They say “teach your children well”, so that in your old age they can assist you if you need it. Well, Bill Wilcox must have done a good job of teaching his daughter, Bree how to fish because she landed 3 of their 5 keepers on the last day of the tournament to move them into first place in the “2004 CAST Classic Tournament” on Lake Brownwood. But, let me start at the beginning.
Friday Night
Our “20th Annual CAST Classic” started on Friday night at the Brownwood Coliseum, with the first of TWO Catered Banquets provided for each of our Classic couples. At the first banquet all of the participating couples received a weigh-in bag containing a $25.00 gift card from Academy Sports and Outdoors. Several bags of worms were given to each couple from Mr. Twister, two Koozie’s with the C.A.S.T. logo on it’s side, a decal with the new CAST logo, and the Classic program with all the names of each couple and color photos of this year events and a large bag of goodies including a lake map from the Brownwood Chamber of Commerce.
During our awards banquet on Friday night, the “Top Six Couples” award was given in all of our 7 regions and each couple was presented with individual plaques for their achievement in this year’s regional standing. In addition, each regions “Team of the Year” and “Big Bass of the Year” winners received plaques for their outstanding accomplishments. This was a total of 49 couples receiving awards.
The C.A.S.T. Classic Tournament has developed a national reputation over the last 20 years as being the finest couples championship held each year and again this year it more than lived up to its reputation.
Without question, the highlight of the evening was the presentation of a brand new 2005 Ranger 519 Boat with a brand new 200 hp Mercury Outboard Motor.
Anita Richman, of the Brownwood Chamber of Commerice, reached into a hat and pulled out the name of Jim & Brenda Harris from Mesquite, Texas.
After they calmed down from jumping up and down and screaming, they were awarded the keys to a brand new 2005 RANGER 519 BOAT & MERCURY 200HP OUTBOARD MOTOR with an estimated retail valued of $35,700.00.
Saturday Morning
Just before sun rise on Saturday morning, we started the tournament with a Trumpet solo of the Star Spangled Banner by Joe Schroder. The sound of theTrumpet echoed off the hills and down the cove in the perfectly still morning air.
I can not tell you how it made me feel, but only that I got chills over my entire body.
I must have not been the only one that his playing affected for I could not start the tournament because of all of the couples standing in their boats and clapping in appreciation. And I must say he well deserved it.
Our couples were very blessed by the lord, because we started Saturday morning at 7:00am with a beautiful day for fishing. It was 60 degrees when we started and 84 at the weigh-in. We had cloud cover all day making the top water bite last most of the day.
As for the tournament, everyone told us that Lake Brownwood fishing conditions were extremely tough right now with all the rain that they had received all week and that we were going to be very lucky to catch any fish at all. Once again, our CAST couples showed the naysayer’s just how good they can be. We had over 89 couples that weighted in fish.
However, the best thing as the tournament director was that at the start of the 2nd day there were 15 couples with-in 4 pounds of first place. I don’t need to tell you how exciting that made the final weigh-in.
Saturday Night
At our second banquet on Saturday night the food was again delicious and again catered by “Hard Eight of Brady, Tx”.
As door prizes on Saturday night, Grace Watts was there representing Academy Outdoor Stores and gave away $1,400 in $200 gift cards. Luxor’s Jeweler of Bedford gave away a special Diamond Necklace valued at $1,000. Many, many other fine companies donated to make this night such a special event. We gave away over $5,000 worth of door prizes on Saturday night.
Sunday Morning
On Sunday morning the conditions had changed from almost perfect to completely perfect. This allowed all of our couples to go anywhere on the lake and fish any type of structure from points to grass to everything in-between.
It was consistency that paid off for Bill & Bree Wilcox. They brought in the 4th largest bag of fish on Saturday and the 4th largest bag on Sunday to become our overall 2004 C.A.S.T. Classic Tournament Winners with a total two day weight of 22.58 pounds.
Our Money Winners
I cannot list all of the money winners, but here is the Grand Prize Winner and the Top 10 couples with their weights and prize money. MO
| 1. Bill & Bree Wilcox | 22.58 lbs. | $4,675.00 |
| 2. Randy & Leta Bunch | 21.22lbs. | $3,605.00 |
| 3. Ken Staats & Shirleen Frederickson | 17.88lbs. | $3,045.00 |
| 4. William & Shanna Cole | 17.30lbs. | $2,665.00 |
| 5. Tommy & Pam Busbee | 16.39lbs. | $2,330.00 |
| 6. David & Charlotte Harris | 15.21lbs. | $2,045.00 |
| 7. Bobby Jeanne Rains | 14.57lbs. | $1,675.00 |
| 8. Mike & Lori Schooler | 13.98lbs. | $1,490.00 |
| 9. Joe & Suzie Moss | 13.46lbs. | $1,305.00 |
| 10. John Staley & Page Cundiff | 13.45lbs. | $1,210.00 |
By: Barbara & Tommy Taylor
