The month of May turned out to be a winning one for two East Texas anglers, Ranger Pro Stephen Johnston and Collegiate Angler Danny Iles. It all began the first weekend of the month with a BFL event on the Red River. Johnston was hoping for a decent finish to stay high enough in the points race for a bid to qualify for the regional event scheduled for later in the year. After a few days of really tough practice, his aim was simply not to come in empty handed. “I called home and told my wife that my goal was to ?not zero’; that fishing was that tough.” His efforts not only landed him five fish the following day, but five fish large enough to win the tournament. It was his first ever BFL victory and moved him up to second in the points for the season.
This event was followed by two weeks of planning for the next tournaments, four of them, all of which took place back to back to back at the month’s end. Johnston was scheduled to fish the FLW Stren Series – Texas Division on Lake Amistad. He was tied for second in the points race for that circuit. Also on Lake Amistad, and happening in tandem with the Stren Series was the FLW National Guard College Fishing tournament in which Iles was competing on behalf of his Lamar University team.
After two days of fishing, Johnston made the Top 10 cut and learned that he would compete on the final day of fishing Saturday May 23, the same day as the College Fishing tournament. The College weigh-in happened first, at 2:30 PM out at the lake, followed by the Stren weigh-in at 4:00 PM in town at the events sponsor, Walmart. A small logistical issue and one that had been encountered before, when both fished the same events on Lake Sam Rayburn earlier in the spring.
Iles and his collegiate team partner, Matt Morrison, of Silsbee, Texas, had previously fished two of the National Guard events, one in January on Falcon Lake and one in March on Lake Sam Rayburn, and placed third in both. For their efforts, their club and Lamar University had been awarded several thousand dollars in scholarships, and they had qualified for the Regional Championship to be held in the fall on the Red River. Their aim now was to win an event and get out of third place.
Get out of third place, they did, but after a very tough day of fishing on the lake known for huge bass with their combined catch of six bass weighing 13.9 pounds; a disappointing total which landed them in 4th Place overall. Disappointing only in terms of where they preferred to finish however, because they now have the distinction of being the only National Guard College Fishing team in the nation to place in the money in all of their events, and claimed another $3000 in scholarships for their club.
Johnston meanwhile had come into the final day of competition in the 5th Place spot and felt strong about the days fishing. “I really felt like my fish were getting stronger. I made a change in the way I was fishing on the second day of competition and it seemed to work well, so I was really looking forward to the final day” said Johnston. He was competing against some familiar faces who are all tough competitors and all equally confident in their fish. At the end of the day, Johnston did improve his standing in the tournament and finished in 3rd Place. His second 3rd Place finish of the season in the Stren Series. This finish did move him up in the points race though and now he leads the field going into the final event of the season scheduled for his home lake on Toledo Bend later in the fall.
Now that the Amistad events were wrapped up, Johnston was heading home to Hemphill while Iles (and Morrison) left Del Rio and headed straight to Lewisville for the Boat US National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship. They landed there with one day of prep time followed by a couple days of practice and then two days of competition on a lake that only Morrison had fished before, in the previous year’s Championship in which he and another partner had finished 24th overall. Their expectations were high and they aimed to not only better the previous years finish, but to remain where the two of them had been in other tournaments all year, in the money. At the end of the week, they had weighed in two limits of fish and while not as high up as they preferred, did finish in 28th out of 126 collegiate teams from around the country, helping to put the Collegiate Anglers of Lamar on the map.
Without even knowing exactly where they finished, the two left Lake Lewisville and made the long drive back to East Texas where Iles was to meet up with Johnston once again for the final tournament of the weeklong marathon. Iles and Johnston were scheduled to fish in the Bass N Bucks Team Trail tournament on Lake Sam Rayburn on Saturday, the 30th. The event, which was taking place on the same day as Iles’ younger brother, and Johnston’s stepson, Chris Iles, was set to graduate from Hemphill High School, was the season finale in a series that Johnston and Iles had worked all year to lead in the points and claim the Anglers of the Year title. They had been in the lead for that honor until the prior tournament in April when they had slipped to second place and would now need some 23 points to take it back over. It was by all accounts, a stress filled time. “All week long, in practice,” said Johnston, “it was not good. I felt like we had given up the title, and there was not much hope of getting it back. When Danny got home from Lewisville, at midnight the night before the tournament, we knew that it was going to be tough fishing and that we probably didn’t have a chance. Our goal was to try to get a check, and make it home in time for graduation.”
At weigh-in that afternoon, Johnston and Iles had a total of 18.87 pounds, enough to put them in the tournament lead at least for a while. “I called home and said that we were winning, and they just couldn’t believe it, and because of the Ranger Cup contingency money up for grabs, Danny and I had to wait it out in case we qualified for that” he said. The next call was to report in that they had finished in 6th Place, won the Ranger Cup bonus, and reclaimed the points lead to win the Anglers of the Year race. It was quite a wild finish not only for the tournament, but for the day, and the month of May.
Looking at it now, one might need a scorecard to keep up with it all . . .
Pro Angler Johnston – One win, another third, two Angler of the Year races
Collegiate Angler Iles – One fourth place, one national distinction, and one very busy college freshman
Team Johnston/Iles – two very happy Anglers of the Year
The month of May – one big payday!By: Robin Johnston
