Big win for Castledine, Latta at Bass-N-Bucks
By PATTY LENDERMAN Lakecaster Managing Editor

Outdoors photo/Patty Lenderman NO TRICK photography needed. Todd Castledine and Jaret Latta took first place with over 35 pounds, including a 12 and an 8 pounder. Here are just four of their five fish limit that provided them an $11,000 payday.

The move is on! Big mama bass are moving up to spawn, and site fishermen are right on top of them. The top 10 Bass-N-Bucks teams brought in over 20 pound sacks, and there were loads of eight and nine-pound bass weighed in. Todd Castledine and Jaret Latta brought in one of the heaviest sacks in Bass-N-Bucks 13- year history with 35.26 lbs to take the win. They also won Big Bass with their kicker weighing over 12 pounds.

For weeks now, bass have been staging, waiting for the right conditions to move up onto the beds. Unstable weather conditions, warm days followed by cold fronts, have been keeping them in a staging pattern.

That all changed just days before the tournament March 11th on Sam Rayburn at the Umphrey Family Pavilion. Temperatures have been quite warm throughout the week in East Texas, warming the water making the right conditions for the bass to come on up to spawn.

Sunday morning, a heavy fog set in and anxious anglers were held back from leaving the take-off zone until 9 a.m. when it was safe to see. Due to the extended wait, an additional 30 minutes were added to their fishing time, making the first flight due in at 3:30 p.m.

The first angler to weigh in was Ron Stark, who brought in a 15-pound limit and established the initial Big Bass weight with a 9.62 lb. kicker. It was evident right from the start that this was going to be a great day to see some big fish. Soon after, Lanny Diemert and Clarence Braddock brought in the first sack over 20 lbs., with a near eight pound kicker in their sack.

Todd Castledine and Jaret Latta had to put their five fish limit in two different sacks. Everyone watched as they approached the scales, first weighing their biggest - 12.16 pounds.

Add another eightpounder and three other nice fish to that for a 35.26 lb. total. The crowd cheered at the incredible weight.

"We went all over the lake, probably hit around eight spots and burned a whole tank of gas. We had a limit in the boat in about an hour that would've weighed around 18 pounds."

The areas they found their fish were protected pockets in the backs of coves in 2'-4'.

"The bigger bass bit after 1 p.m. The 12-pounder broke off on us when we first had her. We let her settle down and came back to catch her an hour later."

They won the $10,000 first place purse and $1,000 for Big Bass.

Scott David and Harold Moore have been weighing in 30-pound stringers in several tournaments in the past month or so, and today wasn't much different. They took second place with a 28.47 lb. limit.

Their winnings totaled $4,000.

Randy Gunter and Billy Smith almost matched David and Moore's weight, merely a four ounce difference between them. They secured third place with 28.21 lbs., which included a 9.17 lb. big bass.

"When we pre-fished on the South end on Friday, we didn't do any good. Saturday we tried some spots on the North end and found better fish. Today we went straight to those spots and boated three fish in the first 10 minutes, and in an hour had a limit. We fished the buck brush in the shallow water with Strike King jigs and tube baits. We should've had 30 pounds easy" Billy explained.