With storms moving through the area starting Thursday and ending early Saturday morning, the Kankakee river swelled to flood stage late Saturday evening leaving the KRTC staff with some tough decisions. Rather than cancel the tournament without being able to reschedule due to conflicts with other circuits, the KRTC staff decided to move the tournament to a neutral body of water that would leave all the teams on an even playing field. The site: 1400 acre Bass Lake. Known primarily for it’s walleye and crappie fishing, it would prove to be a very difficult lake to fish.
The team of Andy Mills and Mike Mak made it look very easy. Bringing in a 5 fish limit weighing 8.99 pounds, they would outdistance their nearest competition by almost 5 pounds. Fishing topwater baits in the shallow weeds most of the day would prove to be the key to their win. With their victory, Mills and Mak moved up into third place in the Angler of the Year standings.
Finishing in second place was the team of Ray Call and Don Deerwester. They brought two fish to the scales that would weigh 4.08 pounds. “Our game plan was to start fishing shallow cover first and then move out to deep water if necessary”, said Call. “Fishing in tandem with Ray using soft plastics and myself slow rolling a spinnerbait turned out to be key for us” added Deerwester. With their second place showing, the 2003 KRTC Classic winners moved solidly into second place in Angler of the Year standings. Deerwester is sponsored by: All-Walls, Crown Industrial Supply, Merrillville Awning Co., Big Bag Bait Company, and J V Custom Baits.
The team of Dave and Ron Call would end up in third place and capture the big bass award with their one fish weighing 3.56 pounds. Fishing shallow weeds with a spinnerbait was the ticket for them. The 2003 KRTC Classic second place finishers moved into a two way tie for 4th in Angler of the Year standings. Always tough competitors on the river, count on this team to be right near the top at the end of the year.
Rounding out the top 5 was the team of Dale and Von Fowler with two bass weighing 3.56 pounds good for fourth place. They tied with the Call team but by virtue of the big bass tiebreaker, they would have to settle for 4th. They are now tied with the Call team in fourth place in the Angler of the Year standings as well. The team of Jeff Denton and Chris Schultz ended up in 5th place with two bass weighing 3.41 pounds. Denton and Schultz still have a 12 point lead in the Angler of the Year race. With three tournaments to go, things are heating up and there is no margin for error with the top teams gunning for the first KRTC Angler of the Year title up for grabs.
The river will have a little over a month to settle down and hopefully come late July, this great fishery will start to show it’s true colors. The next tournament will be launched from the Grand Kankakee Marsh ramp on July 25.
