Husband and wife team of Tim and Judy Reneau had a picture perfect day of fishing,

Skeeter Bass Champs South Region anglers hit Lake Amistad April 21, 2012. Husband and wife team of Tim and Judy Reneau had a picture perfect day of fishing, topping the pack with 27.89 lbs and winning the 1st place guaranteed check of $20,000.

“It was just a perfect day for us. We caught fish every which way, all day long!” They started out fishing flooded trees 8′-10′ deep with topwater lures and swim baits. “Right away we started boating fish. We probably caught 25 fish or so in that spot and ended up keeping three of them to weigh at the end of the day.” They continued to target several more areas similar to that until around 11am. “When it got slow, we went to deeper spots, 20′-25′ deep.” At those depths, they changed lures to 3/4 oz football head jigs with Strike King Rage trailers and Carolina rigs. At noon, Tim landed their kicker weighing 8.55 lbs on the jig. “We put another 15 keepers in the boat, mostly around the 3 1/2 to 4 pound range. They were still biting when we had to pack up and head in.” Bass Champs presented the couple with $20,000 for their 1st place win. They would like to thank Power Tackle, Power Tackle rods, Oldham Lures and Strike King.

Timothy and James Griffin caught a solid five fish limit weighing 24.82 lbs winning 2nd place and $3,000. Initially targeting a main lake point with a steep drop off, 15′ to 50′, their first two were caught on topwater baits. After that, they backed out to even deeper water on the same point with a Carolina rig. “We didn’t catch a ton of fish, but they were all good quality. We did loose a few good ones that would have helped!”

3rd place was won with 23.32 lbs, brought in by Rick Cathey & Jeff Richards. “We just tried a spot we found in practice. We knew we would have to commit to it and stay there all day.” It was a large flat with several drains coming to it. “We fished from just off the bank out to about 8′ deep, predominantly using topwater baits.” The first hour and a half of the morning, the bite was very slow. “All of a sudden they just turned on and we had a really strong period of catching fish. It was steady the rest of the day.” They had put a limit together of small fish, and culled all of them for “medium” size fish. “We knew the fish we needed to seriously contend were there. We just had to stick with it.” They had a 6 and a 7 pounder in their final limit that pushed their weight just 1/100th of a pound ahead of the 4th place team. Bass Champs paid them $2,000 for their 3rd place win, then Skeeter Boats doubled it for being the highest finishing team in a qualified Skeeter boat. They would like to thank Skeeter, Yamaha, Boerne Marine, Power Tackle Rods and The Boat Shop for their support. “Bass Champs is a GREAT tournament trail. It’s a lot of fun and very professionally run. We’d like to thank you guys for always providing the stories after the tournaments. It makes it really great for all of us guys who fish.”

The Big Bass of the tournament weighed in at 8.80 lbs, caught by Wayne Jackson, fishing with partner Jason Schneemann. “Our day started out really slow. We were fishing shallow water and caught a lot in the 2 pound range. After a while we decided to make a move to deeper water.” They were fishing a spot that sloped from 8′ to 20′ with a mixture of brush and grass on it. “We have a buddy that makes Double K jigs, which is what we were using out in the deeper water.” At 1:00 Wayne felt a big thump on the end of his line. “I knew right away it was a big fish. I could barely get it to budge.” Once he set the hook, the fight was on. “She kept trying to jump, but I managed to keeper down.” They got the fish secured in the boat and won $1,000 for that single catch. It also gave them just enough pounds to win the last place check (25th place / $500) won with the addition of their other four fish, just .06 difference in the next place down. He was wearing his Costa Del Mar sun glasses when weighing the fish and won an additional $200. They would like to thank Double K jigs, and Wilson Well Service for providing their lodging.

Bass Champs is well known for the phenomenal paybacks to participating anglers.
Tournament statistics for this event:

With only one tournament remaining for South Region teams, Charlie Forster and Mike Bingham have a comfortable lead in the points race for Anglers of the Year. However, with the points leaderboard shifting after each event, you never know until the final event is tallied!

Bass Champs staff and crew are headed to Sam Rayburn for East Region #4 at the Umphrey Family Pavilion on April 28.

For a full schedule of all Bass Champs tournaments, visit the BassChamps website or for more information call 817.439.3274By: Patty Lenderman