Draper Tops Another Record
PEORIA, AZ. - A South Region record field of 184 boats turned out last weekend, Fdb. 22-23, for the first South tournament of the season on the WON BASS Miller High Life Tour, following an all-time record of 193 boats at the North's Shasta Lake Invitational two weeks prior.
While angling was expected to be tough at Lake Pleasant in central Arizona, it was actually tougher than expected following a week of good "pre-fishing" for most anglers. The rising water level shut off most of the bite, said the anglers, as it took only 19.74 pounds for Phil Draper of Pinion Hills, CA to win the championship over 183 Pro anglers, and capture the top prize of a Ranger 519VX boat and trailer with a Mercury 175, Lowrance Electronics, Trojan batteries and a MotorGuide trolling motor - a package valued at $36,000.
Draper also won $1,500 cash by including a 6.59-pound bass in his Saturday catch of 15.33 pounds, good for the biggest fish of the tournament and the daily Miller High Life Daily Double Award.
"I didn't do well in pre-fishing," said Draper, "using topwater plugs, but when the tournament started that wasn't working and I went to spinnerbaits - white with pearl-colored blades and slow-rolled them along the bottom. The best action was in Castle Creek, an area where I caught a good fish during the pre-fishing."
Second place went to Tom Kilduff of Dewey, AZ, who was also fishing the Castle Creek area with spinnerbaits. "I practiced and caught almost all of my fish on spinnerbaits," he said.
On the first day of the tournament Kilduff weighed in 15.27 pounds of bass to trail Draper. Both had light weights on Sunday but maintained their standings over the rest of the field. Draper finished at 19.74 pounds, only 0.38-pound over Kilduff's 19.36 pounds. For his efforts, Kilduff went home with a total of $9,000 cash, including $500 for the second biggest bass of day one, 5.95 pounds.
Third place in the tournament went to veteran tournament Pro Mike Folkestad of Yorba Linda, CA, who had consistent weights of 9.96 pounds and 9.25 pounds on the two days, but was 0.53-pound short of his fifth WON BASS tournament win. He still pocketed $6,000 for his weekend on Lake Pleasant. The big bass award for Sunday went to AAA angler Dennis Rodriguez of Downey, CA, fishing his first-ever WON BASS event. His Miller High Life award was $1,500 for the 5.97 pounder. Pro Marc Knudsen of Henderson, NV, placed second for $500 with a 4.84 pounder.
During the two-day contest, the anglers weighed in a total of 812 bass that averaged just over 1 1/2 pounds each.
Topping the field of 161 AAA (non-boater) anglers at the tournament was Jim Ryan of Torrance, CA, who compiled 24.55 pounds while fishing with Phil Draper on Saturday and Jimmy Walker of San Diego on Sunday. His prize was $2,000. The biggest winner in the AAA division, however, was John Krumsiek of Riverside, who tallied $4,350 with third place money plus option pool money for 17.18 pounds. Ken Kruck of San Diego had 21.01 pounds to win $1,500 for second place, but like Ryan, was not in the options.
