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TEAM TOURNAMENT
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| Hudson and Kingsbery win Bass Champs at Lake Amistad with more than 35 pounds! |
| By: Patty Lenderman |
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Hudson and Kingsbery win Bass Champs at Lake Amistad with more than 35 pounds!
By Patty Lenderman
Bass Champs kicked off their first tournament of the 2007 season with the South Region at Lake Amistad. It was a record field for this region with 246 teams. Over $60,000 in cash and prizes were awarded in 34 places paid. Albert Hudson and Bill Kingsbery secured 1st place with more than 35 pounds!
The morning started out with a blanket of fog. It took a little longer than usual for everyone to get to their fishing holes. By shortly after 9, the fog lifted and temperatures were mild. For the greater part of the day, fishing conditions were great. At 1:30, winds out of the north kicked up in excess of 25 mph dropping the temperature quite a bit and made for a rough ride back to the weigh in.
Ninety five limits were weighed in, and the heaviest sack weighed 35.36 lbs brought in by Albert Hudson and Bill Kingsbery. “We have a trailer there - it’s like our second home.” stated Hudson. “It’s hard to win on that lake, there’s a lot of top dogs fishing it. Last year at this tournament we were in 12th place with 24 pounds. Today me and Bill got lucky. We’ve been fishing in Mexico, but haven’t been catching quality bass. Since it’s gotten cold, we’ve only been able to put about 15 pounds in the boat. Today the fog held us up a little getting to our spot. We didn’t start fishing until around 8:00, throwing spinnerbaits. We didn’t catch anything on that, and switched to a watermelon red Tiki Wave Bamboo stick with a 1/4 oz weight. At 9:00 we only had one small fish in the boat” Albert continued. “I fished that worm real slow, throwing it out there, letting it sit a while, move it about a foot, let it sit again.” At that point, the fish turned on for them, putting all 35 pounds in the boat by 10:00! “It was great. We were culling five pounders and had the live wells on full blast. I didn’t think we had that much weight, maybe about 27 pounds or so.” They had several kickers in the bag, including a 10.18 lb bass that won Big Bass honors! “I’ve fished Bass Champs since they first started. They really run a great tournament, and I told Chad he did a good job. I also like their new all cash payback this year!” All total they walked away with $20,000 for 1st place and $1,000 for Big Bass.
2nd place went to Richard Broxton and Scott Gover with 27.66 pounds. "It was all my partner" Scott explained. "I only caught two keepers all day, and he caught 8. Pre-fishing, we had been catching them on big crank baits so that's what I was throwing. Richard was catching his on a big spinnerbait. It was just one of those tournaments - we had a good day. Richard asked me 'How's it feel to have all of your fish culled?' What could I say? When you cull with fish like what he caught it really doesn't bother me. Our first spot was in Castle Canyon, and we picked up two there. After that we ran 20 miles up river, hitting spots on the way back. Richard is a run and gun kind of guy. Unless they're biting, he's going to pick up and go. One of the spots we stopped at was over some patchy grass. He pitched a jig, and I was trying a spinnerbait. All of a sudden, all heck broke loose. He caught a seven pounder, pitched back in and caught another about 6 1/2 pounds. That was really fun. When the front came through, we had one in the livewell we needed to cull at 3-12. We were finally able to cull it with a 4-1. It was a super tournament. There were a lot of tough anglers fishing it, and we were really glad - and surprised to get 2nd place." Their 2nd place win totaled $5,000.
Keith Phillips and David Truax secured 3rd place with 26.56 pounds. David explained “I had been on the lake practicing for the TTT tournament. Saturday we just headed for those spots I had caught fish in. Since it was so foggy, we were using our GPS to get there. Along the way, we went over a boat wake that turned the unit off. I looked around, and thought I recognized a brushy area and we decided to go ahead and start there. We threw deep diving crank baits in flooded brush, about 20' deep. We caught fish in that one spot until 10:30, and was only able to cull one time after that in another area.” That was enough to win 3rd place and a $3,000 check. Keith and David are heading to Sam Rayburn to fish the East Texas Region tournament on January 20th.
Thirty four places were paid, with Waylon and Karla Bullard securing the last check with 16.58 lbs. All total 619 fish were weighed in, having an average weight per fish of 2.96 lbs.
Bass Champs South Region will be going right back to Lake Amistad for the next tournament February 24th. String your line, grab your gear and win some money!
Don’t forget the Sponsor Incentives: Skeeter Boats offers a Double your money bonus for the highest finisher in a qualified Skeeter boat at every tournament. Also, a $250 dealer bonus for the first team at each event to have an exact even weight and a signed business card from a Skeeter Dealer. If your team wins with 5 live fish and you have either Catch and Release or Please Release Me in your live well - you will receive an additional $200. For more information, call 817-439-3274 or click to www.basschamps.com
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