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Anglers Quest
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(Nov. 24, 2003 - Onalaska, Tx)... Anglers Quest 2003 Saturday Team Series Championship is now in the books, and the Saturday Series is complete for 2003. The event began on Friday evening with the presentation of the special Trophies to Anglers of the Year, Danny StAndrie & Chris Diberardino, they will receive free entries to all A/Q Saturday Series Events in 2004. The Top 10 Angler Teams of the year were awarded Top 10 Plaques with the statistics of all 20 -2003 Saturday Series events engraved. The big bass pot auction of All-Star Rods and Check-It Stiks, plus the $20 per man raised $2293.00. The Calcutta Auction followed and sold teams from $50 to $555 and raised $4380.00 to add to the anglers pot.
The Lake Livingston Area Tourism Council, and chief cook Phil Smith treated all 35 team championship anglers and their families to a very good old fashion catfish fry and all the trimmings at the final day weigh-in at Kickapoo Bait & Tackle on Sunday.
The weather was cloudy and low 70’s at daybreak to low 80’s during the day with a slight breeze for the Saturday Lake Houston part of the event. Sunday at Lake Livingston started out to be a very nice day at 73 degrees and just a slight breeze, but as the day wore on the winds shifted from the south to north and the temp fell 20 degrees in 1 hour. Along with the winds came 6-7 foot swells on the lake that claimed 2 of the 35 Tournament boats.
As Day 1 got underway with the playing of the national anthem, the 35 Qualified Teams took off into the dim morning light at 6:15 am going for the $11,692.00 purse which was the 97% payback promised by A/Q at all Championships. The torrential rain that led up to the event had Lake Houston water a lot off color going into the event. Lake Houston on day 1 was still about 6" above normal, but the 35 teams still brought in 11 limits of bass, 92 fish that totaled 181.28 lbs.
Day 2 on Lake Livingston produced 12 limits 99 fish-236.83 lbs and a 2.39 avg weight. After both days were complete their were 191 total bass caught with 23 limits-418.11 lbs and a 2.18 overall average weight. Greg Crawford & Chris Perdue brought in the heaviest 5 bass limit on day 1 at 13.41 lbs, but were 7 minutes late and were penalized 7 lbs, resulting in costing them the win of the entire event.
John Payette from Houston & Larry Johnson from Baytown ran their Skeeter/Yamaha bass rig to various parts of the East Fork area and using Castaway Rods and Daiwa reels left Lake Houston with a limit of 5 bass to lead at 11.99 lbs. They reported catching their bass using Leverage Spinner baits & Gambler soft plastics, flippin & pitchin very shallow cover.
Lanny Diemert from Kingwood & Tommy Swonke from Houston, held down the 2nd spot on day 1 with another nice limit at 11.74 lbs also caught on the north end of the lake in Luces Bayou on spinner baits & Tx rigged worms. Lanny & Tommy ended up with the 2nd Big Bass of the event with a 4.66 lber that paid $687.90 for that 1 bite, Tommy reported catching the lunker on a tx rigged red shad? worm in 10 ft of water. Eddie Ellisor & Todd Castledine both from Coldspring brought in 5 bass at 10.54 lbs to hold down the 3rd spot on day 1. Day 2 was started as a trailering tournament from Kickapoo Bait & Tackle in Onalaska, Tx.
Day 2 weigh-in was to be exciting as over half the teams from day 1 still had a shot at winning the event. Greg Crawford & Chris Perdue brought in another limit of bass on day 2 that weighed 12.19 lbs to give them a 2 day total of 18.60 lbs and take home the case of Royal Purple TCW3 oil.
Dean Coleman & Jim Guzman brought 5 bass to the scales on day 2 to boost their 2-day total to 19.81 lbs and claim 6th place and $200.00. 5th place was claimed by Al Aaron from Crosby, Al weighed a 2 day total of 10 bass at 20.46 lbs to claim the A/Q plaques and $250.00.
Lanny Diemert & Tommy Swonke brought in 4 bass on day 2 to boost their 2-day total to 20.78 lbs and claim the 4th place A/Q plaques and $1577.85. The Anglers of the Year Team of Danny StAndrie & Chris Diberardino brought in 10 bass during the 2 days to boost their total to 21.16 lbs and claim 3rd place A/Q plaques and $867.23. George Cox Jr bought Danny & Chris in the Calcutta Auction on Friday evening for $555.00 and received an owners check for their 3rd place finish for $492.69.
John Payette & Larry Johnson run their Skeeter/Yamaha rig to mid lake creeks and pockets catch another 5 bass limit to give them a 2 day total of 10 bass at 23.06 lbs. They caught and culled all bass on Leverage spinner baits and buzz baits and collected the A/Q plaques and $1478.72. Jim Guzman bought John and Larry Friday evening at the Calcutta Auction for $65.00 and for their 2nd place finish, Jim collected $821.16.
The Big Bass of the event, a 5.48 lber was brought to the scales on day 2 by Joe New & Bobby Reed, that one bite netted them $1605.10. Joe reported catching the lunker on a jig in less than 1 ft of water.
Eddie Ellisor & Todd Castledine put together a 10 bass limit for 2 days that tipped the scales at 23.63 lbs to win this event. Eddie & Todd caught their bass on day 2 in creeks and pockets on the south end of Lake Livingston on spinner baits and soft plastics. For their win Eddie and Todd pocketed $4400.00.
Anglers Quest 2004 Schedules are now available, if you would like one, please notify us for one. The 1st event for the 2004 season will be the Saturday Series Team event on Lake Livingston, January 3, 2004 going out of Kickapoo Bait & Tackle. All Saturday Series events in 2004 will have a GUARANTEED $1000 to winner, no matter how many entries. We will also be accepting credit cards again in 2004 by phone for entry fees, call 281-852-8842.
Anglers Quest wants to Thank all the Anglers that participated in any A/Q events in 2003 and also Thanks to all the A/Q Staff & Sponsors.
Anglers Quest was Sponsored in 2003 by: All-Star Rods, Alpine Marina, Anchorage Marina, Channel Pump & Seal, Check-It Stik, Classic Awards & Trophies, DeMontrond Dodge, FishingWorld.com, KickApoo Bait & Tackle, Lake Houston Marina, Lake Livingston Area Tourism Council, Mill Creek Park, MSD Building Corporation, Quality Mop & Broom, Rayburn Country Resort, Royal Purple Oil, Union Planters Banks and Vinyl Signs by Vicky.
God Bless & Good Fishing..
Mr Bill & Barbara Long
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