Stefan Marginean wins the FLW Regional Championship Mississippi River 2020 and the grand prize of 50,000 dollars!

When it comes to kidnapping fishing competitions, it is well known that the Romanian is his "brother with the podium". I am witnessing many international competitions, bass competitions in Europe, even FIPS world championships, remember Russia 2017. It was only a matter of time to receive such news from the US where the strongest sport fishing competitions take place around the world. . In 2019, Alex Spiac told us in the late magazine "Fishing for All" how together with Alexandru Montia and Stefan Marginean they took their first steps in the FLW Tour (Fishing League Worldwide) one of the largest bass fishing competitions in the US. Three years later Stefan Marginean wins the FLW Regional Championship Mississippi River 2020 and the $ 50,000 grand prize!

Alex Spiac - Pescuitul Pentru Toti 2017 magazine

"The FLW Tour is the largest bass fishing championship in the United States, and this year I had the honor of being one of the participants. Together with Alexandru Montia and Stefan Marginean we had the opportunity to represent Romania at this championship and to fish with some of the best fishermen in the world. The FLW Tour consists of several competitions that, through qualification, can take you to the highest level of world competitions, namely the Forest Wood Cup, where the grand prize is 500,000 $ for the Englishman and 50,000 $ for the coangler. It all starts with the regionals, five in number, and takes place in each state. We attended Wisconsin on the Mississippi River and Winnebago Lake. For everyone to understand, these competitions are actually two simultaneous, one between Englishmen (those who fish in front of the boat and drive it) and one between coanglers (those who fish from the back of the boat) - our case. " 

After a few more than honorable rankings in FLW, three years later, Stefan Marginean wins the FLW Regional Championship Wisconsin 2020. How did he do that? We let him tell you in the lines below.

The first FLW competitions

The first fishing contest I participated in was in 2013 on the Mississippi River in the state of Wisconsin. I competed for two years in a row in this division, after which I decided to change divisions and states annually to learn and practice techniques on different rivers and lakes. I went through the Illinois state division with water like chocolate where spinnerbaiturile, chatterbaiturile and soft black plastics made the difference, through the Kentucky state division where I was hard tried by ledge fishing, the 39 gram jigs, Carolina rig, 30 cm tires, 6XD and 8XD were the top lures. The Michigan state division where the drop shot is sacred, Lake of the Ozark in Missouri where all the action was around the pontoons.

Information

In all these years I have accumulated valuable information that I have stored and I am waiting to put it into practice at the right time. The competition period of 2020 was postponed until July due to the Covid 19 virus. I participated in 5 stages of the Michigan state division and being in the top 45 fishermen I qualified for the Wisconsin Regional Championship. It was the contest I had been waiting for with all my heart since the beginning of the year. In the following lines I will tell you how the dream came true.

3, 2, 1, start! FLW Regional Championship Mississippi in the USA.

For me, the contest started 3.4 days before, checking the weather conditions in Lacrosse Wisconsin countless times a day. I left the bustle and traffic of Chicago behind me on a Wednesday afternoon when I left for the Mississippi River. My road partner, strategist and later opponent was my brother, Ovidiu Marginean.

Due to the pandemic, the organizers of the contest held the technical meeting and the draw on the video conference. The rules of the contest have remained the same, score 5 fish of at least 14 inches, largemouth or smallmouth and the duration of the contest is 8 hours. My first day boater was Steave Ruff from Missouri. The contest being late autumn the range of lures for preparing the sticks from my point of view was restricted: spinnerbait, square bill, jerkbait, carolina rig, jig and soft plastics for finesse fishing.

Day 1

After an extremely short night came the long-awaited day. At 6 in the morning the checking of the boats started, the anthem of America and at 7.00 the boat number 1 started. Soon we left, boat number 67. At the time of the start the temperature was 1 degree Celsius and the road was quite difficult. I fished the mouth of a secondary arm of the Mississippi River with a steep boulder. The water temperature was 13-14 degrees C and the depth was 6-7 meters. Due to the very strong current I had to change all my mounts.

Smallmouth

Based quickly before, I updated 4 rods: drop shot, jig, Carolina rig and spinnerbait. Boats swarmed around us because it was a very popular smallmouth place known to many locals. The bait chosen was the 10 cm green pumpkin Zoom Speed Craw fished on a Carolina rig weighing 35 grams. Shortly after the first launch I had the first smallmouth scoring in the boat. They followed lance after lance because the smallmouth is a species that lives in groups and once activated can be "fun".

