July Newsletter/Tournament #5 Results

We are officially half way through our tournament season with the completion of our 5th tournament of the year on Barnett Saturday. The day provided a little bit of everything from the weather. We took off to dark and cloudy skies that soon resulted in a major thunderstorm that lasted almost 2 hours. However, we ended the day in bright sunny skies that made it very hot. Typical summer day in the south right….. At the end of the day – Charlie Moore got on some good fish and pretty much kicked all our butts! Charlie’s 5 fish limit (one of only two that were brought in) weighed 13.94 (net of 2 dead fish) and beat our second place angler by nearly 5 lbs. Way to go Charlie! When I congratulated Charlie at the weigh in he said “This one’s for J!” Charlie – I know JJ would sure be proud of the way you have stepped up as Captain of his team and showed out this weekend and won! Bringing 14lbs to the scales on Barnett in July after the crazy weather we have been having for the past week is no easy task. I truly think JJ is looking down on his two main fishing buddies – Charlie and Mike – as they have now won the last two tournaments! I also believe he is watching over the club. Normally our tournaments in the summer are not well attended due to vacations and the summer heat - but not this weekend. We had 21 boats and 26 members fish this weekend which is the largest number in a long time. We are also up to 28 members in the club which is the highest in several years. Needless to say – we are headed in the right direction and I know JJ is smiling down on it because he truly loved this club.


Congrats to all the top fisherman this weekend.

1st Place – Charlie Moore 13.94 Lbs
2nd Place – TJ Hare, Sr. 9.13 Lbs
3rd Place – Micheal Clark 7.68 Lbs
4th Place – Johnnie Baker 6.95 Lbs
5th Place – Larry Lowery 6.90 Lbs

Lunker honors were taken by Johnnie Baker with a 4.79lb fish.

In Team news – I am happy to report that team Strike King showed up again on Ross Barnett and came away with the victory! The team race is tightening a little bit now with the Dead Ringers in the lead with 13, Team Strike King in second with 10, and the Slurpies in third with 7.

In the AOY race – Larry Lowery and Micheal Clark are now tied at the top of the leaderboard with 60 points after Saturday’s tournament. Rounding out your top five are Carl Sandberg with 50, TJ Hare, Jr. with 48 and Pete Larson with 42. The race is going to be close all the way to the end. It will be very interesting to see what happens when we get to the culling stage – remember we get to cull two tournaments a year! With 5 tournaments left – who wants it more????

Announcements

1) Reminder about our new meeting location in the Bass Pro restaurant. Our last meeting was great and everyone enjoyed the private space (that was quiet!) and great service we had by the wait staff. Please make an effort to make the next general membership meeting on Tuesday August the 21st – and invite a guest!

2) Austin Banks, Micheal Clark, Steven Bailey and myself got together last Thursday evening and submitted our first design of our Club Jersey’s to Gemini Sports. They will put together our requests and email us a proof. We will then get an opportunity to tweak it up to 3 times. Hopefully all of this will move quickly and we will have something to present to the board and club in August for approval. Once approved we will need to get sizes from everyone to place our order. Maybe we can get them in by our September tournament, but for sure by our October tournament. Be looking for updates on these Jersey’s….they are going to be sweet!

Below are some pictures from this weekend: 



Mike Overall at the Scales 



Charlie Moore was all smiles as he weighed his winning bag! 

Austin Banks at the scales 

Associate Member Kevin Daigle watching the scales 

TJ Hare, Sr. weighing in his 2nd Place Bag 

TJ Hare, Sr. with the line of the year to Greg Horne after Greg announced that TJ had a dead fish..."But not a damn one of them is short!!!!"

 President Larry Lowery's turn at the scales

 Dig Pro Steven Bailey at the scales

Carl Sandberg's turn at the scales

Johnnie Baker with his wad of cash after winning the lunker pot!!



Tournament #5, Ross Barnett Pairings and Boat #'s

Our 5th tournament of the year is this weekend, July 21, on Ross Barnett.  Take off will be at safe light which is early these days to be sure to be there early.  Looks to be very hot with a good chance for rain so come prepared.  We have a great turnout for this tournament with 22 boats and 27 members fishing. 

