What can you say about a bass fishing tournament like the one on Choke Canyon April 22nd. Awesome - phenomenal - fantastic - "It was nuts!" stated Chad Potts, President of Bass Champs. Kind of like playing with a stacked deck and almost everybody got a good hand. It was the fourth event of the year for the South Region, and these anglers aren't letting off the gas. 179 teams converged to compete for the more than $58,000 paid out in cash and prizes. Some would argue that this is the most competitive region in all of Bass Champs trails. Out of the 179 competing teams, 160 brought in limits. If that wasn't enough, a new Bass Champs record has been set with 66 teams bringing in limits over 20 lbs. It gets better. There were 8 sacks over 30 lbs officially weighed, and four big bass weighed in over 11 lbs. It took 24.68 lbs just to grab a check in 25 places paid. When the first three bags brought in weighed 37, 36 and 31 lbs, everyone knew this was going to be a great weigh in.
Jimmy Steed and Charlie Harlson brought in 38.70 lbs, the top weight of the day winning the Skeeter SX190 powered by a Yamaha 150 Vmax motor. These guys have been fishing Bass Champs for a long time, and it is Jimmy's fifth 1st place win and Charlie's third. They also won the $5,000 Skeeter Bonus check to go along with their 1st place purse. "It was a good tournament" Jimmy began. We had all of the fish that we weighed in by 9:30." They used shad pattern DD-22's and also Carolina rigged green pumpkin brush hogs. "We were fishing a hump about 13-15' deep. The water around it was about 25'. There wasn't any grass around it, just old flooded trees. We've fished this area before, but it has never produced for us like this! We stayed there all day." Jimmy caught their kicker, weighing 11.12 lbs. "Coming in, we thought we had about 34 or 35 lbs. We had heard that there was already a 37 lb sack weighed in, so we were really happy and shocked when the scales read 38.70. After we weighed in, Allan Shelton and John McCalmont brought their big bag of fish up and Chad's a pretty good guesser on weights. He thought it would go 40 lbs, and we were just a little worried." The weight was tight, but this time Chad was just a little off and their weight held for the win.
Allan Shelton and John McCalmont's weight was 38.30 lbs, within ½ pound of 1st place. "We had five kickers" stated Shelton. "We put a small limit in the boat the first thirty minutes of fishing, about 16 pounds. We were throwing shad pattern crank baits near hydrilla in 4'-8'. About noon, John (who is also the host of the Bass Champs TV Show) caught our big bass that weighed 9.98 lbs. As the day progressed, we backed off and fished deeper, still throwing crank baits and also Senko's. We didn't move anywhere, stayed in that one spot all day. When we had only 30 minutes left to fish, we caught three more, a 6 ½ and two 7 pounders. This was both of our best day ever fishing." Their 2nd place check was for $2,500.
Third place weighed in at 37.68 lbs by Ted Sprencel and Tim Blanchette. "We started out fishing close to the ramp" Ted began. "We had a spot we wanted to start at, but there was already a boat sitting on it. We messed around awhile, flipping and throwing Carolina rigs. We were catching fish, but no weight. About 9:30 we started fishing deeper, around 16-17'. Then we started catching weight. We caught fish all day, and boated about 20 keepers. Tim caught our 10.92 lb kicker. I told him we needed a sharelunker to get Big Bass, but he was no help. This was the type of day when you could just throw a hook out there and catch fish!" They were presented a check for $1,600 for their 3rd place finish.
Out of all of the bass weighed in over 11 pounds, Ed Calderone fishing with Jody Jackson weighed in the biggest at 11.58 lbs. "Two weekends ago, I was fishing this same area and caught an 8 pounder. This one came off of the same bush. She was in 4' and I was dead sticking a watermelon Senko" Ed explained. "If you're going to compete in this division, you have to go big fish fishin'." They won $1,000 for their Big Bass. Their official total weight was 29.42 lbs winning 11th place overall for an additional $1,000. The team also wins a Free Entry fee to the next event for having a Keel Shield on their boat. "I put that Keel shield on my boat a little while back, and it has already saved my hull at least three times. Looking back, I don't know how my boat ever lasted without it. It's well worth the money."
The average weight per fish in this tournament was 3.89 lbs. Most tournament average weights anywhere is around 2 ½ lbs. Bass Champs always gives a smallest fish award in each event, but none of the teams weighed in just one fish. While there were records set at this event for the most sacks weighed in over 20 and 30 pounds, Amistad still holds the record sack weight at 39.66 lbs, caught by Bill Blair and Bill Ramsey this year.
Update on the points standings:
533 pts Trent Huckaby & Bubba Haralson
520 pts Jimmy Davis & Duane Lyssy
504 pts Charlie Forster & Jeff Williams
484 pts Jimmy Steed & Charlie Haralson
473 pts Billy E. Hopkins & Jack L. Hopkins
The final 2006 tournament for the South Region will be June 3rd at Falcon Lake. The Region Championship will follow on June 4th at Falcon. For more information, contact Bass Champs at 817-439-3274 or click to www.basschamps.com