Tournament Results

Guntersville

April 16 -17, 2005

Joe Yurina - Mike Haddad Tournament Champs

More Tournament Scenes

Guntersville Two Day Story

The Duluth Bass Club held its spring two-day tourney on Lake Guntersville this past weekend. It was the club’s fifth trip to this very popular 90,000-acre impoundment, and again 36 teams found the drive worth it.  The bass are big, plentiful, and for the most part easy to find in the Big G’s vast variety of cover. Every team weighed keeper fish meeting the 15” minimum limit, and all reported catching quantities of fish. No one was disappointed, and most everyone commented on how the smallest of these river fish pull like a freight train. There were several reports of keeper smallies bagged during the pre-fish, however none weighed in the “T”

Day-one leaders were Gene Hacker – James Eason with a 16.58 bag, Juan Galindo grabbed a short lived 2^nd with 15.75, Bill & Bill Sr. Booth held 3^rd with a 15.70; and Michael – Brandon Thomas secured 4^th with a 15.65 limit. David Mac – Bo Waldrip held 5^th with a 15.50 sack.  Spinner-baits, C-Rig with the Green Pumpkin lizard, blue/chrome traps, Yum GP tubes, Ole Monster worms, etc. were the shared patterns of the day and all fish were caught in the 1-3 ft depths. Could the top teams hold on was the big question. 

Tournament Big Bass caught by Tommy Lindsay one of our Ohio guests fishing with us, caught on Sat working a Yum Dinger in watermelon Red real shallow and weighed a healthy 7.48 lb. Great fish Tommy; what a “Hoss”. Sunday’s Big Bass was caught by Tommy Akers on a white SB and weighed 6.50 lb. 

Day-two,.  The leader board changed after Sun weigh-in as some held their own, others faltered, and others made serious moves.  Rising from 6^th place after day one; tournament honors went to Joe Yurina and Mike Haddad with and impressive two-day total of 33.15 lbs.  Joe - Mike who have kinda wavered all spring finally started making their move.  Mike - Joe brought in a huge stringer on Sun weighing a respectable 19.40 anchored by a 6.03 LM to go along with their measly 13+ on Sat to take the tournament win. “Ribbon-tail worms, traps, spinner-baits, and tubes fished in 4-5’ depths over milfoil grass were our only patterns” noted Joe. Since it appeared Joe-Mike were struggling after day-1, several competitors dogged them with comments like “you have a lot of catching up to do” and during the Sun morning boat inspection “if you have more than 2 poles out on the deck you are not on a pattern”.  Joe – Mike jumped from 8^th to 3^rd in the season’s point’s race with their win. Congrats guys on a solid 2-day tournament catch on Lake Guntersville, a well-deserved win!

Second place and slipping from the Saturday leader board, was Gene Hacker - James Eason with two impressive limits that totaled 31.79. James’s - Gene’s pattern was slow-rolling 3/8 oz & 1-1/8 oz. white spinner-baits for the entire weekend over the shallow grass patches near the T-headquarters, weigh-in site. On day one; they impressed everyone with their 16+ catch however quantities abandoned them and with only a 4 bass sack on Sunday weighing 15.21 lb. left them a mere 1.36 lbs short of the win.  Bridesmaid’s 4 years out of 5 during the “big show” at the Big G. Gene – James made their move and hold 2^nd in the club standings.

Third place went Bill – Bill Sr. Booth with 31.56, a scant 3 oz behind Gene – James. Bill and his father held 3^rd after day-1 with a 15.70 catch and were one of the few teams who improved a tad on Sunday to maintain their place.   Bill noted they caught their fish on “watermelon worms and a Yum Wooly Hog Tail” whatever that is…. These guys have been tough competitors all spring and made their move into the classic field with two tournaments remaining in the spring season.

Forth place was Tommy Akers – Zach Owens with a 29.75 Two-day total. Tommy – Zach held 11^th place after day-1 with a 9+ sack and their Sun big stringer which was the “T” big stringer weighed 20.04 and was anchored with Sunday BB weighing 6.50 lbs. Their day-two catch propelled them to 4^th place in “T”. White spinner-baits, C-Rig 5” GP lizards worked in the 2-5 ft depths accounted for their entire catch over the 2-days.

Fifth place; the team of Jerry Adams – Steve Nalder with a  2-day total of 28.47.  These guys had a tough time as they were on fish up near Waterfront and brought in a respectable 12 lbs on Sat., however unfortunately tore out their lower unit and were relegated to fishing the flats in front of the launch site on Sun, but they made the most of it and scarffed up a few quality stragglers which weighed 17.08 and secured their place.  Steve noted “All our fish were caught on C-Rig GP Trick Worms worked over the shallow grass.

Sixth place, was Bo Waldrip – David McAdams, who finished with 26.96. They made a move, however from 5^th place on Saturday, to Sixth after Sun.   Spinner-baits on Sat, and C-Rig GP Ole Monster worms on Sunday after their fish appeared to have abandoned them. These guys had two 20+ stringers during pre-fish, however must have stuck them all and left nothing for the tournament or their camera played tricks on them.

Special thanks to Troy who has probably met about everyone in the club by now and as always, gladly shares his wealth of knowledge of Guntersville with our club members. More thanks to the surrounding communities; we continue to meet super excellent hospitable folks, and again enjoyed great southern cooking.  We really want to thank the local communities for recognizing the bass anglers and their impact to the economy by providing excellent tournament motel accommodations. We can’t wait and we will be back. It was a great tournament and loads of funs for our 36 boat club, thanks to everyone for helping things run smoothly. 

Weather Conditions:  The weather was superb the entire weekend, and water temps ranging 62 to 68 degrees in the main lake. Wind was never a factor.

Looking Ahead: Next month DBC heads to Russell on Sunday May 15 for tourney #5 in the spring circuit. 

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Complete Tournament Results