Cedar Creek Crank’s Out a 27.74 Winning Stringer!

 February 28^th, 2004.  The largest Regular Season event in the History of the Skeeter Bass Champs Tournament Trail occurred on Cedar Creek Lake during the first North Region team event.  All 325 boats were greeted with morning temperatures in the upper 40’s, a lot of excitement and even more anticipation as boat numbers were called for official checkout at Log Cabin. Afternoon temperatures climbed into the lower 60’s later in the day and a strong South- East wind developed which made fishing difficult for many teams as the lake conditions were described as “very rough.”  However, when the scales closed the Father/Son Team of Lee and Mick Batson topped the field bringing in a Five Fish Limit weighing 27.74 pounds.  This catch earned the team the keys to a brand new Skeeter SX 200 boat powered by a Yamaha 200 V-MAX outboard, rigged with a Motorguide Trolling Motor, Custom Cover, and Bottom Line Electronics valued over $28,000. 

 1^st Place: Lee and Mick Batson established a solid pattern in the upper lake area while pre fishing for the event the prior weekend.  Their pattern consisted of fishing spinner baits in a shallow water cove around dead cattail stems.  Lee said “We found a good group of pre-spawn bass last weekend in 3 foot of water and felt like we finally had a good chance of doing well in a Bass Champs Tournament, and that was a big deal since we have never received a check in the three years we have been fishing with Bass Champs” stated Lee.  When they arrived to their area, they were greeted by crappie fishermen who were wading through the most productive cattails they located during practice.  While turning their boat to avoid the wading fishermen Lee put his spinner bait down and picked up a ½ ounce red lipless crankbait.  On his second cast he caught their first fish of the morning weighing just over five pounds.  “That first fish really got us pumped up, we thought that our spot was ruined due to the guys wading through the area chasing crappie and really they just forced us to fish a little deeper” exclaimed Lee during his on stage interview.  “We caught a total of 9 keepers, a few of them came on Spinnerbaits and soft plastics but we never caught a single fish in our original stretch of cattails. If it weren’t for the crappie fishermen wading in the spot we WERE going to fish, we may not have figured it out.”

 2^nd Place: The husband and wife team of Robby and Johnna Rose brought five bass weighing 21.98 pounds to the scales to earn the second place check worth $4100 dollars.  Robby and Johnna did not get the opportunity to pre fish for the event so they relied on an area near the dam where Robby had located several brush piles last season.  These brush piles were located on a flat that dropped from 6 to 20 foot and also consisted of scattered rock piles.  While keeping their boat in about 14 foot of water all day they used carolina rigs to catch Eight keeper bass during the tournament.  Kudzu trick worms with a 24 inch leader were cast up on the flat and worked slowly back to the brush which was positioned in 10 foot of water on the sides of the drop.  

Almost lost it!  Robby and Johnna almost didn’t make it back in to weigh-in due to a drained cranking battery. Robby explained, ”With a 4:10 check in and it being 3:15 I decided to head back. I thought we had around 20 lbs and a very good shot at winning this thing. After we buckled up I turned the key and nothing happened.  I noticed I forgot to switch the livewell timers to auto and they ran all day in manual mode. Also, we were fighting the wind all day & I hadn’t tried to crank the big motor for 5 hours or so. First, I tried to jump off from the trolling motor batteries, but there wasn’t enough juice to turn it over. It wasn’t looking good.” Robby continued, “There were 2 boats leaving from about 100 yards away, they ran by us within 60 yard while we were waving and kept going. It was 3:25 at this point, and I was getting real nervous.  I called the emergency phone # that is always on our Bass Champs flight cards and Mrs. Potts answered. She tracked down Jeff Welch. I explained to Jeff were we were and he asked Tim Wilcoxson if he would go out to help us. At 3:50 Tim finds us and comes over. Tim gave us a jump, and then mentioned something about a commission basis, (smiles). We finally made it in with hardly any time remaining. I want to thank Bass Champs and Tim Wilcoxson for their help”

