June 25th was the climax of the bass fishing tournament season for Bass Champs North Region anglers. Cedar Creek was the host lake for the final tournament on June 24th followed by the Championship on the 25th. It was a scorching hot weekend, with too much sunshine and not enough wind and by the end of the weekend there were a lot of sunburned fishermen. Keith Trimble and Clyde Welker won Saturday's event with just over 20 pounds, and brought in another sack over 20 to win again on Sunday!
Keith Trimble & Clyde Welker are the North Region Champions for 2006. "Going out on Sunday, we were boat #13. Maybe that was lucky for us. Saturday, we found our fish in about 4' of water in the grass. Today we went back and the fish weren't there. We backed out into deeper water and fished brushpiles. It was sweltering hot, and there wasn't any wind. No ripple on the water, which made it that much tougher to get the bass to bite" Trimble & Welker explained. "We put a small limit together pretty quick. We were deadsticking finesse baits with light, 10 pound test line. By 10:30 we culled the whole first limit and had our 20 pounds in the livewell. We just got the right bites!" Coming into this weekend, they had only one goal in mind. To qualify for the State Championship. Before fishing Saturday, they were sitting in 29th place in the points standings. Saturday's win bumped them up to 13th - just shy of their goal. They had to do well Sunday to qualify. They met their goal, and won two Skeeter boats as well! Their total winnings in cash and prizes was over $70,000.
Brothers Rob and Mike Burns took 2nd place with 19.42 lbs. Although they were asked about how they caught their fish, they decided they needed to be discreet due to the fact that they will be fishing another event on Cedar Creek soon. Their 2nd place finish earned them a check for $2,700.
Stuart Allison and Duanne McPeek brought in 19.02 lbs winning 3rd place & $2,000. "We had a good day!" Duane stated. "We caught fish all day long, and even got to cull a time or two. We keyed in on isolated stumps along main lake points in 8'-12' of water. All of our fish were caught on 5/16 oz Strikeworks flippin finesse jigs. We hit about four different spots, and ended up with a cookie cutter limit - all about four pounds. We needed to finish in top 10 today in order to get to go to the State Championship. I'd like to say that we really appreciate Bass Champs, Chad, Jeff and the whole crew. They really put on a great show."
21 North Region Teams heading to the State Championship October 7th & 8th:
Top 10 by points:Brady Winans & Spencer Turner Shawn Blassingame & Shane Elmore Timothy Cline & Raymond Smith Mick Batson & Lee Batson Gerald Bolin & Bimmy Bayles Bradly Brister & Johnny Jenkins Terry Peacock & Gary Tuggle Jeff Stevens & Jeff Massey Eddie Ramsey & Michael Edgett Mitchell Hulsey & Randy Hulsey Top 10 from Region Championship: Keith Trimble & Clyde Welker Rob Burns & Mike Burns Stuart Allison and Dwayne McPeek Louis Davis & Robbie Chenault Robby Rose and Robert Alexander Steve Lynam and Robb Lynam Kevin Henry and Billie Harris Mike Wilkins and Billy Lampton Elvin Smith and James Rigdon Sam McCollum and Kyle WardTop Junior Team Keith and Travis White
"This has been an exciting year with a lot of surprises. The North Region anglers had it the toughest out of all of the regions because of the drought situation and the effect it had on the lakes we fished. Everyone did a great job overcoming these obstacles. We'd like to say thank you to everybody who came out and fished with us this year. We're looking forward to seeing you again for the 2007 season. There's a few things we're changing up to do even better next year. Good luck to everyone heading to the State Championship!" - Chad Potts, President / Bass Champs