Marcum and Delong battle cold front conditions to win season opener.

Anglers arriving to kickoff the first event of the 2004 season were greeted with a temperature of 32 degrees with north winds gusting between 20 to 30 miles an hour. With water temperatures ranging from 43 to 49 degrees, it was going to be difficult fishing to say the least.

The team of Lloyd Marcum and Craig Delong brought in just two fish but it was enough to take first place with a weight of 3.73 pounds. Their bag was anchored with a nice 2.70 pound smallmouth that would help them edge out second place by 2 hundredths of an ounce.

Second place went to the team ofJeff Denton and Chris Schultz. They weighed in 3 fish for a total weight of 3.71 pounds. The 2003 KRTC Classic third place finishers showed why they are always a threat to win on the river. “We knew just how tough it was going to be so we just fished soft plastics as slow as we could”, said Denton.

The team of Dave and Ron Call finished in third with two bass weighing 3.35 pounds. The 2003 KRTC Classic second place finishers are always in contention come weigh in time. “It really took concentration today”, said Ron Call. Dave Call added,” we fished soft plastics as slow as we could stand it to get the bites today.”

Big Bass was awarded to the 4th place team of Dale and Von Fowler. Dale was fishing by himself and weighed one bass for 3.28 pounds.

Rounding out the top 5 was the team of Joe and Matt Quick. They weighed in one fish for 2.43 pounds.

With conditions as bad as they were, only 7 teams weighed in fish with no more than 3 being caught by any team. May will definitely bring warmer temperatures along with a much better weigh in. The next tourament will be May 9th at the Shelby ramp.