Cold & rainy conditions didn’t deter ArmyBassAngler Pros Cody Roberson/Don Bailey &Brent Homan/Chuck Guthrie from making the opening Bass Champs South Division tournament on Lake Amistad, regardless of two days of almost solid rain.
The water temperatures would hold steady at 50.9 degrees during the course of the tournament despite the overcast burning off around 1200 hrs leading the way for blue bird skies and warmer temps.
Both teams would launch there custom wrapped Returning Heroes Home Skeeters from Diablo East just after first light. The ArmyBassAnglers Team of Cody Roberson & Don Bailey would draw boat #61 blasting off to their first point. “I was a just a bit excited,” claimed Roberson. “This time last year I was in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division, man does it feel good to be back on the water.”
It wasn’t long before they were on fish. Utilizing his Oakley Straight Jacket’s superior polarized technology Roberson picked up early on a sexy shad pattern in about 12 to 14 ft. of water on the inside edge of main lake points leading into coves. “I hooked up with the first fish and thanks a bonehead mistake on my part we weren’t ready with the net. We lost the first keeper of the day right at the boat while tryin to get the net out. We should have had it at the ready…PCC/PCIs!”
Both Bailey & Roberson were utilizing Castaway’s newest HG40 Skeleton Rods with digital ACU (Army Combat Uniform) camouflaged rods matched with Ardent XS1000 reels & Lake Fork Trophy Lure’s 14lb Parallelium Fluorohybrid line.
After a frustrated start we settled down and began putting fish in the live well. But by 1400 hrs the bite was really slow. “We headed for the bridge looking for some rip-rap in about 12 to 15 ft. of water. “We managed to locate some fish, but they were all short, we were running out of time,” stated Don Bailey. Then Roberson hooked up again with another solid keeper, but it just wasn’t meant to be. The fish managed to sling the bait just a few feet from the boat.
“That was another heart breaker, I guess I need to hit the gym,” smiled Roberson. “I lost two too weak hook sets and one to a lack of planning, but I always try to keep things in perspective. These are things we can fix,” stated Roberson.
Roberson & Bailey finished the day with just under 9lbs with 3 fish. “It would have been a lot closer if Cody had landed those two fish, they were nice, but more importantly as a team we made the stage and both teams were able to share the Mission of ArmyBassAnglers with the crowd,” said Don Bailey.
Guthrie & Homan would launch as boat #195 and would work to put together a limit. Guthrie & Homan would come to the scales with 4 fish just under 11 lbs and pick up 100 pts to open the season.
“Most of our fish came in 35 Ft. of water with grass using JaRod Jigs and LFT Spoons. Everyone we talked to was catching fish in a wide range of depths from 2Ft to 63 Ft—go figure,” stated Chuck Guthrie as Brent Homan weighed in the fish on stage with Bass Champs President Chad Potts.
“It may have not been a great day of fishing for us, but it sure was nice to see everyone come back after the New Year. With the economy we just didn’t know what the turnout was going to look like,” stated Roberson.
There were 201 teams. $52,260 was taken in and $55,750 was paid out, for a 107% payout. There were a total of 638 fish brought to the scales totaling 1826 lbs. Average fish weighed 2.86 lbs. There were 103 limits and 50 zeros.
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-HOOAH!
