March 27th found ArmyBassAngler Pros Alfred Pemberton and Jason Blackmon on the windy and rough confines of Sam Rayburn Reservoir at the 3rd Bass Champs East Event. "Sam Rayburn is not known as the "Big Sam" for just any reason!" stated a very sore Blackmon after having to negotiate 6-7 foot rollers for over 15 miles on the teams return trip to the launch. "The Returning Heroes Home Skeeter ZX200 handled the waves great. The key to driving in extremely rough water is simply slow down, trim down some and let the boat do it's thing, while at the same time reading the waves and knowing how to keep the boat from spearing the big one" stated Blackmon."
The day started out very slow for the team as they went the first 5 hours of the tournament in Indian Creek without a bite. "We got to our first spot and there was only one other boat in the area, and then we realized why", stated Pemberton, as the wind kicked up to around 30 MPH and the wind blew straight into the creek making it almost impossible to maintain boat position on a classic pre-spawn location.
The team fought the wind and waves for 5 hours and decided to move to the very back of the creek, the move would pay off for the team. "We got to the back of the creek and found protected areas and immediately began catching fish on their Castaway rods, Ardent reels while utilizing Lake Fork Trophy Lures Magic Shads in the watermelon green pattern" stated Blackmon.
"We caught around 14 fish but could not get a big bite. The fish in this area were acting extremely funny. We saw 5 or 6 fish in the 7-9lb range just cruising around but could not get them to commit to anything we presented them" stated Pemberton.
The Rayburn duo would weigh in a respectable 5 fish limit of 10.70 lbs and would finish the tournament in 90th place.
258 Teams would compete for a total payout of $62,510.00. 765 fish were brought to the scales totaling 1881.20 lbs. The avg fished weighed 2.46 lbs with 122 limits bought to the scales and 84 zeroes.