Henslee, Cure walk away with Rayburn Classic win
By DONALD GERVAIS Lakecaster Correpondent

Outdoors photo/Donald Gervais JOHN CURE holds the 10.78 pound bass that anchored the 26.81 pound catch him and partner Melvin Henslee brought to the scales on day 2 of the 11th Annual Rayburn Oilmen's Classic tournament held Oct. 5-6 on lake Sam Rayburn.The champions had 44.25 pounds of bass to claim the win.

Umphrey Family Pavilion-John Cure had the best birthday ever on October 6, the final day of the 11th Annual Rayburn Oilmen's Classic Team tournament held on Lake Sam Rayburn. Cure caught a 10.87 pound largemouth to anchor the 5-fish limit he and partner Melvin Henslee brought to the weigh scale that tallied 26.81 pounds. Their two day total of 44.25 pounds was over 8 pounds ahead of the second place team. Cure's lunker bass was 0.01 -pound - the weight of a thin dime- lighter than the big bass of Day 1 caught by Larry Crocker and Dave Sarkies, which took the Big Bass of the tournament honors.

Although it was the first weekend of October, the 168 teams who competed in this year's Rayburn Oilmen's Classic faced summer-like conditions. Temperatures at the 6:45 a.m. start time for the trailered tournament was in the low 70's but as the morning's cloud cover burned off by 9 a.m., temperatures quickly rose to the high 80's under mostly sunny skies by the afternoon weigh-in time. Winds were mild on Friday however by day 2 teams faced 3-4 foot white caps as a Northeast wind blew many anglers off their chosen fishing holes.

Outdoors photo/Donald Gervais LARRY CROCKER holds up the 10.79-pound largemouth bass catch that earned him and partner Dave Sarkies the Big Bass honors at the 11th Annual Rayburn Oilmen's Classic tournament held Oct. 5-6 on Lake Sam Rayburn. See the story for the winning ways of the anglers.

Crocker and Sarkies took the lead on Day1 with a sack of 22.28 pounds. Crocker, a veteran angler in oilmen tournaments held on Rayburn and Toledo Bend, caught the biggest bass of his life, a 10.79 pound Rayburn lunker and the second largest fish in their bag, a 6.7 pound fish on an early morning top water bite.

Mark Crow and Mike Guthrie brought in a 5-fish limit weighing 20.01pounds to claim second place on Day 1. Their catch was anchored by the second largest bass of the day, a 7.92 pound lunker.

Nat Lankford and Claude Griffin Jr. took 3rd place for the day with a limit weighing 19.41 pounds, anchored by a 5.96 pound bass and a 5.52 pound fish. Brothers Thomas and Tony Cosenza sat in the 4th slot with 19.17 pounds, helped by their 7.79-pound bass- 3rd largest of the day.

David Walton and Loran Laughlin claimed 5th place with 19.14 pounds and the husband and wife team of John and Robi Schweitzer rounded out the top 6 with 18.94 pounds. Five pounds, a difference that could easily be made up with one big bite, separated the 12th place team and the leaders as the anglers took to the water on day 2.

Tournament officials separated the teams into two flights, to more easily manage the number of anglers that come to the scales at one time. On the first day the first flight reported to the scales by 3 p.m., the second flight reported at 4 p.m. On day 2 the checks in times were flip-flopped. Half of the top dozen teams in the day 1 standings were in the second flight and reported early on the last day. It became evident as the weigh in began that the fishing conditions had changed and had become more challenging as fewer teams brought in the heavy sacks as seen on day 1, with a few exceptions.

The biggest of the exceptions was when Cure and Henslee brought in two sacks to the scales. One bag held but one fish, the 10.78 pound bass of Cure. The duo was in 9th place going into day 2 with 17.44 pounds and the 26.81 tally of day two put them firmly ahead of all competitors.

"This has been my best birthday ever," said Cure, who works overseas and will be leaving within a week for a five month duty tour. "Melvin usually smokes me on the water but it was my turn today. God was watching over me."

Cure not only caught the 10 pound bass of the sack but also the 7.9 pound bass. Tournament rules do not allow an angler to claim more than one of the five big bass awards each day, otherwise Cure would have had the top two places of Day 2.

The other good catch of the day was the 20.00 bag of Brian Castille and Alma Cantu. They had not had a good day on Day 1 weighing but 7.39 pounds. They ended up in 24th place overall. Third big stringer on Day 2 went to the father and son team of Lynn and Kyle Thornhill with a catch of 17.45 pounds. They were 11th after day with 17.16 pounds and ended up in 3rd overall.

