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By Louie Stout

Ron Fabiszak and Jason Fowler of South BendRon Fabiszak and Jason Fowler of South Bend

There’s a perception among many folks that anglers who catch a lot of fish or the occasional big fish are just plain lucky.

We won’t argue that it helps to be lucky, but the truth is that good anglers put themselves in position to be lucky.

That’s what Ron Fabiszak and Jason Fowler of South Bend did a couple of weeks ago to win a $53,000 fully rigged Ranger bass boat and $1,600 cash.

It’s worth noting that they weren’t the only Michiana team to do well. Dave Hoffman of Mishawaka and Mike Minix of Edwardsburg finished third and won $10,000.

Both teams were competing in the U.S.A. Bassin’ Ranger Classic on Lake Chickamauga, Tenn. They earned berths in the championship by doing well in Michiana tournaments and in a regional championship.

There were more than 150 teams qualified for the championship, and this exemplifies once again that Michiana is a hot bed for some of the best bass anglers in the country.

Neither Fabiszak nor Fowler had much experience on the lake but they did know that top finishers in a major tournament held there a month prior produced the best fishing around matted vegetation.

They began hitting as many matted areas as they could find during the practice period, fishing soft plastic frog imitators over the top of vegetation.

“Earlier in the week, we came upon one where my partner had a good fish blow up on his frog but missed it,” Fabiszak said. “We had no idea what was there until we got into the competition.”

They fished other areas and caught fish until 11 a.m. of the first day of competition then decided to check out the area where Jason had the good blow-up in practice. It was a relatively small mat, “about the size of a camper,” said Fabiszak.

“We had four fish hit our baits and miss, but when we got to the end of the mat, I caught one that weighed 7.38 pounds,” he said. “We figured there were fish there, but they just weren’t committing.”

The team scrambled around the lake fishing other places and wound up with a 16-pound bag the first day. They pondered their options the second day and decided to start on that small mat that produced the big fish.

It was a good move. The bass were still there and biting better; the team caught another 15-pound limit to win the tournament by more than five pounds.

“Although it wasn’t a big area, it seemed to be replenishing,” Fabiszak said. “We caught 75 percent of our keepers from that small section of grass.”

That section, he noted was connected to a larger section that ran farther down the lake and that larger section was getting hit hard by other anglers. For some reason, the fish stacked up in that one little area and they had it to themselves.

Another key to their success, Fabiszak said, were adjustments they made to the frog.

“The fish were just coming up and bumping the bait or swirling on it the first day,” he recalled. “So, we added a little weight to back end of the frog to make it sit a little deeper in the water. That allowed the fish to get the bait better.”

The frog was a black, “13 Fishing Trash Panda” that he bought before the tournament.

It was a frog he’d never heard of.

“My friend Ron Nelson (Berrien Springs) is sponsored by them and I found several used ones on the bottom of his boat, which told me he must use them a lot, so I figured I’d buy some,” he said. “I don’t know if it was that particular frog or the way we were working it, but it seemed to make a difference.”

Ron Fabiszak with big bassRon Fabiszak with big bass

The big bass he caught the first day was the second biggest of the tournament and earned the team $600. The duo received another $1,000 for being the highest finishing team with Garmin Electronics.

Fabiszak said they will likely sell the Ranger Z19 boat powered by a 225 HP Mercury Outboard. It is rigged with Lowrance Electronics, a Minn Kota trolling motor and Ranger Trail Trailer.

“It was a fun week made possible by that one little area of shallow grass that held a lot of fish,” Fabiszak said.