#1) Charlie Moore
#2) Scott Goza
#3) TJ Hare, Jr.
#4) TJ Hare, Sr.
#5) Larry Lowery and Thad Crosby
#6) Greg Horne and Todd Crosby
#7) Randy Mills
#8) Marvin Freeman (I do not think Marvin is fishing)
#9) Steven Bailey
#10) Austin Banks and Kevin Daigle
#11) RB Sheppard
#12) Micheal Clark
#13) Mike Overall
#14) Pete Larson
#15) George Thrash
#16) Johnnie Baker
#17) Joel Peeler
#18) Mike Murphy
#19) Carl Sandberg and Richard Walley
#20) Bob Westerfield
#21) Hunter Edwards
#22) Rob Wilson

Good luck to everyone fishing!  Looking forward to Saturday....

June Newsletter/Chicot Results

The club’s 4th tournament of the year was held Saturday June 16th on Lake Chicot in Lake Village, AR. The lake was at full pool, weather was hot and the fish had to be 15” to weigh. Everyone I spoke to caught tons of fish, but keepers were very hard to come by. I bet as a club we caught 250+ fish on Saturday, however we only weighed 21 fish. In fact, every angler except one weighed in 2 fish or less. That one Angler was your winner, Mike Overall, who weighed in 4 fish totaling 11.19lbs. And he did it from the back of the boat which is even more impressive (even though we all know he has been whipping up on Anglers from the back of the boat for years!!!). Way to go Mike! In total our 21 fish weighed 59.84lbs (average of 2.85lbs per fish) which is our best tournament of the year for far average weight due to the 15” minimum requirement. Below are your top 5 anglers from this past weekend.


1st Place – Mike Overall       11.19 Lbs
2nd Place – Larry Lowery     6.39 Lbs
3rd Place – Pete Larson        6.18 Lbs
4th Place – Micheal Clark     5.45 Lbs
5th Place – Jim Lowe            5.34 Lbs

Lunker honors were taken by Charlie Moore with a 5.21lb fish. Congratulations to Charlie Moore and all of the other top anglers from the weekend.

In Team news – the Dead Ringers showed up with revenge on their minds after dropping the Barnett tournament in May. They really put it on the Slurpies and Strike King Teams. Right now the team race shows the Dead Ringers in first with 11 points, Strike King in second with 7 points and Slurpies in third with 6 points. This race is certainly not over with only 4 tournaments completed to date – but the Strike King and Slurpie teams better get going soon before the Dead Ringers run away with it (again)!

The AOY race continues to change….this is our fourth tournament completed and now our fourth lead change in the AOY race. Larry Lowery is your new AOY leader with 47 points with Micheal Clark in a close second with 45 points. Your remaining top 5 are Pete Larson with 40 and Carl Sandberg and TJ Hare, Jr. tied with 38 points. With 6 tournaments to go this race is still anyone’s to have.

We have several big announcements to share so be sure and mark these down:

1) Our general membership meetings going forward (starting with our next meeting in July) will be held at the restaurant inside Bass Pro. Pete Larson met with the general manager of the restaurant and has our dates booked and we are guaranteed to have the meeting room that is closed off each month. We are required to have 15 people eat – so even greater emphasis will be placed on attending these meetings. This location is more centrally located for everyone and will provide a much better meeting place as well. Our July meeting will be on MONDAY July 16th because the Tuesday date was already booked. I will remind everyone of this prior to our meeting.

2) Pete Larson has retained Red Arrow Carwash on Lakeland Drive as a sponsor for the club. Each Member receives a 10% discount on washes, etc. David Franklin is our contact there in the event you have any problems getting your discount there.

3) Austin Banks and I are working closely with Gemini Sports on our Jersey’s. We hope to have a photo of what the Jersey’s will look like very soon. Stay tuned for more. Also – most of you purchased the stickers I had designed for the club. If you didn’t and want some just let me know. $1.00 a piece is a deal! Hope to see a bunch of stickers at our next tournament!

Yall be sure and thank Pete Larson for the hard work he has been putting in for the club this year, most of which is behind the scenes. He has been going around to several local businesses all on his own promoting the club, getting discounts/sponsorships for the club, and now working with the general manager of the bass pro restaurant to secure a good, quiet meeting location for the club that is more centrally located. Thank you Pete for all that you do for the club!

