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TEAM TOURNAMENT
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| Date: | | June 23, 2012 |
| Region: | | 2012 North Region |
| Tournament: | | Lake Ray Roberts #2 |
| Tournament Trail: | | 2012 Bass Champs Tournament Trail |
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| Parker & Moody win Bass Champs Season Finale on Ray Roberts to win over $20,000 |
| By: Patty Lenderman |
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Skeeter Bass Champs anglers have completed the final regular season tournament, wrapping up 2012 on Ray Roberts with the North Region. $44,300 cash and prizes were dispersed in 22 places paid in this 108% payback event. Zach Parker and Heath Moody enjoyed their second 1st place Bass Champs win taking home over $20,000. Final points were tallied to determine Anglers of the Year as all regions now look forward to the Championships.
June 23rd was a very hot day as 158 teams headed out to fish the final event of the season. For the top teams, deep water was the key.
For winners Zach Parker and Heath Moody, they were going into the day on a wing and a prayer. “We didn’t get to practice for this tournament much, but we both have a lot of history on this lake.” They chose a deep water milk run that had a variety of rock and wood on those spots. “We had been hearing that the fishing was tough, so we knew we were going to have to keep our heads down and grind it out.” Zach had been spending a lot of time before the tournament with his granddad in the hospital. “Just before I left I was sitting with him and he started talking in his sleep. He said: ‘Put the boat in the water. Use a Texas rigged 12” Berkley worm.’ That’s pretty much what we did, although we only had 10” worms.” Heath had driven all night to get to the tournament, having been with his mom who is also in the hospital. “We put our first fish in the livewell around 7:30. We only caught seven keepers all day, and made our last cull around 1:30. Never got a good kicker, just a lot of chunks. Coming in, we thought maybe we would be in the top five.” Their limit tallied 24.47 lbs on the scales, for a solid 1st place win. Bass Champs presented them with the guaranteed $20,000 check plus Sure Life added another $200 to their winnings for using the product in their live wells. “It was an amazing day. God was with us and really blessed us. We’ve been fishing with Bass Champs for about six years now and this is the second time we have won. I’d like to thank Heath for being so tough and driving through the night to get here. Couldn’t have done it without him. I’d also like to thank my Granddad for bringing me up fishing.
Lee Yowell and Brian Schott won 2nd place with their 21.78 lb limit. “We started out in shallow water, thinking that we would catch a few there. We caught three or four short fish, but knew we had to do something different.” They headed to deep points in 30’ of water. “We had four spots like that picked out, and caught one on each point. Three of them were on a big Texas rig. Our last fish was on a fluke. Brian said ‘Reel it in, let’s go!’ and so as I was cranking it in, the bass got it right at the boat. If we could have just caught one more two or three pounder, we could have won! We worked for each fish we got, and just got lucky to win 2nd place with four fish.” Their biggest weighed 7.51 lbs, anchoring their finish. Being that all of their fish were caught in deep water, when they got to the weigh in their bass were distressed. “Bass Champs takes great care of the fish brought in at every tournament, and they all made it back out into the lake.” They received $3,000 for their 2nd place win, then doubled their money fishing from a qualified Skeeter boat. They also won the Dodge Ram bonus giving them a free entry into any Bass Champs tournament over the next 12 months. Brian would like to thank Skeeter Boats for their support, and Lee is sponsored by Legend, Mercury and Costa Del Mar.
The team of Garrick McPherson & Gary Ables took 3rd place overall with 21.37 pounds. While Gary was unable to attend the event, he must have been sending good vibes all day because it was a day to remember! McPherson said, "I stayed on one offshore spot all day. I started the day with a Carolina Rigged ZZ Lures Big Z and caught two keepers right off the bat. I then switched to a 3/4 oz. Jackhammer Jig and that turned out to be the ticket. I ended up catching around 10 keepers including a couple of nice 5 pounders. It was a good day!" The team of McPherson and Ables would like to thank their sponsors for helping them this year; Double ZZ Custom Lures, Moritz Chevrolet, ClownCo, DataSpan and Rockwall Marine.
While there were a lot of nice kicker fish brought in, Trevor Romans and Leslie Kennedy had the biggest of the day weighing 9.03 lbs. They won $1,000 for that single catch, plus they received another $200 for wearing their Costa Del Mar sunglasses when they weighed it in. They won 7th place overall with a total of 17.41 lbs and received another $1,000 for their finish.
Each team earns points at every tournament. At the conclusion of all five events, the points are tallied to determine Anglers of the Year. Congratulations goes to Lee Yowell and Brian Schott for achieving this prestigious title. Part of their reward for their diligence and hard work is free entries into the 2013 season for the North Region. “Finally!” Yowell exclaimed. “Last year we won second for AOY. This year we were able to win the first tournament, then had a 4th and 2nd place finish. We are really excited to have accomplished this.”
Runners up in the AOY race include (2nd) Shonn Blassingame & Cody Burdine; (3rd) Brandon Baker & Scott Barnett; (4th) Trevor Romans & Leslie Kennedy, and (5th) Stan Lawing & JD Laughery.
Anyone who has entered all five events in any region qualifies to fish all four championships! 1st place winner at each championship will receive a Skeeter ZX20 bass boat powered by a Yamaha 225 SHO, equipped with Minn Kota and Humminbird – a $55,000 retail value!
Full championship schedule:
East Region – September 8-9, 2012 on Toledo Bend
North Region – September 15-16 at Lake Lewisville
Central Region – September 29-30 on Lake LBJ
South Region – October 27-28 on Lake Falcon
Good luck all championship qualifiers!
Sign up now for the 7th Annual Berkley Big Bass tournament on Lake Fork October 20-21. Ten winners each hour, exact weight bonus cash PLUS two Skeeter boats will be won!
Stay tuned to BassChamps.com for the 2013 season schedule. For more information on any Bass Champs events, click to www.BassChamps.com or call 817.439.3274
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