The 2005 National Boat Mart-TVA Bass Championship once again lived up to the history, prestige, hype, and drama that has always unfolded and centered around the event. The point standings were wiped clean and the field featured only the best anglers from the 2005 National Boat Mart TVA Bass Series in a two-day endurance race that started on Saturday morning and did not end until late Sunday afternoon. September is tough, there’s not a lot of bites, so you’d better capitalize on what you get. A lost fish in this event is like leading in NASCAR blowing a tire, and going one lap down.
The format is ever changing, as the championship field has to catch fish on two entirely different bodies of water. You may have them dialed in on one lake, but the next day is on another body of water. The whole field fishes each lake together, so there’s not a lot of “dock talk” about patterns, get ready cause what worked today, probably won’t work tomorrow.
As the field left the staging area at Dodge Camp on Lake Freeman at safe light the first day, they were greeted with a fairly clear body of water that didn’t have much current with the water temperature in the mid 80’s and no wind. To make it just a little tougher, the air temperature was going to be close to 90 at weigh in, so the water skiers and pleasure boaters would assuredly be out in mass.
As the anglers literally “toughed it out” on the “Dead Sea” as Freeman is becoming known as, the first day weigh-in was lighter than anyone expected. Because in 2004 the lake produced some big creels, and was the best lake in the two day show down.
Round One Weigh-In [I]
One of the highlights of the weigh was when Winamac, Indiana’s Rick Owen pulled out a 3.38 smallmouth from his livewell The beautiful Lake Freeman specimen put Owen atop of the leader board and eventually took the Lafayette Glass Big Bass Award for day one. “I caught her on a tube about half-way out to the boat in about eight feet of water” explained Owen. “I thought I had a decent fish hooked, and then she jumped about three feet in the air and I saw what I had, it was one I definitely didn’t want to lose commented Owen.
With this group though, someone usually always figures something out. Monticello, Indiana’s Adam Wright who was a pre-tournament favorite after winning qualifiers on Shafer and Freeman, didn’t disappoint the weigh-in crowd. As he pulled fish after fish out of his livewell and brought the first five bass limit of the day to the scales. Wrights limit pushed the scales to the 7.70 mark and doubled his nearest competitor’s weight. “I caught my first keeper at my second spot, and that fish really gave me confidence that I’d be able to catch fish with a summer pattern” said Wright “I fished the rest of the day trying not even to think about the trillions of shad that were in the lake. Freeman has been tough all summer and I came into today hoping to get 2-3 fish so bringing in a limit and the lead is a very pleasant surprise” said Wright.
But Wright was already looking at Sunday after the first day weigh-in. “I know that I’m going to have to have another solid day of fishing” said Wright firmly.
Another Angler to always watch is Marty Yoder, Yoder came in pulling two bass out of his livewell weighing in at 3.08 pounds. “I went into the tournament knowing that I couldn’t have many missed opportunities fishing against a group of anglers as tough as these guys. My game plan today was to try to get some top water bites early which did not work out. So I changed up and went to fishing finesse baits in the backwaters and came up with 2 fish and I lost 2 fish, which I knew would hurt as it always does” said Yoder when he came across the stage.
Then after a couple more anglers came across the stage Jerry Drazer came up with 3 bass weighing 4.86 pounds good enough for second place. “It’s tough out there, I really had to hustle to come up with these three pups” laughed Drazer wiping his forehead with a towel. “I lost one that probably would’ve kept, and that really hurts, let me tell you but that’s crankbait fishing” Drazer said with a sigh. Drazer who was just under three pounds from the leader was a little cautious about going into the second round. “The fish up on Shafer have been running small, without a lot of double figure limits. This may be Adam’s year. If he gets five tomorrow he’ll be tough to beat. He’s in good position though, it forces the entire field to have to swing for the fences to win, and you know all these guys will” explained Drazer.
Defending champion from 2004 Rod Coffing rounded out the Top-5 on the first day. Coffing reported catching one bass on topwater and another on a jig, in the first round of his title defense.
After the championship field weigh out, only eleven anglers checked in a bass on Freeman. One person in the crowd was over heard comparing fishing conditions and said “and they thought the Pittsburg Classic was tough”.By: TVA Staff