Below are some pics from the Chicot Tournament

Boats parked for the weigh in

 Everyone gathered around the table for the weigh in

 Marvin Freeman's turn at the scales

 Pete Larson with one of his two keepers

 Jim Lowe weighing in his 5th place bag

 Greg and Johnnie measuring fish

 Johnnie holding Greg's weigh bag

Ross Barnett Results/May News Letter

Our first tournament of the year on Barnett is in the books and from a pure numbers standpoint it was much improved from Washington (although it wouldn’t take much to be an improvement from Washington). Overall the weather was great, the lake wasn’t too crowded, and just about everybody caught fish. In fact – places 1-7 were only separated by less than 2lbs. In dramatic JBC Fashion we had two anglers tied at the top after the fished were weighed. Those two were Pete Larson and Micheal Clark – both with 12.40lbs (net of 1 dead fish each). Tie Breaker goes to the bigger fish and with a 3.62lb big fish your winner was Pete Larson! Congrats Pete! Apparently Micheal Clark had the winning fish on the line (allegedly 5+ lbs) but decided to try and dive in after it to secure it under water rather than simply using a net and as a result lost the fish! Maybe he will try a different approach next time. In total we weighed 82 fish for 153.55lbs (average of 1.87lbs per fish) which is our best tournament of the year so far. Below are your top 5 anglers from this past weekend.

1st Place – Pete Larson 12.40 Lbs (big fish 3.62 lbs)
2nd Place – Micheal Clark 12.40 Lbs (big fish 3.23 lbs)

3rd Place – TJ Hare, Sr. 12.26 Lbs

4th Place – Carl Sandberg 11.21 Lbs

5th Place – Steven Bailey 11.14 Lbs

Lunker honors were taken by TJ Hare, Sr. with a 4.04lb fish. We all need to watch out for Senior as this was his first tournament back from knee surgery and he took 3rd place overall and the Lunker. (and he is on Team Strike King) Congratulations to Senior and all of the other top anglers from the weekend.

The AOY race is really getting good. We have 6 guys all separated by less than 4 points right now at the top. They are led by yours truly, Carl Sandberg, for the time being with 32 points. Hot on the trail are TJ Hare, Jr., Micheal Clark, and Larry Lowery with 31 points, Scott Goza with 29 points, and RB Sheppard with 28 points. We still have 7 tournaments remaining in the year – so it is still anyone’s game at this point. Remember at the end of the year your two lowest tournaments can be culled – but if you still get your participation points if you fished the event. This can translate into 4 very valuable points at the end of the year.

In Team news – Team Strike King showed up in a big way this weekend (finally!!). 4 of the top 5 anglers this weekend were Team Strike King Members and that ultimately paved the way for the team’s first victory. Good job fellas! Let’s keep it up and go for two team wins in a row at Chicot next month. Right now the team race shows the Dead Ringers in first with 8 points and the Slurpies and Strike King teams tied for second with 5 points.

Upcoming events

• June Board meeting will be on Tuesday June 5th at Sal and Phils – anyone is welcome to attend.

• Point Tournament on Lake Chicot – Saturday June 16th. A lot of folks will be staying at the Lake Village Inn, which is where we will be launching as well. Hope to see you there!

• June General Membership meeting will be held Tuesday June 19th at Sal and Phils.

Below are some pics from the weekend.  Enjoy!

DIG Pro Steven Bailey weighin in

Scott Goza at the weigh in

George Thrash at the weigh in

Micheal Clark weighing his bag that tied for 1st 

Charlie Moore at the weigh in

Carl Sandberg at the weigh in

TJ Hare, Sr. all smiles as he takes our Lunker Money!!

Greg Horne showing what NOT to do with a weigh in bag full of fish!!!!

Greg Horne scrambling to pick up one of his fish that had flopped under the trailer behind him!

Fish were everywhere...here Jim Lowe tries to help out!!

