| Bass-N-Bucks McCall & Boulware win the Bass N Bucks 2008 kick-off event on Rayburn |  |
| by Patty Lenderman |
| Page(s): 1 2 |
The wind blew all night before the tournament, and continued in gusts at take-off. Heavy cloud cover blanketed the sky with predictions of rain later in the day. With the recent warmer days, the water temperature had climbed five degrees, scattering the bass. As time for weigh-in approached, the rain finally hit. Teams began trickling in to the scales, and the father & son team of Obie & Obie Culp took the big bass lead early on with their 7.36 kicker. "It was our first fish of the day! She was shallow, only about 2 or 3 feet deep. We were fishing in grass, in the back of a pocket." Obie (father) caught her on a Texas rigged Zoom watermelon red curl tail worm. Although many other big bass were brought in and weighed, theirs was the biggest of the tournament winning a check for $1,000. They won 9th place overall with their 17.47 pound total. Harold Allen and Glen Freeman brought in the first sack weighing over 20 pounds, but three more teams brought in a little bit more weight seizing top spots. Chris McCall and Clayton Boulware had a sack of all chunks with no particular kicker in the bag weighing 23.44 pounds to win the tournament. "It was a slow bite for us today. We didn’t catch a whole lot of fish" Clayton explained. "The morning bite stunk, to say the least. About 9:30 we finally caught one a little over 4 pounds, and over the next couple of hours caught three more about that same weight. At 12:30 we caught a five pounder that we were able to cull a two pounder with." They caught their fish on ½ ounce bleeding shad rattle traps. "The real key was our Ambassador Revo reels, 17# Berkley Trilene Flourocarbon line and American Rodsmith rods" Chris stated. "The trick was a slightly different retrieve technique that Clayton came up with that triggered the bigger bite. We’ve had several 2nd place finishes, but today we were able to catch the right five (bass)." They would like to acknowledge their sponsors, and thank them for their support: Ranger Boats, Evinrude motors, Abassador Revo reels, American Rodsmith, Berkley Trilene Flourocarbon line, Stanley Jigs, Terry’s Marine, Darrell at Tri-Lakes Tackle, Gambler, A & W Rootbeer, Santone Lures and Needmore Tackle. As a Ranger Boat team, they also received the top Ranger Cup bonus of $2,500 in addition to their 1st place $15,000 check. "This is a great partnership between Bass N Bucks and Ranger Boats!" There was just over a 1/4 pound spread between 2nd thru 4th place. Brian Schott and Kevin Coleman took 2nd place with 20.75 lbs to win $4,000. "We did a lot of running and gunning" Brian said. They didn’t do any pre-fishing, so pretty well came in to the tournament blind. "We just hit a lot of our old sweet spots, mostly concentrating on secondary grassy points in 4’-6’." They had an initial limit in the boat early, around 8:30 using Rayburn red rattle traps. "We probably hit more than 20 different spots, and the fish bit all day for us. I’d guess that we caught about 25 keepers, and our biggest cull was 2 1/2 pounds." Every cull is so important. They only topped the next highest weight by 8/100ths of a pound! "We’d like to thank Dave & Tricia for running such a great tournament trail. We really enjoy fishing Bass N Bucks." Top Teams:
That’s not the end of the payouts! Ranger Boats sponsors three more checks every tournament for the top 3 finishing qualified Ranger Boat owners!
Terry’s Marine and Texas Marine both brought Ranger display boats for everyone to check out, and to answer any questions about the product. Howard Etue from E2 Baits had sample packs for all the anglers. "I am really happy to see all of our new teams!" stated Dave Concienne. "There are so many anglers that have been fishing with us for years, and we have watched them get better and better. There are several anglers that we have watched grow up as well. Our 2008 sponsors have stepped up to the plate to increase the angler pay-outs. We’d like to thank Ranger Boats for coming on as our title sponsor this year, and for all of our sponsors making this a great tournament trail for our anglers to participate in. Even if you missed this first tournament, I’d like to invite everyone out there who may be thinking about trying their hand at tournament fishing to join us this year. Our next 1st Series tournament will be February 3rd, on Toledo Bend out of Cypress Bend. Come on out and win some big money! Our Conroe series kicks off January 26, 2008 on Lake Conroe. That series will consist of three Conroe events and two Rayburn events. Register for all five of these tournaments and qualify for the Championship!" For more information, click to the Bass-N-Bucks website or call 409-727-8941.
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