The 2012 season has begun! Big sacks, huge kickers and humungous paybacks as Bass Champs kicked off with the South Region January 14th on Lake Falcon. Nine double digit bass, four sacks over 40 pounds, and more than $58,000 paid back to participants. Jaime Buitron and Terry Oldham won over $20,000 with their 1st place win.
231 teams merged on Lake Falcon and Bass Champs was ready to award cash paybacks to 31 teams plus Big Bass. Falcon is well known for its big bass and several teams landed them. Incredibly, four teams had total weights exceeding 40 pounds. When the scales closed, it was 45.52 pounds that won the event.
“We had a lot of fun today,” Oldham admitted. “We started out on the side of the river at a gravel bank.” Using H2O crank baits, they landed three fish ranging from 7 to 9 pounds. When the bite slowed down, they headed to deeper water. “We started using one of my 1 1/4 oz Oldham jigs in a new color – Tilapia.” Hitting depths up to 25′ deep, they finished their limit. “We didn’t catch a lot of fish, just a good one here and there.” Putting five ‘good ones’ together on the scales, their weight totaled 45.52 pounds! That’s better than a 9 pound per fish average. Bass Champs awarded them the guaranteed 1st place $20,000 check, plus the Sure-Life Live Release $200 bonus.
Another incredible weight was brought in by 2nd place team Lee Leonard and Scott Bronder. “We got on ’em early and caught fish all day!” They targeted areas with scattered rock and hard wood, using a combination of crank baits and jigs. “Our smallest fish was 7.08 pounds, but the rest of them were pretty close in weight. We caught a LOT of fish in the 7 pound range, we just couldn’t cull with them.” Lee, a police officer, and Scott who works for Toyota, have been fishing with Bass Champs for the past 6 years. “We just had a really good day. Everything worked just like it was supposed to.” The team was awarded $5,000 for their 2nd place win and would like to thank Wood Bros Custom Roids, San Marcos Police Officer Association and the Tire Factory Outlet for their support.
Rounding out the top 5 included 3rd place David and Dustin Day with 42.09 lbs, Rene Meza & Jose Jimenez 4th with 40.47 lbs and Justin Stone & Spike Stoker won 5th place with 39.97 lbs.
Now let’s talk big bass. Make that gigantic! Incredibly, nine bass exceeding the 10 pound mark were registered at the scales. The largest of them all was brought in by the father & son team of Claude and Carson Sims. “This is like winning the lottery!” Claude exclaimed. “There are so many really good teams that fish with Bass Champs, catching a fish like this is just phenomenal.” “It was my third cast,” he recalled. Using a Texas rigged Tightline UV brush hog, he was flipping brush in 9′ of water. The huge fish latched on to his bait. “I knew it was a big fish right away. She wore herself out pretty quick, and Carson was ready with the net when I got her to the boat.” Claude fishes with his 13 year old son Carson who wants to grow up to be a professional angler. “I’d like to thank Byron Velvick who turned us on to these new baits. We caught several more in the 3-4 pound range, but no other big ones today. We really like fishing the Bass Champs tournament trail. The guys that fish with them are phenomenal, and don’t mind telling you what they’re fishing with. There’s a lot of camaraderie, which is very different from the guys I fished against in Georgia for 25 years. I am so proud of my son and his goal to be a Pro Angler. We are very blessed to know and be around such good role models.” Bass Champs awarded the team $1,000 for their catch, but in addition they also received the new Biobor Bonus as well as the Costa Del Mar bonus.
There are several sponsor incentive bonuses available at every Bass Champs event. Justin Stone & Spike Stoker doubled their $1,200 winnings to a $2,400 day winning the Skeeter Double Money bonus. Houston Erskine & Ben Stogsdill won the Dodge Ram bonus giving them a free entry into any Bass Champs tournament in the next 12 months.
Don’t miss out on any of the incentives Bass Champs sponsors offer. Just go to the BassChamps website and read about all of the sponsor incentives being offered and how you can qualify to win.
The next Bass Champs South Region event will be February 11th on Amistad. All Bass Champs tournaments are open for anyone to enter, so don’t miss another opportunity!
Bass Champs staff and crew are heading to Lake Sam Rayburn for the East Region kick-off January 21st.
For more information visit the website or call 817-439-3274
Due to low water levels on Lake Travis, the first Central Region event (1/28/2012) has been moved to Lake LBJ – The event will be hosted at The LBJ Yacht Club and Marina
Registration at LBJ Yacht Club will be held Friday 1/27 from 6-8 PM & Saturday 1/28 beginning at 5 AM
Team Championship lakes and dates are now available
East Region Toledo Bend September 8-9
North Region Lake Lewisville September 15-16
Central Region Lake LBJ September 29-30
South Region Lake Falcon October 27-28
Any team that has entered all five events in any region automatically qualify for all 4 championships
Set your DVR’s for Bass Champs Television on The World Fishing Network!
Mondays @ 8:30 PM Central
By: Patty Lenderman