Newsletter - April 16 Lake Washington

Our 2^nd tournament of the year was held on Lake Washington this weekend.  In an effort to try and keep things positive – I will simply say it was tough (brutal is more appropriate).  In total we had 20 anglers fishing.  We had 11 zeros, 5 who weighed in one fish, and 3 that weighed in 2 fish.  Only one man brought more than 2 fish to the scales and that was your winner – RB Sheppard!  RB weighed 4 fish totaling 8.23lbs.  Big time congrats go out to RB for figuring out a way to put fish in the boat when most everyone else could not.  In total we weighed 15 fish weighing a whopping 34.52 lbs.  On the brighter side - this tournament will end up making a huge difference in the Angler of the Year points race – so to the 9 guys who found a way to weigh a fish I say Congratulations – job well done!

1^st Place – RB Sheppard                     8.23 Lbs

2^nd Place – TJ Hare, Jr.                        6.49 Lbs

3^rd Place – Johnny Baker                     6.04 Lbs

4^th Place – Joel Peeler                          4.89 Lbs

5^th Place – Scott Goza                         2.66 Lbs

Lunker honors were taken by Joel Peeler with a 3.71lb fish. 

It is obviously worth noting that this was our first tournament without JJ.  There were a lot of JJ stories shared this weekend and I thought Greg did a great job of recognizing JJ’s absence before we blasted off Saturday.  And it is obvious JJ is still with us as just about every one of his team members weighed a fish and his team beat up on the Strike King and Slurpie teams this weekend!    Congrats to the Dead Ringers and way to represent your Captain this weekend.  I know he was smiling down on yall!

I will also note that after this weekend TJ Hare, Jr. is leading this Angler of Year points race with a pretty big margin. (no this is not a typo).  TJ is off to a fast start this year with a 3^rd place finish and a 2^nd place finish in our first two tournaments of the year.  For the rest of us – we better step our game up quickly unless you want to listen to his mouth the rest of the year!!!!  In all seriousness though – Congrats TJ! 

Upcoming events

• The April general membership meeting is TOMORROW night at Sal and Phils.  Hope to see you there.  We have something awesome to share that you will want to hear about so make plans to be there.  Also – Chevrons and plaques from the Bruin tournament will be handed out.    

Lake Washington Boat Numbers and Pairings

JBC - see below boat #'s and pairings for the Lake Washington tournament this Saturday. Please check your boats and make sure you have everything to be in compliance with the law. Several guys prefished last friday and there was a Wildlife and fisheries guy at the ramp and checked every boat - so come prepared. Life jackets. fire ext, throw, registration, all that.




1) Pete Larson and Charlie Moore

2) Jim Lowe

3) Larry Lowery and Mike Murphy

4) TJ Hare, Jr. and Randy Mills

5) Joel Peeler and Richard Wally

6) Hunter Edwards

7) Greg Horne and Mike Overall

8) Steven Bailey

9) Johnny Baker

10) Scott Goza

11) Carl Sandberg

12) RB Sheppard

13) TJ Hare, Sr.

14) George Thrash

15) Marvin Freeman

16) Micheal Clark
 
Travel Safe....see you Saturday

JJ Wilson Funeral - The Jackson Bass Club

We had a great turnout from the club today for JJ's funeral.  It was a honor for the Jackson Bass Club to be named honorary pallbearers.

I wanted to pass along a compliment I received last night at JJ's visitation.  One of Vickie's friends that was at the hospital last friday when a lot of club members were there pulled me aside Monday Night.  She asked if I remembered her from the hospital and I said I did.  She went on to say "I don't know who you bunch of guys are but y'all are a tremendous group and have been wonderful during this time."

To me this is what the club is about.  Sure it was created to enjoy the sport of bass fishing and competition that we all love so much - but the fellowship and close knit nature of our group is what is important.  A lot of people don't understand that, after all we only fish for points, chevrons, and trophies (and ofcourse bragging rights!) but it is in fact the case.  We all heard numerous times over the past several days from strangers saying - yall were part of JJ's family.  That is truly how JJ felt and how I personally have felt the last several days as well.  JJ loved the club more than any other circuit he fished and was a member for over 30 years.  There will be a void that will be impossible to replace in our club but JJ would want nothing more than to see this club press on and be better than ever.

Hope to see yall soon.....

Carl
Sec/Treas