The Bass Champs North Region took on Lake Tawakoni for the second time this season. $70,260 was paid out in cash and prizes to 25 of the 168 participating teams. That is a whopping 161% payback! Tim Cline and Raymond Smith won 1st place with over 18 pounds.
The water is higher this tournament with all of the spring rains than it was last time the North Region anglers were here in March. Then, the lake was about 8 feet low and this time these fishermen were able to fish in areas that was previously dry ground. It was a gorgeous sunshiny day with plenty of blue sky to go around.
Tim Cline and Raymond Smith started their day catching fish, but mostly small ones. "It was a little windy today, and with the blue bird skies the shad were all balled up in deep water" Tim reported. "After catching a few in the morning at our first spot, we moved to main lake points around break lines. With so much shad balled up, we threw Nickel & Persuader spinnerbaits, and caught some better fish. They were in about 10' of water, suspended 3-4' from the surface. We also caught some on jigs." Their kicker weighed just shy of five pounds, and the rest of their limit were all healthy chunk bass to go with it, weighing in a total of 18.12 lbs. They won the Skeeter SX200 bass boat powered by a Yamaha 200hpdi motor valued at $34,000.
Kent Hathcock and his son Shawn Burris won 2nd place with 17.64 lbs. "We've been fishing tournaments together since Shawn was 10 years old" Kent explained. (Shawn is now 24 years old) "We drew a high take-off number and were the sixth from the last to take off. The topwater bite was over by the time we got out there, so we went straight to throwing Carolina rigged watermelon red brush hogs and crank baits. The area we were fishing was rocky, and we started catching them in 5'-10'. We had a small limit in the boat by 9:30, about 12 pounds, and we were able to cull three of our smaller fish to make our final limit." Their kicker weighed about six pounds. The boat they were fishing out of is the one they won on Lake Tawakoni in March of 2005. They were they highest finishing qualified Skeeter Boat team, so their $4,000 2nd place check was doubled to an $8,000 win!
Bradly Brister and Johnny Jenkins won 3rd with their 17.26 lb limit. "We started out throwing topwater baits and swimming worms in a rocky area. We caught some, including a five pounder that Johnny caught on a Pop-R. We stayed there until around noon. After that, we went to a brush top and threw a Carolina rigged watermelon candy brush hog. The fish there were in about 5'-10'. We fish Tawakoni a lot, and knew these spots. There has been a lot of pressure on these spots lately, so we weren't sure if there were going to be quality fish still there. Luck held out for us, and we managed to scrounge out a limit before it got crowded today." Their hard work paid off with a $3,000 check. We have been fishing Bass Champs for years because of all of the chances to win a boat. So far we haven't, but we'll keep trying!"
Joel Mixon and Dell Brown brought in the Big Bass of the tournament weighing 8.34 lbs. They won $1,000 for their big bass plus another $1,200 check for their 5th place finish.
Craig Cumby and Chris Robinson won the last check, coming in 25th place with 12.20 lbs.
Thousands of dollars in sponsor bonuses were paid out to several teams.
Sponsor Bonuses:
$4,000 Skeeter Bonus won by 2nd place team Kent Hathcock & Shawn Burris
$500 from Fun-N-Sun was paid to the 9th place team of Hutch Beach and Richard Jenkins
$2,000 Allen Samuels Bonus went to 15th place Shonn Blassingame and Shane Elmore
$1,000 Line-X Bonus also went to Shonn Blassingame and Shane Elmore
Update on the points race:
731 points Brady Winans & Spencer Turner
705 points Mick Batson & Lee Batson
703 points Bradly Brister & Johnny Jenkins
683 points Gerald Bolin & Bimmy Boyles
682 points Shonn Blasssingame & Shane Elmore
The final tournament of the season for the North Reagion will be June 24th. Cedar Creek hosted the first tournament this year, and will be the host lake for the last, and the Region Championship will follow on June 25th. For more information, click to www.basschamps.com or call 817-439-3274.