Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
Friday, October 10, 2025
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SMAC Report
Bill Mathews and John Gipson Jr. teamed up to win the Southwest Michigan Anglers Club (SMAC) Saturday at the St. Joseph River in Niles.
The winners had a limit weighing 10.42 pounds caught on frogs and wacky rigs in 2 to 5 feet of water.
Brian Spear and John McCauslin finished second with three bass totaling 8.29 pounds. They fished stick worms in 4 to 6 feet. They also won the big bass pot with a 4-pound largemouth.
Third went to Chris and Jay Shires with five smallmouth that weighed 7.41 pounds. They fished craw-style baits to get their limit.
Fishing was tough for the 11 teams competing. There were eight smallmouth weighed in by those teams.
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Arjay’s Report
Tim Tucker and Daisy Tucker won the Arjay’s Wednesday nighter on Diamond Lake last week.
There were 18 boats and 13 caught small limits.
The Tuckers won with 9.96 pounds caught on wacky worms and drop-shot rigs.
John Miller fished alone and finished second with 9.76 pounds that he caught with drop shot rigs.
Tanner Hursh used forward facing sonar and fished a ball-head jig with soft plastic minnow to grab third place with an 8.68-pound limit.
Fourth was won by Martin Hochstetler and Jonas Troyer with an 8.60-pound limit. They fished jigs and drop shots.
The ClearH2O Tackle first out of the money spot, with 5 fish for 8.36 pounds, was won by Steve Martin and Josh Roberts. They also won the Tackle Shack LLC big bass with a 3.08-pound largemouth and the Jaywalker Restaurant junk fish pot with a 2.74-pound pike.
The Michiana Outdoors News tackle pack for sixth place with 8.24 pounds went to Doug and Marilyn Sanderson and they also won the Str8-Up Mounts lucky dog pot .Side pot winners of $50 ClearH2O cards were Tim Tucker and Joel Thomas Laskowski.
This week’s event will be at the Fish, Finch and Saddlebag Chain.
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D&R Sports Center Report
Luke Gritter and Neil Vande Biezen won the D&R Sports Center Tourney Series at Hardy Dam last weekend.
The winners had 17.32 pounds anchored by a 3.79 pounder.
"Luke and I were using a Strike Kings’s ZToo, a tube and a jig in anywhere from 10 to 22 feet,” explained Vande Biezen. “It was pretty tough, most of the fish we caught were scattered all over the place."
Miles Hanley and Randy VanDam finished a hair behind with 17.20 pounds. Their big fish weighed 4.38.
"We had originally planned on going out deep, but we ended up catching a few really nice ones shallow,” said VanDam. “We decided to just expand on that all day and grind it out the best we could. It turned out to be awesome as we caught them flipping and pitching. There weren’t many pads but submerged trees and weeds were where most of our bites came from. It's all how you shake the stick."
Third place went to Jeff Elliot and Trevor Young with 17.01 pounds.
"We spent most of our day utilizing MEGA Live 2 in deep water,” said Elliot. “We used Crush City freeloaders out deeper with the ML 2. Also, winding a 3.3 Keitech and dragging a finesse jig got us quality bites. It was a lot of fishing areas vs spots for us as the fish moved around a bunch."
Gary and Ben Diekevers were fourth with 15.45 pounds and had the biggest bass, a 4.44 pounder.
Fifth place was won by Forrest Brown and Brian Hopp with 15.06 pounds.
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Michiana Fishing League Report
John Davis and Seth Spaulding won the Michiana Fishing League tournament over the weekend on the St. Joseph River at Benton Harbor, Mich.
Davis and Spaulding won with 16.80 pounds and also took home the big bass pot with a 4.50 pounder. They fished deep crankbaits and tubes around rocks in 10-13 feet of water. They said it was a spot the size of a bass boat.
Evan De La Rosa and Hunter Lenardson were second with 12.08 caught on finesse jigs.
CJ Stamm and Michael Smith fished jigs and Ned rigs to catch 8.22 pounds for third. They said their fish came from 3 to 10 feet around current seams and points.
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GROVE, Okla.– Two Michiana high schoolers finished ninth in Major League Fishing’s Abu Garcia High School Fishing National Championship on Grand Lake, Ok.
There were 232 high school two-man teams entered in the contest.
Wesson Vint of Syracuse, Ind. and JJ Gruber of Mishawaka finished with nine bass weighing 33 pounds, 12 ounces.
High schoolers are allowed to weigh-in three fish per day. The Hoosiers were in 19th place after the first day with 11 pounds 12 ounces but surged to third place after Day 2 with 13 pounds, 12 ounces. They had 7-7 in the finals.
Cooper Moon and Carson Holbert of the Cartersville Fishing Team in Georgia won the tournament, winning a pair of trophies, matching $5,000 checks to spend on college, and the title of 2025 National Champions.
The Georgia high school seniors sacked up 13-15 on the final day to finish the three-day event with 44-1 – good enough for a 3-pound win over Dylan Sorrells and Andrew Waters (41-1) of the Texas Highland Park Bass Team.
“We came out here with an open mind, learned as much about the lake as we could in practice, and kind of just worked our way through it, day by day,” Holbert said. “There were almost 400 teams fishing, so we knew it was a little bit of a long shot just because of the numbers. But we figured out a few things that got us onto bigger fish and ran with it.”
Moon and Holbert spent the majority of their tournament fishing what they referred to as “transitional” water – rocky structure in 8 to 12 feet of water that seemed to harbor bigger-than-average fish while remaining impervious to the fluctuating water on Grand Lake. They started the tournament with 15-12 on Day 1 and held onto the lead with 14-6 on Day 2 before finishing with 13-15 on Friday to secure the win.
The teams of Carson Mowdy and Colton Stewart of the Milano Eagles (37-10); Jackson Roumbanis and Lawson Lewis of the Russellville Cyclones (37-4); and Wyatt Woods and Wyatt McBride of Lexington High School (35-5) rounded out the Top 5.
The Top 10 teams at the 2025 Abu Garcia High School Fishing National Championship on Grand Lake finished:
1st: Cartersville Fishing Team – Cooper Moon, White, Ga., and Carson Holbert, Louisville, Tenn., nine bass, 44-1
2nd: Highland Park Bass Team – Dylan Sorrells, Dallas, Texas, and Andrew Waters, Melissa, Texas, nine bass, 41-1
3rd: Milano Eagles – Carson Mowdy and Colton Stewart, both of Milano, Texas, nine bass, 37-10
4th: Russellville Cyclones – Jackson Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., and Lawson Lewis, Knoxville, Ark., nine bass, 37-4
5th: Lexington High School Bulldogs – Wyatt Woods and Wyatt McBride, both of Lexington, Okla., nine bass, 35-5
6th: Haughton Fishing Team – Carsen Adcock, Haughton, La., and Colton Arnold, Hope, Ark., nine bass, 35-1
7th: SoCal Jr. Bass Anglers – Brenner Lynn, San Diego, Calif., and Bryce Deheyn, San Marcos, Calif., nine bass, 34-14
8th: Saint Xavier High School – Miles Allen, Louisville, Ky., and Ethan Roths, Prospect, Ky., nine bass, 33-12
9th: Track & Channel Youth – Wesson Vint, Syracuse, Ind., and JJ Gruber, Mishawaka, Ind., nine bass, 32-15
10th: Camdenton High School – Corbin Bailey and Kaden Messina, both of Camdenton, Mo., nine bass, 32-0