Sutters Win Fall Brawl in Nasty Weather on St. Joe; Nearly $1,500 Raised for Kids

Tackle Shack Report

Brendon and Ryan Sutter weathered a horrible weather day on the St. Joseph River at 6 Span to win the annual Tackle Shack Fall Brawl.

The tournament was a benefit for Toys for Tots. Sutter said that, between monetary donations from Medix Specialty Vehicles in Elkhart and Grand Design in Middlebury, plus the raffles and 50/50 drawing, the event raised a $1,468 cash donation.

The Sutters won with four fish weighing 12.75 pounds - all largemouth.

“We started the day off with the goal of catching largemouth,” said Brendon. “We went to check some spots early, and sure enough, started pretty strong. Ryan caught our first largemouth early on a chatterbait. I caught #2 (the biggest bass of the day 3.79) shortly thereafter, also on a chatterbait.”

The team then moved around for quite some time and caught a few slot fish and, around noon, picked up another solid largemouth on NED rig.

“We knew we were sitting good but needed to at the least grab another “over” fish to be in the top,” he added. “We moved around a lot, and covered some miles even in the yucky weather. Our focus was mainly downstream, and hitting all the main current shorelines. We made a run upstream, with no success. We made a final run almost to the dam and picked up #4 largemouth on a chatterbait with an hour to go. We dropped everything to focus in on catching an “under” but without success. That 12” fish seems to always get us.”

Even so, they won $700 for first and $200 for big bass.

Bryan Willis and Brandon Willis - 2nd Place

had 10.91 pounds for second ($500).

“We caught most of our fish right away within 15 minutes and culled with the kicker fish later in the day,” the team said. We did most of our damage upstream with Ned rigs, umbrella rig, a big swimbait, and jerkbaits.”

Lee Duracz and Terry Burgess - 3rd Place

Lee Duracz and Terry Burgess fished A rigs and Ned rigs to catch 9.71 pounds for third ($300).

“Our limit that went to the scales was caught before 10 a.m.,” said Duracz. “We caught fish the rest of the day, but no culls.”

Kevin Fletcher and Ron Fabizack had 8.98 pounds for fourth ($200).

“We want to especially thank all those that donated towards the Toys for Tots (Satellite Industries, Ace Hardware Middlebury, Ace Hardware Six Span, Varns and Hoover Hardware, Hawkins Water Tech, Forest River Middlebury, Local Police/Fire/EMS) and also all of the boat captains,” said Sutter.