The money winners at the tournament included:
Place, Name Hometown Fish Big Fish Total Money 1 Phil Draper Pinon Hills CA 8 6.59 19.74 $37,500 2 Tom Kilduff-RC3 Dewey AZ 7 5.95 19.36 9,500 3 Mike Folkestad-RC3 Yorba Linda CA 10 19.21 6,000 4 Dwayne Steel-RC3 Tonto Basin AZ 10 17.50 4,500 5 Ed Arledge -RC3 San Diego CA 10 16.64 4,000 6 Scott Guetti Scottsdale AZ 9 16.08 3,000 7 Brad Davis Henderson NV 8 15.78 2,000 8 Justin Kerr Simi Valley CA 10 15.30 2,000 9 Charlie Davidson Temecula CA 10 14.73 2,000 10 Gary Martlage Scottsdale AZ 8 14.34 3,900 11 John Perkins-RC3 Whittier CA 10 13.93 1,000 12 David Peltier Simi Valley CA 8 13.83 1,000 13 Joe Uribe, Sr. Long Beach CA 8 13.81 1,000 14 Justin Hanold San Diego CA 7 13.60 1,000 15 Dan Frazier Nipomo CA 6 13.42 1,000 16 Don Payne-RC3 Modesto CA 7 13.26 1,000 17 Dean Kreuzer Mesa AZ 8 13.21 1,000 18 Marc Knudsen-RC3 Henderson NV 7 4.84 12.99 1,400 19 Bill Stock San Diego CA 8 12.85 800 20 Gregg Warne Mesa AZ 7 12.80 700 21 John Galbraith-RC3 Lake Havasu City AZ 8 3.71 12.76 600 22 Tom Matsunaga-RC3 Gardena CA 7 2.97 12.75 1,740 23 Fred Krumsiek Anaheim CA 9 12.70 1,360 24 Kevin Martin-RC3 El Cajon CA 7 12.64 2,100 25 Dave Nollar-RC3 Redlands CA 8 12.61 600 26 Daniel Unten Las Vegas NV 7 3.64 12.54 500 27 Kevin Wiggins Fresno CA 9 12.39 500 28 Jason Anderson Las Vegas NV 8 12.33 500 29 Rob Wenning Sparks NV 8 12.26 500 30 Eric Brewer Nuevo CA 9 12.17 500 31 Gary Boyd Reseda CA 8 12.02 500 32 Roger Neukam-RC3 Las Vegas NV 7 11.80 500 33 Stephen Brecko Murrieta CA 8 11.78 500 34 John Cunningham-RC3 Scottsdale AZ 8 11.73 500 35 William McAninch Tucson AZ 5 11.63 2,000 36 Randy Howard Page AZ 8 11.55 500 The AAA money winners included: Place, Name Hometown Fish Big Fish Total Money 1 Jim Ryan Torrance CA 9 3.94 24.55 $2,000 2 Neil Ken Kruck San Diego CA 10 21.01 1,500 3 John Krumsiek Riverside CA 9 17.18 4,350 4 Rick Klassen Spring Valley CA 10 16.73 1,940 5 George Thiel Banning CA 10 16.70 2,910 6 John Milton Tolleson AZ 6 16.53 500 7 Jason Holland Lake Havasu City AZ 10 16.29 400 8 Brian Bundrick Prescott Valley AZ 10 16.21 350 9 James Gross Kingman AZ 10 15.57 350 10 Brett Ross Agoura Hills CA 8 3.55 15.10 350 11 Howard Thaler Phoenix AZ 10 15.08 300 12 John Miller Tucson AZ 9 14.85 300 13 Mike Turner Escondido CA 9 14.69 300 14 Dale Merry Phoenix AZ 10 14.49 300 15 Stephen Foster Pahrump NV 9 13.80 300 16 Tom Fruh Orange CA 10 13.54 275 17 Cliff "Kip" Brees Prescott Valley AZ 8 13.43 275 18 Mike Kurosaki Torrance CA 7 3.49 13.28 275 19 Armando Garcia Mesa AZ 7 13.18 275 20 Jeff Larson Reseda CA 8 12.50 275 21 Greg Valenzuela Tucson AZ 5 12.44 250 22 Dennis Rodriguez Downey CA 5 5.97 12.09 1,750 23 Tim Barrett Rancho Cucamonga CA 9 12.04 250 24 Real Andrews Santa Clarita CA 7 12.03 250 25 Mario Valdivia Tucson AZ 7 11.56 250 26 Carissa Massenzo Ontario CA 9 11.20 225 27 Kenneth Cobb Orange CA 8 11.18 225 28 Tom P. White Cypress CA 7 11.17 225 29 James Bury Mesa AZ 7 11.03 225 30 Raphael Samuel Perris CA 7 10.75 225 31 Bob Cagle Yuba City CA 7 10.33 200 32 Karl Thaning Hemet CA 7 10.31 200