3^rd Place: The 2003 North Region Angler’s of the Year team of Charles Regan and Steve Smith proved again that they can put together a game plan even when faced with changing conditions.  “We thought we had located a great spot during the practice period, that great spot didn’t even give up a single keeper today,” stated Steve.  After spending about a third of their day on a area that did not produce a bite they decided to “just go fishing” and ended their day up with a limit totaling 18.12 pounds.  While working boat docks in the Mid Lake area Steve picked up a Carolina Rig and started fishing the docks behind his partner Charles.  Quickly a pattern developed, “We found that if the dock did NOT have brush we had a much better chance of catching a keeper.  After catching our second fish we noticed that they were coming from docks with absolutely no cover.  Our theory was that with the lake levels being low every one was working the docks with brush, we skipped those and went to the ones that looked like there was no brush,” smiled Steve.  That adjustment earned the team a check for $3100 dollars and valuable points towards another title.

4^th Place: The team of Raymond Stone and Shawn Stephens captured fourth place with a five fish limit weighing 17.77 pounds and received a check for $2100 dollars.  This team utilized a Carolina rigging pattern they had established the weekend before while practicing for the event.  They targeted a group of docks where they threw black and blue plastic baits Carolina rigged between the docks.  “We discovered that we could not get bit on the docks, but when we fished between the docks and away from the dock supports and typical dock cover we would get bit.  I think that was the key part the enabled us to finish well, there was so much pressure on the docks that the fished moved to the nearest underwater object,” Raymond claimed during a post tournament interview.  The team caught a total of 8 keepers throughout the day and lost one “giant” fish that could have potentially moved them closer to the top of the standings.

Skeeter Incentive Program Winners: The team of Michael Cannaday and Michael Barnhart finished in 7^th place collecting a tournament check for $1500 dollars, however since they were fishing out of a new Skeeter ZX 250 they also collected the DOUBLE your Money bonus for an additional $1500 from Skeeter Boats.

Big Bass of the Event: Ronnie Allen caught the Big Fish of the event, a great fish weighing in at 8.73 pounds, while fishing with his team partner Gib Coats.  “I bet I threw my spinner bait to that brush pile at least 4 times before she bit” stated Ronnie.  The team finished the event in14^th place overall and collected an extra $1000 dollars for that one bite.  Ronnie could have collected an additional $500 dollars had he weighed in the fish while wearing Diamond Cut Jeans. When Ronnie found out that he could have collected an additional $500 for the Diamond Cut Bonus, he stated, “I’ll have them on at the next tournament, you can count on that.”

Notable: The Skeeter Bass Champs Television host, John McCalmont, fished this event while on break from filming.  John and his partner for the event, Ron Brennan finished in 95^th place with a total weight of 5.01 pounds.  “We just couldn’t figure them out today, however around lunch time I hooked a monster fish on a Yo-Zuri crank bait.  I really wanted to land that fish because I was wearing my Diamond Cut Jeans as well” John said with a smile.  If John had landed the big bass of the event on a Yo-Zuri Lure while wearing Diamond Cut Jeans his team would have won an additional $1000 dollars in incentive money from these two sponsors.

 Overall the 325 teams competing in this event brought 442 fish to the scales that had an average weight of 2.73 pounds. Although the high winds definitely accounted for the lake fishing smaller than normal, the teams who adjusted to the conditions in the calmer areas yielded great catches.  The next event on the North Region Skeeter Bass Champs Tournament Trail will be on Lake Tawakoni March 27^th.  The event will be hosted out of the New State Park and registration will be Friday evening from 6:00-8:00pm and again Saturday morning starting at 5:00am.  Make sure to look over all the great sponsor incentive programs as over $2000 dollars, (AGAIN) went unclaimed during this event. See You at the Lake Soon!