Gary Price (Goshen) and Brian Mitchell (Goshen)

Gary Price (Goshen) and Brian Mitchell (Goshen) sacked 19.66 pounds of smallmouth to win $2,000 and the Megaward KeeGuard R&B Circuit Classic on Houghton Lake, Mich.

The R&B Classic paid out $10,000 to qualifying contestants and more than $37,000 was paid back throughout the season.

The winning Goshen team caught all of their fish on Strike King 1.5 squarebills while fishing shell beds in five feet of water. Their limit included the Native Pride Tackle big bass of the event ($250) with a 4.70 pounder.

A mixed bag of largemouth and smallmouth bass weighing 17.03 pounds got Trevor Paulus (Edwardsburg) and Dave Selig (Warsaw) second place ($1,500). They also were the highest finishing team with a Megaware KeelGuard which fetched them another $500.

Their smallmouth were tricked with green pumpkin tubes on shell beds between 3-5 feet of water while the largemouth were caught with homemade jigs on a shallow rock pile with scattered weeds.

It took just an hour for Andrew Quillen (Fort Wayne) and Heath Wagner (Angola) to boat a limit of 16.59-pound smallmouth, but it was an important improvisation that got them on track and the third-place check ($1,000).

"We lost our first four fish on tubes with a 3/8-ounce weight on a spinning rod," Wagner said. "The fish would bite and run at the boat, and we couldnít keep up. So, we put 1/2-ounce weights on a baitcast rod with a faster retrieve and were able to make better penetration on hooksets."

They rotated through two spots and landed 17 keepers. Both spots were home to shell beds and were between 3-4 feet deep with sparse weeds.