Show in 30 minutes

The first hour of the competition was a success because we had 3 scoring fish. Boat traffic and fishermen's pressure turned them off and the fun ended for the next 5.6 hours. Time passed very quickly and at 13:30 we decided to move away from the main river about 100 meters. The boatman scored on the Alabama rig with a smallmouth of 3.5 lbs. The key moment of the first day was when I decided to cover as much water as possible with the help of a 14 gram white / chartreuse spinnerbait with two gold / silver Willow blades. The last 30 minutes of the competition was a spectacle because I stung 10 smallmouth points by closing the 8th place with a limit of 12.10 lbs of smallmouth.

Day 2

The next day was very difficult for me, strong wind, colder than the first day and snow. I tried, cut and knotted everything I could and I hardly scored two largemouths until 15:30. Being boat number 96 the time limit for the next day was 16:30. Just like on the first day on the way out of the turnstile, I decided to get my hands on the same spinnerbait and beat as much water as possible. I decided to do the impossible on the pillars of a bridge where I stung a 3 lbs smallmouth that made me hope.

Hope like an hourglass

Time passed and we went to check in. We still had 7 minutes from the competition and we were positioned under a train bridge at about 50-60 m from the boat with referees for check in. I reddened the reel bearings around a pillar and suddenly felt an attack on the spinnerbait. I repeated the lance and I was shaken by a largemouth over 4 lbs. "Hope is like an hourglass, when you think it's gone, it turns in your favor." The thing that fascinates me about bass fishing is that each day can be different from the previous day. The next day I finished in 6th place with a total of 24.6 lbs.

Day 3

For the third and last day of the competition, the top 12 fishermen qualified. I studied the results of the first two days in detail and my sticks started to shake because I realized that I could return the results and make a surprise. This was followed by a long night with a maximum of two hours of sleep, knowing that the most important fishing day of all the competitions I had participated in was coming. The third day's boater was Randy Ramsey of Chicago. At what adrenaline I had in me, I didn't feel the low temperature, the rain and the wind until the place where we were going to fish. I fished on the bank of the main river for a distance of about 300 meters. The water had 12 degrees C, depth of 3-4 m with high visibility for the main canal and patches of vegetation. I was very confident in the spinnerbat that propelled me to the final, but to no avail for 45 minutes.

Plans and strategies

I started to put into practice all the plans and strategies I had thought of the night before. The chosen one was a jerkbait from the Megabass Vision 110 color Go Pro Blue. There followed a day of fishing to tell my grandchildren, a day I will never forget. All the attacks I capitalized on were on the 3.4-second break. I intuited exactly the position and behavior of the bass and this helped me to improve my hourly limit and the hopes that at least one place in the top 6 would not escape me. I was ecstatic that I am very close to another qualification for All American (top 45 fishermen in the USA) but I was hoping for more, I was hoping for the "fulfillment of the dream". The rod I used was a St. 7'3 ”cross, medium heavy, Daiwa Lexa 6: 4: 1 reel and 12 lbs Seaguar Inviz X thread.

The clock showed 15:00, we checked in and headed for the scale. I entered the scale with number 6 and took the lead with the highest limit in the competition, 16 lbs and a total of 40.6 lbs. Minutes followed that lasted an eternity until the last contestant in the scales competition was called to announce the champion. It's hard to explain in words how I felt when I heard my winning name.

A dream come true

After years of competitions and thousands of miles of driving, the dream has come true. I won the Mississippi River 2020 Regional Championship, the prize being in line with the competition, a Phoenix 819 PRO boat with a 200hp Mercury Pro XS engine worth $50,000 and a seat at All American 2021. I want to thank the children's wives for their understanding and support, brother, family and friends who contributed to the fulfillment of this dream. NEVER STOP DREAMING!

Stefan Marginean

More details about FLW Regional Championship Mississippi River 2020 here:

https://majorleaguefishing.com/bfl/2020-10-20-laufenberg-claims-mighty-miss-prize/

Bass angler Stefan Marginean results:

https://majorleaguefishing.com/anglers/stefan-marginean-429700/