MLF Toyota Series at Lake of the Ozarks Results

[D.W. Verts]

Courtesy of Major League Fishing

MARCH 3, 2022 • KYLE WOOD • TOYOTA SERIES
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – Brock Reinkemeyer has called the Ozarks his home his entire life. Guiding full-time and working construction, the Warsaw, Missouri, pro has been working his way towards a major win in his home territory and today he finally sealed the deal.

Tallying 17 pounds, 4 ounces on the final day, Reinkemeyer closed out the win in the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. event on Lake of the Ozarks with 59-13 total. Though he's got several Top 10s on Ozark fisheries – Truman, Table Rock, Stockton, and of course, Lake of the Ozarks – this was his first win with MLF and it rewarded him well; locking him into the Toyota Series Championship and earning him $40,250.

Spending the majority of his time running down to the Gravois arm of the lake, Reinkemeyer was able to catch his fish in familiar water, doing what he's spent countless hours perfecting on this lake.

"It's my homeland," Reinkemeyer joked about the Gravois arm. "It seems like the deep fish always bite better up there. And it's clear. I feel like the fish are harder to catch, but you have to fish deeper on the lower end, plain and simple, and a lot of people don't like to spend a lot of time looking out deep.

"I couldn't catch them on the bank, so I knew the big fish were [out deep]. If I was catching little ones, I would go out deeper."

Targeting brush piles and rock in anywhere from 14 to 22 feet, Reinkemeyer employed an umbrella rig and a jerkbait, with the help of forward-facing sonar to do most of his damage. While that's nothing special on this lake for the time of year, capitalizing on the morning bite was.

"The biggest thing was the early-morning bite," said Reinkemeyer. "I feel like the fish were set up from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. where you could catch them, and they were willing to bite. They would show themselves a lot more. The first cast you could see some action. Later in the day I never saw any of that action. So, I had to capitalize on what I wanted to do in the first three hours."

Another key to Reinkemeyer's victory was changing up his rotation each day, to an extent, and maximizing his best timeframe in productive water.

"I started on the same spot twice, but I mixed up the second and third spots each day," explained the 29-year-old. "I think that helped me out. I made sure in practice that I wasn't running all over the place. I had a 15-mile zone and I said that I wasn't straying away from it. Fifteen miles was perfect because I could run around and hit everything, or even hit it twice.

"Today, I figured I was the first one on everything. There might have been some guys that fished some of the stuff, but they didn't work it like I did. They just went through it and left."

To catch his fish, Reinkemeyer kept it pretty simple and leaned heavily on an umbrella rig with Strike King Rage Swimmer swimbaits or a Megabass Vision 110. He also caught a clutch 4-pounder on Day 2 on a Motion Fishing Finesse Jig with a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw.

Reinkemeyer started fishing the Toyota Series with a dream of getting his name out on a national level. With this win, all the hard work and hours spent fishing finally came to fruition. In fact, he fishes against most of the Top 25 all winter, so to get the win amongst friends, family and peers is something he won't soon forget.

"It's crazy to beat my buddies out there, who I feel like are better than I am, and to beat them is insane," Reinkemeyer said. "They all put in the work, if not more than I do, so to come out on top is unreal. This is better than I thought it would feel. I feel in awe."

Unfortunately, he can't celebrate too much, because tomorrow, it's back on the grind.

"I got a guide trip tomorrow on Truman Lake, so I can't party tonight," laughed Reinkemeyer.

Top 10 Pros
1. Brock Reinkemeyer – 59 – 13 (15) – $40,250

2. Josh Shirley – 57 – 01 (15) – $15,500

3. Justin Miller – 51 – 03 (15) – $12,000

4. Travis Harriman – 49 – 04 (15) – $10,000

5. Austin Culbertson – 48 – 03 (15) – $9,000

6. Grant Akers – 48 – 02 (15) – $8,000

7. Michael Harlin – 47 – 04 (15) – $7,000

8. Brad Jelinek – 46 – 10 (15) – $7,000 (includes $1,000 Phoenix Bonus)

9. Chris Bridges – 46 – 05 (15) – $5,200

10. Chris Digino – 45 – 14 (15) – $4,000

Non- Boater-

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – Starting the final day of the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. event on Lake of the Ozarks in sixth place, Strike King co-angler Alan Bernicky dropped his biggest bag of the event –15 pounds, 7 ounces – on the scale to push his three-day total to 34 pounds even and claim the top prize – a Phoenix 518 Pro with 115 HP Mercury.

Though Bernicky has had a heck of a career from the back of the boat – including winning Strike King Co-angler of the Year in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Great Lakes Division for the last three years straight – the Toyota Series hasn't been as kind to him.

"I was at Sam Rayburn two weeks ago (for the Toyota Series event) and I made the final day sitting in sixth," Bernicky said. "I got a quick limit and then disaster struck. I had a 10-pounder on a Carolina rig like 15 to 20 feet from the boat, we saw it on top of the water and it pulled off. That would have been a win. So, after missing a win by losing a fish two weeks ago, it was nice to pull it off.

"I haven't fished the Toyota Series in two years. I was fishing the Great Lakes and Illini divisions (of BFLs) trying to make it back to the All-American. I had a string of [Toyota Series] three years ago where I didn't do very good. I fished six or seven in four months, had fun, but didn't do real well, so I figured I'd take a break."

Apparently, the break did wonders.

The Joliet, Illinois, co-angler got the week started with just two quality fish that weighed 6-3. On Day 2, he mustered up a limit worth 12-6 to climb the leaderboard. Thursday, paired with Grant Akers, Bernicky saved his best performance for last.

"I was lucky enough this week where my boaters were fishing basically flat points with channel swings," he said. "There were brush piles and all kinds of timber and today I just tried to do something a little different. I went to a different color than my boater for my A-rig and jerkbait.

"[Akers] was fishing slow and I'm not all that patient, so I worked my jerkbait a lot faster. I'd give it a long pause, but I'd work it pretty aggressively for 3 to 5 feet and then kill it for 6, 8, 10 seconds and then work it aggressively again."

While speeding up his jerkbait retrieve got his limit, a A-rig with natural-colored swimbaits got his kickers.

"Every big fish I caught this week was on a A-rig. Day 1 I had one close to 4 ½, Day 2 I had one close to 4 ½ and today I had one close to 5. When I switched to the A-rig today, that's when I got my kicker bites."

Locking up the biggest win of his career, Bernicky is also excited about another career milestone.

"This win was cool," said Bernicky. "This win put me over $100,000 (career earnings) and that was kind of a bucket-list goal, so I'm happy."

Top 10 Co-anglers
1. Alan Bernicky – 34 – 00 (12) – $33,700

2. Hank Goen – 31 – 04 (11) – $5,000

3. Jeff Moss – 31 – 02 (11) – $4,000

4. Jason Swanson – 27 – 12 (13) – $3,500

5. Dan Bowman – 26 – 11 (11) – $3,000

6. Tom Shewey – 26 – 03 (11) – $2,500

7. Jason Sandidge – 25 – 13 (11) – $2,000

8. Scott Parsons – 25 – 03 (9) – $1,750

9. Dennis Young – 24 – 08 (9) – $1,500

10. Anthony Scoma – 23 – 10 (9) – $1,250



The Plains Division is presented by Outlaw Ordnance and this event was presented by Smart Digital.