Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
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Boater Gregory Norris of Muncie, Indiana, caught a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 5 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Patoka .
The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Hoosier Division. Norris earned $6,582, including the lucrative $2,500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory.
Cory Malcolm
Cory Malcom of Bremen, Indiana, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,041 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 13 ounces.
A lab manager for a wastewater treatment plant, Norris wasn’t sure he’d even fish the tournament due to some mechanical issues. However, everything just seemed to line up.
Greg Norris
Norris had his boat at Brownie’s Marine, who put in some extra time to get him up and running. His brother, Jonny Norris, also fished the tournament and finished 15th, and he helped convince Greg to take a shot. Before the tournament, Jonny offered to cover the entry fees for any co-angler who’d link up with him to ensure his spot. Jonny’s linked co-angler was Cory Malcom, who wound up being Greg’s co-angler partner, and coincidentally, Malcom went on to win the Strike King co-angler division in Greg’s boat.
On top of that, Greg and Jonny had some extra “help” in this one.
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NICC Report
Justin and Audrey Barry - 1st Place
Justin and Audrey Barry won the Northern Indiana Couples Circuit season opener easily on Hamilton Lake Saturday.
The couple fished a combination of crankbaits and Senkos to catch 17.40 and had the biggest bass of the event with a 4.33-pounder.
Derek and Kat Molner were a distant second with 8.73 pounds while Connor Tonkel and Ava Godbey were third with 7.01 pounds.
The next event is May 18 at Clear Lake. Check out our Lake Drive Marine Events Calendar for details.
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The Mainstream League starts its third season of Tuesday evening kayak bass contests with its first tournament on Barton Lake in Schoolcraft Township April 9. It will be the first of 10 tournaments scheduled for every other Tuesday, each on a different lake in the greater Kalamazoo area.
“These are mainly about having fun,” said tournament director Dave Mull. “They get competitive, of course, but most of us share information and even give each other productive lures during the contests.”
Entry fee is $40 per contest, which includes a big fish pot of $5 per angler. The Barton Lake tourney will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The rest of the tournaments start at 6 p.m. and end at 9 p.m.
The Mainstream League, sponsored by Mainstream Tackle & Outdoors, a kayak, fishing gear and bait dealer in Galesburg, is one of a dozen weeknight leagues in Michigan that the Topwater organization runs. The 101 Lakes League has 10 tournaments on lakes in northeast Indiana. That league’s first contest is Sunday, April 14, on Hamilton Lake near Hamilton, Indiana. The 101 Lakes League contest hours are 7 to 11 a.m.
The leagues have a catch-photo-release format, wherein anglers take a cellphone picture of each fish using the free Topwater Tracker app, release the fish and then submit the photo through the app. Once a remote judge approves the catch, it’s added to the angler’s total inches and contestants can see tournament standings on their phones in real time. The angler with the most inches for five fish wins. Most of the contests pay three or four places. The first finisher out of the money in the Mainstream League gets a $10 gift certificate to the sponsor’s store. Additionally, Mainstream has random drawings for several tackle packs donated by Berkley after the tournaments.
New this year is a Topwater membership fee. Anglers may fish two contests without paying to join Topwater, but must pay membership dues of $15, $40, or $80 to fish three or more. The various membership levels include different amounts of Topwater swag.
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Casting Couples Report
Storms rolled in and forced a 30-minute delay during the Casting Couples Open Tournament at Lake Maxinkuckee last weekend, but many of the 15 teams participating caught fish.
Rick Kedik and Jake Lisenko - 1st Place
Rick Kedik and Jake Lisenko won with a limit weighing 11.66 pounds. They also won the big bass pot ($65) with a 3.43-pound largemouth. They took home a total of $425.
“We had a 15-minute feeding flurry where we caught our fish and didn’t catch anything for the next four hours,” said Kedik. They used swimbaits in 8 feet of water.
Eric Fire and Robert Zorich (Culver, Ind.) - 2nd Place
Eric Fire and Robert Zorich (Culver, Ind.) had five keeper totaling 11.39 pounds for second. They also had biggest bass and caught all of their fish in channels to win $240.
Brian Borkholder and Darrin Schwark (Nappanee, Ind.) - 3rd Place
Third place went to Brian Borkholder and Darrin Schwark (Nappanee, Ind.) who had a mixed bag of smallmouth and largemouth totaling 9.03 pounds. They fished jerkbaits in 10 feet to take home $100.
There were six limits of bass weighted in and a total of 40 bass brought into the scales. Next OPEN tournament is on lake Wawasee Apr. 20th, 7am - 1pm, $65-entry includes Bigbass, out of the South ramp.
Any questions contact Rick (269)240-4917
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Bassmaster Elite Series pro Justin Hamner of Northport, Ala., claimed the 54th Bassmaster Classic title on Sunday with a limit of five bass that weighed 15 pounds, 13 ounces, for a three-day total of 58-3. Photo by Seigo Saito/B.A.S.S.
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Justin Hamner of Northport, Ala., claimed the 54th Bassmaster Classic title on Sunday with a limit of five bass that weighed 15 pounds, 13 ounces, for a three-day total of 58-3. Photo by Seigo Saito/B.A.S.S.
TULSA, Okla. — When most anglers win the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing, they at least pretend like it came as the biggest surprise of their lives.
But not Justin Hamner.
The fourth-year Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Northport, Ala., said openly that he “just had a feeling” coming into this year’s Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors that he was going to win — and in three days on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, he turned that feeling into a hard-core reality.
Hamner completed an assault on B.A.S.S. history with a Championship Sunday limit of five bass that weighed 15 pounds, 13 ounces, and pushed his three-day total to 58-3. He became only the 10th angler in the 54-year history of the event to lead all three days.
“I have no idea what’s been going on, but this past month has been pretty dang good,” said Hamner, who earned $300,000 and the coveted Ray Scott trophy. “I can’t explain it, but I really did feel like I had a good chance to win.”
That feeling wasn’t exactly reinforced during a tough practice when Hamner said the best bass he caught was a 3-pounder. But he started the tournament on the spot where he caught that fish and used a shad-colored, deep-diving jerkbait to put together a limit that weighed 22-6 and gave him the Day 1 lead.