Fourth big stringer on Day 2 went to Richard Frank and Tom Slatter with a 17.1 pound catch. They had weighed but 6.94 the day before and ended up in 37th place for the event. Fifth largest catch of day 2 went to the team of Joe Rials and Dickie Pecoraro with 16.88. Their 2-day total did not put them in the top 50 teams who received checks. The cutoff weight for a check was 20.13 pounds.

Brandon Domangue and Jason Kizziar rounded out the top six of Day 2 with a catch of 16.14 pounds. They took home the check for 25th place. Crow and Guthrie, 2nd place after Day 1 brought in the 7th largest stringer of day 2, weighing 16.13 pounds to give them the runner up spot of the tournament with 36.14 pounds.

The Schweitzer couple brought in but four fish on Day 2 that weighed 13.74 pounds, but was enough to take fourth place overall with 32.88 pounds. John usually fishes tournaments with his regular partner Bill Ligon. However, Ligon is recuperating from recent cardiac surgery so John enlisted his wife as his partner for her first ever tournament.

"Any wife who has a husband that fishes tournaments needs to fish at least one tournament with him," said Robi who was quite sun and wind burnt. "It was not an easy thing to do for two days. I'm tired."

Donnie Martin and David Sartain, in 10th place on Day 1 with 17.28 pounds repeated a 10th place finish on day 2 with a weight of 15.34 pounds to take 5th place overall with 32.62 pounds. Harley "Jingle Bells" Wilson and Charlie Woods were 7th on Day 1 with 18.94 pounds and managed to add 13.58 pounds with four fish on Day 2 to take the sixth spot overall with 32.52 pounds, they were runners up in last year's contest.

Day 1 leaders Crocker and Sarkies weighed 5.55 pounds on Day 2 to drop to 21st overall. Other top six day 1 teams finished as follows: 3rd place Lankford and Griffith ended in 8th overall (31.26); 4th place, the Cosenza team, finished in 7th place; 5th place Laughlin and Walton slipped into 21st place.

Charlie Parks, president of the Rayburn Oilmen's Classic for the third year, presented a donation of $15,000 to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at the finale on Saturday evening held in the Umphrey Pavilion. It was the second year for a donation to the charity by the tournament and brought the total to $28,000.

Triton Boats sold the grand door prize to the tournament organization, a Triton TX 17 Sports bass boat powered by a Mercury 50 hp outboard motor, valued at $14,000.

Tannah Latino, of Wildwood, daughter of Tracey and Loran Laughlin, drew the ticket of Leon Huddleston of Lafayette, La.

Roy Sanford, a Rayburn guide, volunteered and supervised the weigh in for the tournament. Thanks to the efforts of the volunteers the weigh in ran very smoothly with minimal fish mortality.

For tournament daily and final weights visit the Rayburn Oilmen's Classic website at: http://rayburnoilmensclassic. org/

Champions John Cure of Sam Rayburn and Melvin Henslee of Beaumont have been fishing together for 10 years. Cure captained his Champion/Mercury bass boat on Day 1 to Buck Bay where they used Ribbit frogs, in watermelon red color with a pearl belly to catch a 5-fish limit weighing 17.44 pounds. They reported catching 40 fish on the opening day.

Rather than use a frog for the early morning bite Cure picked up a _-oounce black and blue jig, tipped with a black and blue Beaver. The first fish to bite was the 10.78 pound bass. After a 10 minute coffee break that was needed to stop his shaking, he started pitching again into the 13 foot water near the grass bed. He caught a 7.9 pound bass. The duo switched to the frog after the cloud cover broke and managed to catch some 20 fish and cull during the rest of the day to make up the 26.81 pound limit, the largest of the tournament.

The duo used Falcon and All Star rods with Shimano reels spooled with 15-pound test PLine clear-colored line. They credited the switch from braid to mono line that resulted in more bites in the clear water they were fishing.

Runners-up Mike Guthrie and Mark Crow took the second place on Day 1 with a 20.01 pound limit, anchored by the second biggest bass of the day, a 7.92-pound fish. They brought in 16.13 pounds on day 2. Both days were spent around the same area near the 147 Bridge, but they used different techniques each day.

