Tackle Shack Report
Troy Shuman and Rich Kersten - 1st Place
Troy Shuman and Rich Kersten upgraded throughout the day to sack up 19.46 pounds and win the Tackle Shack circuit event at Hamilton Lake.
The winners took home $2,500 for fish they caught on jigs, creature baits and topwaters that they fished inside and outside the weedline.
John Gipson and Ken Holder - 2nd Place
John Gipson and Ken Holder finished second ($1,700) with 18.42 pounds.“We kind of patched things together and caught bass until about 1 p.m.” said Gipson. “The ones we kept were caught roughly one per hour each between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. We caught them between 5 and 30 feet on poppers, swimbaits, and jigs. Most were suspended around schools of bait.”
ablo Gonzalez and Robert Miller - 3rd Place
Pablo Gonzalez and Robert Miller nabbed third place ($1,000) with 17.94 pounds caught on a weedline that had a mix of milfoil and coontail vegetation in three different areas in 4 to 10 feet.
“We caught our fish on a mix of creature baits and worms,” the team said. “We caught fish through most of the day; however we had to work ultra-slow with our presentations. It was a grind but we knew we would have company wherever we fished so we just kept at it.”
Derek Molnar - 4th Place
Derek Molnar fished alone and caught 17.51 pounds for fourth place ($600).
“I used LiveScope to target them around and underneath schools of bluegills,” he said. “Drop shot was the key presentation in 8 to 11 feet of water. I caught most of the weight for the day during the first two hours.”
Kerry Frey - Big Bass
Kerry Frey pocketed the Nunemaker Painting $500 big bass award with a 5.49-pound largemouth.
“That was my first fish of the day about 10 minutes into the tournament,” Frey explained. “I caught it on a drop-shot rig in weeds in and around 8 feet of water on a Zoom Swamp Crawler.”
Tournament Director Brendon Sutter said 187 fish were weighed in that weighed 544 pounds and all but one fish was released back into the main lake and not in the beach area.
“We preach fish care to our members and they did a good job of making sure the fish were in good shape and healthy when we released them,” he said.