The fifth qualifying event of the 2005 National Boat Mart TVA Tournament Series was held on Lake Manitou, in Rochester, Indiana. As the anglers arrived they were were greeted with fog and a slight fog delay prior to take-off.
But when weigh in rolled around, the fog had cleared and gave way to sunny skies.
Holding down first place was Dayton, Indiana’s Brian Roberts. Roberts came to the scales with a five bass limit weighing in at 12.97 pounds. To earn first place honors for the day, and win his very first NBM-TVA Series event.
Roberts also blew away the competition when he had the events Big Bass a very respectable 3.42 pound largemouth.
Roberts told about his “magic spot” during the weigh in. Here’s how his day went. “I did not think I would be able to find this spot on the weed line I was told about in the fog, so my co-angler partner and I just went fishing that morning. We came upon the weed flat and got some fish to come up on some fast baits, but they would not take them. The fish were chasing well, but not eating the bait” remembered Roberts. “I could not get them to take a worm as a follow up either. All this action showed us that fish were there, we just had to put together how to make them eat the bait. My first keeper came on a shallow running crank bait retrieved very slowly after missing the buzz bait. Then I started putting the pieces together and switched to a rat. I was then able to put together how they wanted the bait worked and just kept catching fish. I had to get their attention, then let them eat it. We worked the same little stretch for 5 hours. When the action started slowing we made a run to a couple other similar spots, but could not get bit. We returned and had a couple other bites. I think a couple of keys to my catching fish was using braided line to help hook and keep the fish on in the grass, but also I was using an XFT 806 rod from Lamiglas. This is my Carolina rig rod, but the extra length helped me make long casts and hook the fish. I only missed three fish on the rat. One balled the rat on the hooks and the other two did not get the bait” said Roberts with excitement.
In second was Winamc Indiana’s Rick Owens. Owens weighed in a limit of bass that tipped the scales to the 9.28 pound mark. Ownens, used his knowledge of the lake to fish quite a few spots and carve out his best ever NBM-TVA Series finish.
In third was a rookie Sharpsville, Indiana’s Jim Lorts. Lorts is only a rookie in name only (first year in the series). Lorts came to the scales with a limit weighing in at 9.19 pounds. Lorts reported catching all his fish by dead sticking Senkos in 4 feet of water along weedlines.
Rounding out the Top-5 was Burnettville, Indiana’s Jerry Drazer with a limit of bass weighing in at 9.01 pounds. Drazer caught most of his fish on plastic worms that he had dipped into Kick-N-Bass Crawfish formula an flipped in the grass or dropped in holes. He also reported catching them speed worming the surface mats. Drazer is sponsored by Hendrickson Chrysler-Doge-Jeep, Kick-N-Bass, Fishingworld.com, Super Wash Car Washes, and Interstate Batteries. In fifth was Logansport, Indiana’s John Sabatini. Sabatini finessed his way to catching a limit that weighed in at 8.84 pounds. Sabatini is sponsored by Skeeter, Yamaha, and Spro.
The NBM-TVA Bass Series is proudly sponsored by: National Boat Mart, FishingWorld. 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
