The 2006 Anglers Quest Tournament of Champions is now in the books, and all Series are complete for 2006. This event was made up from the Top 20 qualifiers from each of Anglers Quest 4 Series of events. The event began on Friday morning after a 30 day off limits with the attending qualified 20 teams hitting the water for a day of practice on a body of water that some had never seen before. The Calcutta Auction pot was started out by Mike Hudson from Antex Roofing in Houston Texas by buying the entire field at $250 per team, starting the pot at a kool $5000. The meeting and calcutta auction followed and sold teams from $250 to $900 and raised $6615.00 to add to the anglers pot. Conditions on the Friday practice day were absolutely perfect with a slight breeze and cloudy skies, most teams reported expectations of big and heavy limits of bass. Friday night a cold front pulled through the area and the temperature dropped 30 degrees, the wind picked up to 25-35 mph gusts and the fishing got tough. The clear bluebird skies made the bite a lot tougher and the anglers had to work hard to bring in a limit of bass.
On day 1 Greg Crawford & Jesse Johnson from Huffman, Tx ran Greg’s Champion/Mercury to the east lake to catch 19.59 lbs on rattle traps in 8 ft deep grass beds. Rounding out the top five teams on day 1 were Jeff Jackowski & Kevin Ekdall from Spring, Tx running Jeff’s Cobra/Mercury to the east lake to bring back 16.54 lbs; Larry Cotten & Chris DiBerardino from Huffman, Tx ran Chris’s Skeeter/Yamaha to the west lake to catch their 16.37 lbs from a single fallen cedar tree on spinner baits; Russell Traylor from Huffman, Tx and Tom Mayne from Tyler, Tx ran their borrowed bass rig to the east lake to probe the grass beds with cranks, worms and jigs for 14.82 lbs; Travis Robinson from Humble, Tx & Ruben DeLeon from Houston, Tx ran Ruben’s Triton/Mercury to west lake areas to crank up 14.05 lbs. Mark Hogan & Billy Harbour brought in the big bass on day 1, a fine 7.40 lber caught on a lime green chatter bait in grass 10 ft deep on the east lake dam.
Conditions on day 2 were still not favorable for the Top 20 teams. The wind died down alot but it didn’t make the fishing any better as the high pressure and blue bird skies prevailed. The fish were cooperating early, but the bite slowed throughout the day. With these ever changing conditions it showcased just how skilled these anglers really are as this was the Anglers Quest A-Team.
On day 2 the TIRE MAX wrapped Ranger/Yamaha bass rig of Ricky Guy from Humble, Tx & Tommy Bankhead from Crosby, Tx powered their way to the east lake to fish the grass beds with H & H rods tipped with jigs & rattle traps. Ricky & Tommy caught their 10 bass both days by casting traps and flippin drains and ditches through grass beds in 6 to 8 feet of water. They had the heavy weight stringer of the event at 21.42 lbs on day 2 to give them a two day total of 34.45 lbs to collect $10,200.00 and the special TOC Goal Posts. It never hurts to have a kicker fish in your sack and Tommy made sure of that by catching a 10.96 lber at 7 am on day 2 to garner Big Bass honors of the event. Rounding out the top five teams overall were Jackowski & Ekdall 10 bass, 32.94 lbs, $1,000.00; Traylor & Mayne 10 bass, 29.83 lbs, $800.00; Cotten & DiBerardino 10 bass, 28.56 lbs, $1966.00; and Randy Quin from Huffman, Tx and Mark Rouse from LaPorte, Tx 10 bass, $565.00.
Lake Tyler water was in really good shape at approximately 8 ft below normal pool, the 20 teams brought in 26 limits of bass, 147 fish that totaled 405.89 lbs with a 2.76 avg. We are now inviting all anglers to gear up to make the cut to come to the Anglers Quest “Tournament of Champions” in 2007 to be held on an East Texas lake to be announced.
Anglers Quest 2007 schedules are now available online at the Anglers-Quest website. The 1st event for the 2006 season will be the Saturday Series Team event on Lake Livingston, January 6, 2007 which will be a trailering event with registration and sign up at Kickapoo Bait & Tackle. For any info contact Mr Bill at 281-852-8842. Anglers Quest wants to thank all the Anglers that participated in any A/Q events in 2006 and also Thanks to all the A/Q Staff & Sponsors. All A/Q events in 2007 will be conducted on Lakes Conroe, Houston, Livingston and Sam Rayburn.
Anglers Quest was sponsored in 2006 by: Anchorage Marina, Antex Roofing, Big State Fabrication, Check-It Stik, FishingWorld, Kickapoo Bait & Tackle, Kicker Fish Bait Co., Lake Houston Marina, MSD Building Corporation, StyleTile, Superior Paint Works, Inc., TIRE MAX, Travis Boating Center
God Bless & Good Fishing to All….
Anglers Quest, Mr Bill & Barbara LongBy: Bill & Barbara Long / Anglers Quest
