you finish.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. We’re going to Havasu at a different time of year that I’ve not been before. With that postspawn Havasu fishing, it should suit my style better than the usual pre-prespawn time. I’m looking forward to it.”
And why not? There’s a sense of relief that comes with notching your first MLF win.
“It’s one that was eluding me,” he admitted. “To close it out here against this field, it’s just amazing. I’m blessed. This is a trophy I’ve been chasing.”
Here's how the Top 10 finished:
1st: Ken Mah, Elk Grove, Calif., 15 bass, 82-6, $26,261
2nd: Joe Mariani, Winters, Calif., 15 bass, 76-4, $10,176
3rd: Jon Strelic, El Cajon, Calif., 15 bass, 74-1, $7,878
4th: John Pearl, Upper Lake, Calif., 15 bass, 73-13, $6,565
5th: Christian Melton, Menifee, Calif., 15 bass, 68-3, $5,909
6th: Nathan Phillips, Kelseyville, Calif., 15 bass, 67-15, $5,252
7th: Juarez Jackson, Kelseyville, Calif., 15 bass, 66-5, $4,596
8th: David Valdivia, Riverside, Calif., 15 bass, 65-4, $4,239
9th: J.D. Blackamore, Yorba Linda, Calif., 13 bass, 65-0, $3,283
10th: Patrick Touey, Santa Maria, Calif., 15 bass, 61-12, $2,626
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Daniel Shelton of Kelseyville, California, earned the $500 Berkley Big Bass Award on Day 1 Wednesday with a largemouth weighing 9-4. The Day 2 award was earned by Roy Hawk of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, with an 8-14 specimen.
