The eighth qualifying event of the 2005 National Boat Mart TVA Tournament Series was held on Lake Manitou, in Rochester, Indiana out of the DNR Ramp. The anglers that pre-fished found a much different Manitou than they had found in June. Heavy rains earlier in the week had brought the lake level up a little and caused the fish to scatter.
As the anglers started weighing in everyone knew it was going to be a tight leader board.
Many of the anglers throughout the field caught and reported catching schooling fish, however, many of the schooling fish would not measure the fourteen inch minimum.
In this tournament, anglers spread out about like the fish had. So, in order to do well you’d have to mix it up a little. Catching one or two here, and one or two there.
First place honors and his very first trip to the winners circle in the NBM-TVA Bass Series was Winamac, Indiana’s Rick Owen. Owen came to the scales with a five bass limit that weighed 8.63 pounds to secure the win. Owen reported catching some his fish schooling on the surface, and some of them off weedlines. Owen’s most productive bait on the weedlines was soft plastics, and Senko’s. While he caught the schooling fish on surface baits.
Rick Owen anchored his winning catch with the tournament’s Big Bass. A nice 2.62 pound largemouth.
In second place was Burnettsville, Indiana’s Jerry Drazer. Drazer came in with a five bass limit weighing 8.39 pounds for a solid second place finish. Drazer reported catching his fish off weedlines, and skipping pontoon boats with plastic worms. Drazer is sponsored by: Hendrickson Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep of Monticello, Interstate Batteries, Kick-N-Bass, Fishingworld.com, and Super Wash Car Washes.
In third was Lafayette, Indiana’s Brian Roberts. Roberts who won the June qualifier came in with another solid five bass limit that weighed 8.19 pounds. Rounding out the top-five was Logansport, Indiana’s Mike Quaglio with five bass weighing 7.81 pounds and Brook, Indiana’s Marty Yoder with five bass weighing 7.28 pounds. Marty Yoder is sponsored by: BassBoatCentral, Heavy Cover Spinnerbaits, and Persuader Lures.
Rounding out the Top-5 was 2004 NBM-TVA Bass Championship winner Monticello, Indiana’sRod Coffing with four bass weighing 7.55 pounds, Coffing is sponsored by Monticello Shell. In fourth was Logansport, Indiana’s John Sabatini, “the light line finesse master” came in with three bass weighing 6.86 pounds to hold onto a solid finish. Sabatini is sponsored by Spro, Skeeter, and Yamaha Outboards. In fifth was Monon, Indiana’s Jeff Vandergraff with three bass weighing in at 5.96 pounds. Vandergraff is sponsored by JV Custom Baits.
The next NBM-TVA Bass Series qualifier will be held on Lake Shafer onAugust 6, 2005 out of the Indiana Beach Campground Ramp.
The NBM-TVA Bass Series is proudly sponsored by: National Boat Mart, FishingWorld.com, Bass Maxx Charging Systems, Hendrickson Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, Wrede & Son’s Excavating, Wild Bill’s Outpost, Kroger, Land-O-Champs Trophy, Lafayette Glass Company and Monticello Shell.By: TVA Staff
