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The Polar Bear Circuit held its second event of the year last Saturday at Six Span in Elkhart, and the cold wintery weather didn’t stop Floyd Wolkins and Zach McNary from taking home first place with 9.28 pounds of bass.
The extreme cold, strong winds and slick icy roads caused the directors of the circuit to postpone the event from Saturday the 10th, to Sunday the 11th.
With water temperatures settling in at the high 30’s last week, the patterns in which participants reported to catch fish seemed to narrow. Blade baits, A-rigs and Ned rigs appeared to be about the only method to catch a bass. This was also the technique used to land the big “critter” of the day during the tournament.
Not only did Floyd and Zach win first place in the tournament, they also took home the critter pot with a 7.52 pound pike. The second place team of Teddy Bradley and Mark Fennell weighed in bass totaling 9.10 pounds.
The next Polar Bear open will be held at Lake Maxinkuckee on November 17th starting at 7:30 a.m. For more details, see the Lake Drive Marine Events Calendar adjacent to this page.- Details
BASS Report
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - B.A.S.S. announced that it will be adding a Junior Bassmaster Division to its annual slate of events in the Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series.
High school tournaments are scheduled for Lake Hartwell in Anderson, S.C., on March 2; Lake Guntersville in Guntersville, Ala., on March 30; Norfolk Lake in Mountain Home, Ark., on April 28; and Lake Shasta in Redding, Calif., on May 11. A field of up to 50 junior division teams will compete in each event with accompanying coaches or team captains.
"This is another aggressive step toward giving more young people a chance to fish competitively," said Hank Weldon, B.A.S.S. senior manager for college and high school. "More parents are realizing that children who fish often avoid a lot of the more harmful aspects of our culture - and by creating a division for second- to eighth-graders, we're helping parents start them out even earlier."
Another new feature for the high school circuit will be maximum field size of 250 boats.
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Casting Couples Report
Big limits and a 6-pound smallmouth highlighted the Casting Couples open on the St. Joseph River at Benton Harbor recently.
It took more than 11 pounds to get into the top three. And keep in mind, the tournament was a four-fish limit.
Neil Vandebizan and Jason Ammerman won the event with 15.39 pounds caught on A-rigs in the middle of the river.
Rick Kedik and and Jake Lisenko were second with 14.89 pounds caught on Native Pride blade baits around eddies while Zach McNary and Hunter Lenardson were third with 12.87 pounds caught on jigs on seawalls.
Jim Hobbs was fourth with three fish weighing 11.69 pounds but also had big bass of the tournament, a 6.06-pound smallmouth caught on a Smallie Beaver. Kedik had the second biggest bass with a 4.42 pounder.