Their big bass on day 1 was caught in 2-3 feet of water on Crow's first cast, with an Aqua Flash-colored Rat-L-Trap. They had a limit before 9 a.m. Crow positioned his Skeeter/Yamaha bass boat rig in deep water and they cast shallow to scattered grass clumps with the Rat-L-Trap the entire day. On Day 2 the duo positioned shallow and targeted fish in 13-18 foot grass beds with Carolina rigged Bay Brush Hogs, in watermelon red color. They reported the best bite between 8-10 a.m. on day 2.

This was the best Oilmen tournament finish for Crow of White Oak and Guthrie of Kilgore. Gear of choice included Kisler rods/Shimano reels and Castaway rods and Shimano reels spooled with 17-pound Vanish line. They used slightly

different Carolina rigs with equal success; one used a _ ounce weight, the other an 1/8-oz., leaders varied from 18 inches to 3-feet. Both used clackers and glass beads to entice the bites.

Lynn Thornhill of Spring Texas fished with his son Kyle of Tyler and claimed 3rd place with the help of a 5 pound fish caught each day. Kyle caught a 5.86 pound bass on day 1 that was 5th largest fish of the day to anchor their 17.16 total. They caught only the five fish they brought to the scales during the day, one was 14.5 inches long. On day 2 Lynn caught a 5.44 pound fish that anchored their 17.45 pound weight (3rd largest stringer of the day). Best bites came in the first two hours of each day.

Their go-to-bait was a Senko, in watermelon red color, rigged Texas-style, used in 1 _ - 6 feet of water on grass in Veach Basin. Tackle included Kisler rods with Shimano and Garcia reels spooled with 15 pound Big Game line, in grey color. They fished from a Ranger boat, powered by a Yamaha motor for their best ever tournament finish together.

Top six finishing is not new to John Schweitzer, who has won several oilmen tournaments on Toledo Bend and Lake Sam Rayburn over the years with his regular partner Bill Ligon. However Bill had to be replaced for this tournament due to his recent surgery, by John's wife Robi.

Bill used the pre marked GPS spots in his Lowrence electronics to bring his Champion boat, powered by a Mercury motor to his fishing spots in the early morning hours and to catch a quick limit on day 1.

Choice of tackle for the Houston couple included Shimano rods and reels spooled with Gamma line in 15-pound test. They dragged Ribbits, a frog imitation, across grass beds in shallow water at mid lake for their catch.

Martin and Sartain, also of Houston, finished in 10th place both days and 5th overall. They too used Ribbits in watermelon red color. They fished from Sartain's Skeeter/Yamaha bass boat in Harvey Creek in depths of 2- 8 feet over scattered grass. It was the first tournament fished as a team for the coworkers of four years at Devon Energy. "We culled two limits of fish yesterday," said Sartain. "Only two fish today."

Shimano reels, spooled with 17-pound P Line and Stren 50-pound braid line, attached to All Star, Kisler and Loomis rods were the gear used by the anglers.

Sixth place finishers Harley "Jingle Bells" Wilson and Charlie Woods, runners up in last year's tournament, used different frog imitation bait, a solid black Snag Proof Casting frog.

"We threw frogs both days," said Wilson, who brought but four fish to the scales on Day 2. "We missed so many today. I just don't know why they wouldn't stay buttoned up."

The winners of past TOBI and LOBI tournaments and fishing partners of seven years used Wilson's Ranger bass boat powered by an Evinrude engine to go to mid lake areas where they used Kisler rods and Shimano reels spooled with Power Pro Braid in 30 and 50-pound test to target fish in 2-12 feet of water. The large imitation frogs they threw were doctored with small bells attached to the twin hooks.

Lafayette, La. angler Larry Crocker's Big Bass of the tournament was caught on a Chug Bug in the Black Forrest area of the lake at 7:30 a.m., the second bite on opening day. The 10.79 bass is the best bass ever for the retired Fluid Tech angler, the best ever day finish and the second big bass award in oilmen tournaments. It was the first time him and Sarkies, of Toledo Bend, fished together in a tournament although they have been friends for many years. Crocker also caught a 6.5 pound bass that was 5th largest bass of the day also on a chug bug on the early morning bite. Their 22.25 pound limit was the second largest of the tournament.

"We went back to the same places today," said a disappointed Crocker at the day 2 weigh in of their two fish weighing 5.55 pounds. "They just weren't biting today."

Gear of choice used by the anglers, who fished from Crocker's Stratos bass boat powered by a Johnson motor, were All Star and Kisler rods with Shimano and Garcia reels spooled with 15-pound test Big Game line.