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The HawgRus.com blog. Featuring Bass Fishing news and outdoor reports. Sponsored by the Bass Hog Jonathan Marlow. Please subscribe using the RSS feed on the blog. Thank you.
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February 12, 2012 05:47:20
Posted By Hawgsrus
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Wilcox wins co-angler title, $20,000
CLEWISTON, Fla. (Feb. 12, 2012) – EverStart pro Randall Tharp of Gardendale, Ala., had endured three days of tough weather and wind and managed to lead the first three days of competition at the Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Okeechobee presented by Evinrude. All he needed was one more solid day’s weight to claim his first FLW Tour title.
Tharp caught a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 2 ounces Sunday to win $125,000 with a four-day catch of 20 bass weighing 101-12. The catch gave him the win by a massive 23-pound, 9-ounce margin over John Cox of Debary, Fla., who caught a total of 20 bass weighing 78-3 and earned $35,000. Tharp’s margin of victory broke the FLW Tour record set by National Guard pro Brett Hite (20-4, Lake Toho, 2008).
“When I caught the first big one today and it put me at 19 (pounds) and I caught the second big one I didn’t say anything, but when I caught the third one I knew it was over,” Tharp added.
“It was not what you want in south Florida,” Tharp said. “We had a wind chill of 27 degrees this morning. The winds were sustained 20 (miles per hour) with gusts to 40. The style I was fishing is what you need to do under those conditions.”
And Tharp’s style of fishing just happened to be what he loves to do – use a big rod, heavy line and big weights to flip grass. Tharp fished the north end of the lake and threw a black with blue flake Bitters Baits B.F.M. paired with a 1 ½-ounce pegged sinker. Tharp said he boated eight keepers during the course of the day.
Overall there were 27 bass weighing 77 pounds, 12 ounces caught by pros Sunday. The catch included four five-bass limits.
Aymon Wilcox of Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., won the co-angler division and $20,000 Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 44 pounds, 4 ounces followed by Spiro Agouros of Peterborough, Ontario, in second place with 13 bass weighing 38-0 worth $7,625.
In FLW Tour Open tournaments, pros and co-anglers are competing for valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup presented by Walmart, the world championship of bass fishing.
The Tour stop on Lake Okeechobee presented by Evinrude was hosted by Roland & Mary Ann Martins Marina & Resort, and was the first of 10 Walmart FLW Tour tournaments of the 2011 season. The Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Hartwell presented by Folgers will be the next tournament and will be held March 8-11 in Greenville/Anderson, S.C. The event will be hosted by the Greenville Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Anderson Convention & Visitors Bureau and boats will launch from Portman Shoals Marina in Anderson, S.C. For a complete schedule, visit FLWOutdoors.com.
Coverage of the Lake Okeechobee tournament will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network when “FLW” airs March 18 from 1 to 2 p.m. ET. "FLW" is hosted by Jason Harper and is broadcast to more than 559 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com.
Courtesy of FLWOutdoors.com.
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February 5, 2012 06:56:16
Posted By Hawgsrus
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DEL RIO, Texas (Feb. 4, 2012) – Lamar University’s Danny Iles, Hemphill, Texas, and Justin Royal, Vidor, Texas won the National Guard FLW College Fishing South Conference event on Lake Amistad Saturday with five bass weighing 21 pounds, 11 ounces. The victory earned the team $5,000. The win also helped them advance to the South Conference Regional Championship.
“You couldn’t have asked for better weather conditions,” said Iles, a senior mechanical engineering major. “It was overcast with a wind that really helped us with our bite, we wouldn’t have been able to catch anything without the wind we had today. It was perfect for rattle baits. We caught all our fish with a Red Eye Shad in about 2 to 8 feet of water. We fished the same grassy area all day long and were catching one fish about every 15 minutes, we must have had at least 25 keepers today.
Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the South Regional Championship are:
2nd: Texas State University – Jared Brown, San Marcos, Texas, and David Cosner, Austin, Texas (five bass, 19-1, $1,500)
3rd: University of Louisiana-Monroe – Paul Clark and Brett Preuett, both of Monroe, La. (five bass, 18-14, $1,000)
4th: Tarleton State-Stephenville – Cody Metz and Shelby Floyd both of Stephenville, Texas (five bass, 15-12, $1,000)
5th: Texas A&M-Kingsville – Cody Burell, Uvalde, Texas, and Will Watson, Kingsville, Texas (five bass, 14-11, $1,000)
The top five teams from each tournament qualify for the regional championship where the first-place team will win a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club. The top five teams from each regional tournament advance to the national championship.
