When this years National Boat Mart-TVA Team Challenge presented by Lafayette Glass was held on Lake Freeman, many anglers arrived skeptical from how small lake Freeman fished in the NBM-TVA qualifier held the week prior.
Then a very large approaching line of thunderstorms made anglers a little more on edge. But the line of thunderstorms would fizzle out, but the fishing would remain the same for most of the field. It was a classic case of you’re on’em or you’re not, most were not.
But the team of Vandergraff and Cohagan dialed the bass in very well, even though the lake was off-limits with no practice period. The team did their homework, and stuck to their gameplan, and it paid off big.
The duo ran upriver and primarily fished a submerged dam for the entire day. They lacked two bass from having the ten bass limit, but they set a new weight record for the event. Vandergraff and Cohagan had eight bass that totaled 21.16 pounds to cruise into the winners circle. The neat thing about their creel of fish was that it was all smallmouth. They also took Big Smallmouth honors with a 3.45 pounder. It was truly a beautiful bag of smallmouth bass. The team is sponsored by: JV Custom Baits, Embroidery Design, and Team Custom Rods.
In second place was the 1/2 of the defending team from the 2003 NBM-TVA Team Challenge Fuzzy Dunn and his newest partner Jim Baum. Dunn and Baum spent the majority of their time on the main lake but only had one keeper bass in the livewell. Then on a hunch, the team ran all the way upriver well past Vandergraff and Cohagan and tried a community spot that is either hot or it’s not. In this event nobody ran upriver to this spot except for Dunn and Baum. When they arrived they started picking off bass one by one until time started to run short on them and they had to leave for weigh-in. Dunn and Baum came to the scales with seven bass that weighed 16.91 pounds to hold down a solid second and a valient effort in a title defense. The tam is sponsored by Computers Plus.
Now that we’ve established the teams that were on’em, lets look at the rest of the field and weights for the Top-5 finsihers.
In third was the team of John Cullum and Rob Stapleton. Cullum and Stapleton both are no strangers to the winners circle in state and regional events. Cullum won the 2003 NBM-TVA Bass Championship and Stapleton has taken his share of titles in other events. Even though the fishing was tough, the duo still brought three fish to the scales weighing 6.61 pounds to hold third. They anchored their three bass creel with a 2.71 pound largemouth to take Big Largemouth honors in the event. They are sponsored by T-N-T Marine.
In fourth was the team of Han and Acher with two bass weighing in at 4.28 pounds to hold down a solid finish, and roundinng out the Top-5 was the team of Owens and Delerenso who had two bass weighing 4.26 pounds. The rest of the field in this event either had one or two fish to get on the board, and one third of the field posted zero’s. To say it was a tough day for most of the field would be an understatement.
Vandergraff and Cohagan both have earned automatic berths into the 2005 NBM-TVA Bass Championship in September provided that they each enter and fish two (2) NBM-TVA SERIES events in 2005.
The next NBM-TVA Tournament Series will be the NMB-TVA Series qualifier starting the 2005 season. It will be held on Lake Shafer on April 16, 2005, out of the Indiana Beach Campground.
The NBM-TVA Bass Series is proudly sponsored by: National Boat Mart, FishingWorld.com, Bass Maxx Charging Systems, Hendrickson Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, Monticello Shell, Wrede & Son’s Excavating, Kroger, Wild Bill’s Outpost, Land-O-Champs Trophy, Lafayette Glass Company and Twin Lakes Fish & Game Monticello, Indiana.By: TVA Staff
