The 8am to 9am bonus T-shirt hour created a little excitement when Chip Holt, of Nacogdoches TX, weighed-in his 7.66 lb big bass. Chip was working a Wobble Pop top-water bait when he hooked his bass from a 2ft stickup area. He hoped his big bass weight would hold for the bonus payout of $5,000.

Kevin Murphy, of Kuntz TX, brought in his 9.02 big bass that hit a purple/bronze Yozuri Trap on an 8:15am big bite while fishing an 8ft moss-bed. Kevin, who managed to catch his biggest bass ever, was fishing the Veach Basin area. He luckily had the official T-shirt that would net him a nice bonus of $2,500, putting his net worth for the bass at $5,000. Unfortunately for Chip Holt, who had the 7.66 big bass, Kevin would knock him out of the "bonus T-shirt" money.

James Hiser, of Tool TX, was fishing a fluke in the Black Forest area when his 8.24 big bass hit the green/pumpkin soft plastic over a grass-point at 7:am.

Larry McNeese weighed-in his 10.90 big bass during the 10-11am hour to take the overall lead for the tournament. McNeese, of College Station TX, hooked his bass while dragging a TX rigged 10" black Power Worm from a 6" to 8" buck-brush and willows in the Indian Creek area. " This was my biggest bass ever Larry stated to reporters.

Rod Morrison of Palestine TX, managed to put his 8.24 lb big bass on the 10- to 11am hour. Rod caught his bass while working a black/blue jig with a gene larew craw from a bank shallow area within Harvey creek on a 9am big bite.

Gary Vanya of Kirbyville TX- put a 9.76 big bass on the scale on the 1- to- 2pm hour to grab a notch on the top-5 leaders- Vanya fished a C-rigged fluke in the mid-lake area along a14ft grass-point to catch his big bite at 1pm-

BUT the excitement of the day came in with Sam Rayburn angler, John Cure, who set his hook on a 1pm bite that began pulling his 21 ft Champion Bass boat around. John immediately noted to his partner, Melvin Hensley, of Beaumont, "I don’t think this is a bass.... GET THE NET!!! Then after a 10 to 15 minute "toe-to-toe" battle, John was finally able to pull his fish alongside the boat. "WOW" was all they could say after viewing an almost 4ft long Opelousas catfish. John hooked the big fish on a DD-14 crank bait while fishing an 8-to-12ft hydrilla patch in the Buck Bay area. The catfish was estimated to weigh 70 lbs by tournament director Bob Sealy as they displayed the huge fish to the applauding crowd. And being that John caught his big catfish on 10 lb test line he’s getting the monster checked out for possibly being a line class World Record. He also plans on releasing the huge catfish back into the lake after he gets it weighed on certified scales.

The children who fished the kids event were steadily catching crappie, bass, perch, and catfish as they displayed their trophy fish on the stage for the pleasure of the crowd..

But one 11 yr old boy who was fishing the adult division with his dad, Dennis, managed to land a 5.66 lb big bass that he caught in the black forest area on a brush-hog. Owen Hensin, of Lufkin TX, proudly paraded his catch to the crowds applause.

The day finished out with more rain as the crowd stubbornly stuck it out under umbrellas and raincoats. Some, who didn’t have anything to keep the rain off, settled in for a long final hour as they chose to view the final weigh-ins of the day.

Day three was just around the corner, and the final day of competition would settle all accounts for those who won their portions of the MILLION dollar booty. The final day was predicted to be rainless, sunny, and cool with temps reaching into the mid-70s.

A surprise visit by ELITE BassMaster pros, Gerald Swindle and Chris Ashley, entertained and amused the crowd as they provided humor and insight on the how-tos on professional bass fishing.

Although the weigh-in scales danced around the exact weights all day long, no would claim the exact weights of 3.0 - 4.0- 0r 5.0- so these unclaimed Triton bass boats would become final day "luck-o-the-draw" boats to the anglers who fished this event.

For more information on this, and other Bob Sealy events contact 1-888-698-2591 or write to -- Sealy Outdoors -- PO Drawer 5431 -- Sam Rayburn TX, 75951-

[Click to enlarge image] Gerald Swindle and Chris Ashley ham it up with Bob Sealy Photo by Ed Snyder

[Click to enlarge image] A monster of a catfish is displayed to the crowd by Bob Sealy and John Cure Photo by Ed Snyder