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Results
TEAM TOURNAMENT
Date: January 12, 2008
Region: 2008 South Region
Tournament: Lake Amistad #1
Tournament Trail: 2008 Bass Champs Tournament Trail
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Gover & Broxton win the first 2008 Bass Champs Season Event on Amistad.
By: Patty Lenderman

2008 is here, and Bass Champs South Region began the season January 12 at Lake Amistad. The wind howled and the engines roared as anglers raced to their fishing holes to win a part of the more than $50,000 being paid out. Scott Gover and Richard Broxton took 1st place to win $20,000 plus the Sure Life bonus of $200!

The day began with mild breezes at take-off. The calmness was short lived however with the wind steadily picking up through the day to 30 miles per hour. This made fishing conditions very tough, as the waves were estimated at 6’. For those who had found their fish on main lake points, they had their day cut out for them working their trolling motors to near exhaustion while taking waves over the boat.

1st place and $20,200 went to Scott Gover and Richard Broxton. Scott explained “We got to practice twice before the tournament, so we had a few spots picked out. When we drew boat #171, we figured it would hurt us.” Luckily, one of the spots they had found during practice was not under too much pressure yet from other anglers. “We had a pattern going on spinnerbaits, but today that just wasn’t working.” Switching tactics and baits, they started catching on Carolina rigs. “We had a small limit in the boat by 9:00, probably around 13 pounds. We had to keep moving, and went to a lot of spots.” They tried a lot of different baits, and estimate catching 15 keepers culling 10 times. “Richard caught our biggest bass 15 minutes before weigh-in on a spinnerbait. She weighed 8 ½ pounds.” These guys have been fishing with Bass Champs since it began, but this is their first win. “I’d like to thank my wife Barbra” Richard stated. “When I’m gone fishing, she runs the shop giving me the time to fish. I couldn’t do it without her.” Their final weight was 25.52 lbs.

John McCalmont and Allen Shelton won 2nd place with 18.34 lbs. Their day started out great. Fishing in 30’ of water, throwing a Berkley watermelon trick worm, Allen landed an 8.72 lb’r on his second cast. “We were fishing the top of a ridge that dropped from 30’ to 80’. We caught most of our fish on Carolina rigs, except one from a Jerk Shad. “We went to eight different spots, but only two of them paid off for us – the first and the last. It was an all day effort. We took two big fish from our first spot, and didn’t have a limit put together until around noon. About 45 minutes before weigh-in we were able to make one big cull that really helped.” They won $5,000 for their 2nd place win, plus they were the highest finishing qualified Skeeter Boat team and won the Skeeter Bonus, doubling their win and netting them $10,000 for the day. They caught all of their fish with Abu Garcia Revo reels on Fenwick rods, and would also like to thank Skeeter Boats. John hosts the Bass Champs TV show which airs every Thursday, Friday and Saturday on the Outdoor Channel.

Charles Stewart caught the Big Bass of the tournament weighing 9.54 pounds. “It was our first fish of the morning!” his partner Carl Wengenroth said. “He caught her off my my spot.” Carl caught her on a watermelon/brown Massive Baits ½ ounce football jig with a crawfish trailer. “We were fishing a rock bluff that dropped from 20’ to 50’. Charles was at about the 40’ depth when he caught her. She fought well - I had to put on my ‘net man’ shoes to get her in!” The team caught a few in that spot, but things quickly changed for them. “When the wind hit, the bite quit. We were struggling to put a limit together, and my 101# thrust trolling motor was no match for the wind. I couldn’t hold our spot. Finally, we headed to deeper water (86’) and found some luck on jigging spoons. We culled a couple of times, trading 14 inch fish for 15 inch fish. We lost a four pounder that cost us several thousand dollars.” They did win $1,000 for their big bass plus another $1,080 finishing in 7th place overall with 17 pounds. They also won the Revo reel bonus being the first team to weigh in an even weight. “If we had our Skeeter deeler card with us we would have won that bonus too!”

The weights were piled from 3rd place to 7th place, with less than a pound separating the spread.

Besides the lucrative guaranteed payouts at every event, Bass Champs sponsors are ready to pay even more!
Skeeter Bonus – Double your money bonus up to $5,000 for the highest finisher in a qualified Skeeter Boat at every tournament
Abu Garcia REVO - If your team wins Big Bass and you have an Abu Garcia REVO in your boat, you will win two new REVO’s
Sure-Live Please Release Me – If your team wins a Bass Champs Team Event 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

“We’re excited to get the 2008 season rolling” stated Chad Potts, President of Bass Champs. “It’s great to see everyone coming back and fishing with us this year, and there’s some new teams as well. The payback is bigger, and we’ll be looking forward to giving a lot of money away this year. We’d like to invite everyone who isn’t already fishing with us to come on out and have some fun. You don’t have to fish all the tournaments to be able to cash in on some big money. I’d like to congratulate our winners from this event and wish everyone good luck for the rest of the season.”

The next tournament for the South Region will be back on Amistad February 23rd. For more information call 817-439-3274 or go to our website www.basschamps.com
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