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February 5, 2012 06:56:16
Posted By Hawgsrus
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Gray wins co-angler title
DEL RIO, Texas (Feb. 4, 2012) – JJ Ducharme of Brackettville, Texas, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 23 pounds Saturday to win the EverStart Series Texas Division on Lake Amistad with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 63 pounds. For his victory, Ducharme earned $35,000.
“All week the afternoon bite has been the most productive,” Ducharme went on to say. “On the first day I caught my 10-pounder 10 minutes before we had to check in and we left them biting. On day two between my co-angler and I we caught 45 pounds in three hours there, it was incredible. And today my big fish didn’t come until after 2. Staying in the game mentally was really my biggest challenge all week, especially with the bite not turning on until after noon.”
Ducharme indicated that he was fishing with Strike King Series 5 and 6 crankbaits mostly in the color bluegill.
Philip Crelia caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – an 8-pound, 11-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $300.
Travis Gray of Princeton, La., won the Co-angler Division and a Ranger 177TR with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 47 pound, 10 ounces.
Jerry Propst caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Thursday – a 7-pound, 14-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $200.
The next EverStart Series Texas Division tournament will be April 12-14 at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Jasper, Texas, and is hosted by the Jasper-Lake Sam Rayburn Chamber of Commerce.
Courtesy of BASS Communications.
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January 22, 2012 06:35:10
Posted By Hawgsrus
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OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (Jan. 21, 2012) – The Indian River State College (IRSC) team of Mike Cornell and Kyle Monti, both of Okeechobee, Fla., won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Southeast Division event on Lake Okeechobee Saturday with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 7 ounces. The victory earned the team $5,000. The win also helped them advance to the Southeast Division Regional Championship.
“We did a lot of running and gunning and didn’t put the flipping stick down,” said Kyle Monti, a marketing major. “It was slow and tough, we lost one 4- 4 ½-pounder, but that is to be expected. A lot of teams lost fish today, that’s just the way Okeechobee fishes. It can be really hard to land fish once they bite.
“We fished all the way from the north shore to King’s Bar, we covered a lot of water targeting pencil grass and bulrush. We were flipping jigs with Gambler baits, mostly the BB Cricket and Ugly Otter in about 2 to 4 feet of water.”
Under sunny skies with highs in the mid 70’s the team from IRSC won by nearly three pounds over their closest competitor.
“Truthfully I was a little surprised by the low weights,” Cornell went on to say. ”It got brutally cold here a couple of weeks ago but with the weather warming up I thought the bite would be better than it was. Okeechobee is a lake that Kyle and I fish every day, we are comfortable with our style and probably couldn’t do this same thing anywhere else. It can take a while to figure the lake out and I think being from here really made a difference for us today.”
College Fishing is free to enter and FLW provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. All participants must be registered, full-time undergraduate students at a four-year college or university and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.
The next National Guard FLW College Southeast Division tournament is scheduled for March 24 at Lake Seminole in Bainbridge, Ga., and is hosted by Bainbridge Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Courtesy of FLW Outdoors.
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January 20, 2012 08:38:29
Posted By Hawgsrus
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — B.A.S.S., upon the recommendation of its Bassmaster Elite Series Rules Committee, has amended its tournament rules to limit anglers competing in the Bassmaster Classic and Bassmaster Elite Series to the use of a single lure during practice and competition.
The rule change, which does not apply to Bassmaster Open, B.A.S.S. Federation Nation, College B.A.S.S. and other events, clarifies the intent of long-standing rules permitting only one rod, one reel and one cast at a time. No longer permitted are double soft jerkbait rigs, drop shot rigs with jigs used as weights, double topwater setups and other multi-lure rigs, such as “umbrella rigs.”
The change becomes effective Feb. 1 and includes the upcoming Bassmaster Classic at Shreveport-Bossier City, La., Feb. 24-26.
Elite Series Rules Committee members, comprised of 2012 Bassmaster Elite Series qualifiers, seemed most concerned about new multi-lure rigs such as The Alabama Rig, which Bassmaster Elite Series pro Paul Elias used to win an event on Lake Guntersville in October. In the weeks since, tens of thousands of the multi-lure devices have been sold, and they have proved extremely effective in both recreational and competitive fishing.
Rules Committee members believe the rig eliminates some of the skill that should be required in tournament competition at the highest level. “It doesn’t matter how you work it,” said one of the anglers. “The fish can’t help themselves.”
“However, the Elite Series Rules Committee members unanimously asked to be held to a higher standard,” he added. “We have decided to honor their recommendation.”
A Rules Committee member added, “I don’t have a problem with the use of umbrella rigs or multi-lure rigs to catch bass. If you are out fun fishing, there may be nothing more fun to use. However, our events represent the highest level of professionalism in our sport and I think as participants of these events, we should be held to a higher standard, as well. I like the idea of one rod, one reel, one lure.”
Courtesy of BASS Communications.
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