| Bass-N-Bucks Hot new season starts on a bitter cold day for Bass N Bucks Randall & Taylor top the field to win $15,000 |  |
| by Patty Lenderman |
| Page(s): 1 2 3 |
Bass N Bucks hosts two trails, the Conroe Series and the East Texas Team Circuit. The East Texas Team Circuit fishes only Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend. The Spring series has a total of five qualifying events and the Summer Series has three. Any team can join in and fish one or all of them for a chance to win some big money. It’s a new year filled with new faces and old friends competing to test their skills and try their luck to win a part of the pot this season. The night before the tournament, temperatures had dipped below the freezing point putting a blanket of thin ice on anything exposed. As the dawn broke, the early morning fog began to rise. Tournament Director Dave Concienne started the morning with a prayer and the National Anthem as boats were checked and then released in flights. The wind was calm as the bright blue sky stretched across the landscape with nary a cloud in it. As the day progressed, it warmed to the mid 50’s with calm breezes and occasional gusts. Sam Rayburn is still over seven feet low, and the water temperature dipped several degrees since the teams had practiced. The anglers began rolling in as weigh in time approached. The weights kept getting higher and stacking up tighter with each teams catch. When the official weights were tallied, Donald Randall and Don Taylor were declared the winners with 21.74 lbs. "The morning started off bad. It was really cold" the team explained. During practice, they had patterned their bass on crank baits around stumps in 7’ depths. "We tried crank baits, but didn’t catch any on them today." Switching to Texas rigged lizards and slowing down a little bit, they only managed one keeper in their first spot. "We moved, but our luck didn’t get much better in the next three areas we tried." Staying on the move hunting for biting bass, things began to improve. " It took a while, but we finally managed to put a small limit together." Their small limit was just a start as they culled all of them in exchange for the bigger bass they caught later. "The biggest fish we put back weighed about three pounds. We lost a couple of really big bass, though." Having all chunks in the bag, they came out with a 1st place win and a check for $15,000. Traps, traps, traps! That was the key for David Harvey and Kris Wilson’s 2nd place win. "It was a simple day. We went to our first hole, and had five fish in five casts. By 8:00 we pretty well had all of our fish." They headed to hydrilla beds in the mid lake area, fishing 4’- 5’ deep. They only made one cull about 1:30 to their initial morning’s catch before weighing in. Their best five totaled 20.92 lbs and they enjoyed a $4,000 payday. They were fishing from Kris’ qualified Ranger boat, and he was the top Ranger Cup angler winning an additional $2,500. The team would like to thank Ranger Boats and Big Bite Baits. It took Randy Millender and Kenneth Nichols a little longer to wrap up a limit for their 3rd place win. "(The bite) was really slow. We threw rattle traps most of the day." Targeting creek channels with grass, they cranked their 1/2 oz. red traps in 5’- 8’ depths. "We hit lots of spots, but the fish were scattered. It was about 2:30 when we put our 5th fish in the boat." Their five fish tally was 20.35 lbs, winning a 3rd place check for $2,000. Randy received an additional $1,000 from the Ranger Cup Bonus as the second highest qualified finisher. They would like to thank Ranger Boats. Top Teams:
Larry Cotton and Chris Diberardino weighed in the first big bass of the day at 8.29 lbs. It would not hold for overall big bass, as we saw three more over the 8 lb mark come in, two of those heavier than theirs. The Big Bass of the event was caught by Doyle Tibbitts & Pete Shivers weighing 8.63 lbs. "It was a team effort" they agreed. Pete said he had just casted one direction and noticed the fish hit in shallow water in another spot. "I pointed it out and told Doyle to throw over there." Doyle had a red rattle trap on and threw to the 2’ deep area where the fish had first hit. "She just loaded up on it" Doyle explained. It was around 8:00am when they made this lucrative catch, adding another $1,000 to their 7th place overall winnings. There were four bass weighed in over the 8 lb mark, most of which were reported to be caught before 9:00 in the morning. A total of 587 tournament fish were weighed in, totaling 1,590.65 lbs - an average of 2.71 lbs per fish. The top three Ranger Cup Participants in each event is eligible to win even more money. Enrollment into the Ranger Owners Group is open to any registered Ranger Boat owner. Ranger Cup winners for the December 6, 2008 tournament:
Bass-N-Bucks would like to thank all of our 2009 sponsors, for helping us put together one of the best trails to fish in southeast Texas - RANGER BOATS, MERCURY # 1 On The Water, LOWRANCE, AMERICAN RODSMITHS, POWER PRO, WULF OUTDOOR SPORTS, SNAG PROOF, TIREMAX, E 2 BAIT COMPANY, PRO RULE, BASSMEDICS and THE CITY OF JASPER. The next East Texas Team Circuit tournament will be on Toledo Bend February 7, 2009 at Cypress Bend Marina. The Conroe Series will be kicking of January 31, 2009 on Lake Conroe. If you would like to fish or need more information, visit the Bass N Bucks website or call 409-727-8941.
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