We want to congratulate Georgia South teammates, Steve Stewart and Johnny Creel, who made good on their Day 1 prediction that they felt confident in repeating their weight for Saturday. Bringing in another remarkable bag of fish, weighing 22.46 lbs, gave the new Champions 45.43 lbs for the tournament victory. Steve and Johnny earned a full-equipped 2010 Triton bass boat, valued at over $30,000.00, championship plaques, and a $7500.00 bonus, pending requirements being met in the “Triton Gold Owners Program”.
The confident anglers chose to save a productive bass haunt, found during practice, for the final day of competition. Using several techniques, the new Champions garnered a 2-day total of 45.63 lbs, thus surpassing the nearest competition by more than seven pounds.
Day one, Friday the 13th, saw the talented anglers Carolina-rigging in deep water for their 22.97 lbs catch. Today, the victors moved into shallower, grass-filled pockets and flipped Big Bite Baits, Dean Rojas Signature Series Fighting Frog, combined with a one and a half-ounce, tungsten weights. Steve noted that after flipping the grass for 30 to 45 minutes, in 8 to 18 feet of water, and limiting out, they finished the day culling smaller bass for the 6, 5.50, 5.00, and 4 lbs bass that had fallen for the Fighting Frog, an hour and a half before check-in.
South Carolina Low-country anglers, Brent Riley and Nathan Burgess, moved up from fifth to finish second overall with today’s catch of 21.90 lbs, giving them a 2-day total of 38.10 lbs. Their impressive limit included one at 5.66.
Although Brent and Nathan couldn’t connect with any productive patterns during the 2-day practice period, the successful anglers decided to pitch spinnerbaits and chatter-type baits along a 300 yard stretch of milfoil on the main Flint channel, near Wingate’s Lodge, in 4 to 8 feet of water, where schools of threadfin shad were congregating and the bass were very active.
Moving up six places to finish third, Florida North teammates Dusty McDevitt and Wayne Lindsey added 17.66 to Day 1’s 13.52 for a tournament total of 31.18 lbs. On Day 1, Wayne stated that Dusty and he quickly caught three bass on spinnerbaits along the grass mats that they were to later flip 1and a half-ounce weighted, Producto, June bug Craws. Their first day limit came from an area near the confluence of the Flint River and Lake Seminole. However, their most prolific results came on Day 2 by Carolina rigging black-grape, 8-inch paddle-tail, Producto Tournament worms, about a mile up the Chattahoochee River, amid the current flowing across a hydrilla-strewn point.
Dusty and Wayne enthusiastically stated that their sponsor’s, Producto line of plastic baits, made all the difference in the world for them, not only here but all season.
Also running up six places and finishing forth overall with 30.05 lbs, Don Fisher and Neil Davis, competing out of Frank Hay’s Florida Central Division, hauled in an additional 17.65 lbs, which included a 5.31 largemouth and a beautiful 4.36 lbs Shoal Bass. Don and Neil fished main lake ledges and grass mats in Spring Creek with shakey head jigs, tipped with Warrior watermelon finesse worms and both shallow and deep-diving RC-2.5 yellow-shad crankbaits. Heavily weighted Warrior creature-type plastics, on Suffix 50lbs braid, also work well in the 6 to 8 foot depths of Spring Creek’s hydrilla mats, along with watermelon goldflake flukes and the crankbaits fished in and through open areas.
With 9.75 after Day 1’s weighin and sitting in 23 rd place, Joe Dains and Steve Mcentyre moved up an incredible seventeen places and finished fifth with today’s 19.67 lbs. Joe and Steve’s 29.42lbs of bass came from the same area of the lake, however, by changing tactics and lures on Saturday, the Florida Central boys boosted their catch by nearly ten lbs. Steve worked Strike King’s Caffeine Shad, while Joe used Zoom four-inch, shad-colored, flukes in pockets of hydrilla and lily pads, downstream from Wingates where the lake was clearing. By free-falling the plastics and then gently jerking them back toward the surface, the huge bass would engulf these tempting morsels, which were immensely more productive than the slow rolling, white single-bladed spinnerbaits used on Day 1.
Another Florida Central team chose try something different on Day 2, which increased their catch significantly. With only 3.11 lbs on the board, Reggie Bush and John Myers decided to move up the Flint River, Saturday, where they jigged their way to 16.19 lbs of fish. Their notable catch included a 6.59 lbs largemouth that earned the Day 2 1st Big Fish Award and a sizable amount of cash.
South Carolina Upstate anglers Jamie Long and Calvin Murphy won the Day 2 2nd Big Fish Award for a 6.50 lbs bass which was among their 14.89lbs, four-fish catch.
The big girl fell for an ExCalibur75 rattle bait.
Derrick and Blane Millirons, Danny East’s boys from Georgia South, captured first place among the Adult-Junior teams contending for a slot in the 2010 Lake Guntersville National Championship. Congratulations to young Blane and his father for netting 14.10 lbs today and finishing with 16.65. Blane’s father, Derrick, stated that the two abandoned the Flint River Arm after catching only one fish on Day 1. They found their Day 2 fish in a submerged pond located some distance below Fish Pond Drain. Their catch came by using custom painted Tennesse Shad colored RC-15 crankbaits. They cast along the hydrilla edge-line in 3 to 5 feet of water and produced enough bass to cull em’ 3 times.
Also earning a berth to next April’s national championship among the competing Male-Female teams are Greenville, SC residents, Carolyn and Otis Weir, fishing out of the South Carolina Upstate Division.
The top ten finishers in this event, by weight, along with the highest finishing team from each division, the top Male/Female and Adult/Junior teams, and all “Division Points Champions” will earn a berth to the National Championship which will be held April 7 thru April 10, 2010, on Lake Guntersville, AL, where they will compete for over $60,000.00 in cash and prizes.
We want to thank the official host of this year’s Southeast Regional Championship Tournament: the Bainbridge Decatur County Chamber of Commerce with special thanks to Adrienne Harrison. Thanks for a great meal and your kind helpers at Bainbridge Middle School along with a great speaker: Chris Wells (wellspokenministries.com). Special thanks go out to Bainbridge City employees, who took care of launching and parking, plus the Bainbridge City Police Dept, traffic control. Adrienne, we salute you for making our visit to Bainbridge a most pleasant and successful experience.
We do not want to forget our faithful sponsors: Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Strike King Lure Company, Marshalls Marine, Power Pole, Grace Full Gospel Church, Solar Bat, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Kistler Custom Rods, Keelshield, Jacobs Glass, Markel Insurance, Shakespeare, Stanley Jigs, Spike-It Bait Company, Rejuvenade, Mizmo Bait Company, Motorguide, Lowrance, Logan Fire Apparatus, Keep Alive Oxygen Infusor, Dual Pro Chargers, Buckeye Lures, Allstar Rods, and Xtools.By: Frank Evans, Senior Staff Writer
