McCall, Boulware win the Bass N Bucks kickoff
By PATTY LENDERMAN Lakecaster Managing Editor

CHRIS MCCALL AND CLAYTON BOULWARE won first place with their 23.44 lb. limit. Along with their $15,000 1st place check, they were also the top finishing Ranger Boat team for an additional $2,500. Pictured right, third place was won by Russ Carter and Scott Bailey. Scott holds up two of a five bass limit that weighed 20.67 lbs.

It's a brand new season. Bass N Bucks, in its traditional fashion began the 2008 tournament season in December 2007, with bigger paybacks and a new title sponsor - Ranger Boats! Lots of new faces stepped up to compete, and the weights were stacked. Clayton Boulware and Chris McCall took home winnings totaling $17,500! Nearly $50,000 was paid back in 26 places - make that 27 due to a last place tie.

The wind blew all night before the tournament, and continued in gusts at takeoff. Heavy cloud cover blanketed the sky with predictions of rain later in the day. With the recent warmer days, the water temperature had climbed five degrees, scattering the bass.

As time for weigh-in approached, the rain finally hit. Teams began trickling in to the scales, and the father and son team of Obie & Obie Culp took the big bass lead early on with their 7.36 kicker. "It was our first fish of the day! She was shallow, only about 2 or 3 feet deep. We were fishing in grass, in the back of a pocket."

Outdoors photo/Patty Lenderman

Obie (father) caught her on a Texas rigged Zoom watermelon red curl tail worm. Although many other big bass were brought in and weighed, theirs was the biggest of the tournament winning a check for $1,000. They won 9th place overall with their 17.47 pound total.

Harold Allen and Glen Freeman brought in the first sack weighing over 20 pounds, but three more teams brought in a little bit more weight seizing top spots.

Chris McCall and Clayton Boulware had a sack of all chunks with no particular kicker in the bag weighing 23.44 pounds to win the tournament. "It was a slow bite for us today. We didn't catch a whole lot of fish" Clayton explained. "The morning bite stunk, to say the least. About 9:30 we finally caught one a little over 4 pounds, and over the next couple of hours caught three more about that same weight. At 12:30 we caught a five pounder that we were able to cull a two pounder with." They caught their fish on ? ounce bleeding shad rattle traps. "The real key was our Ambassador Revo reels, 17# Berkley Trilene Flourocarbon line and American Rodsmith rods" Chris stated. "The trick was a slightly different retrieve technique that Clayton came up with that triggered the bigger bite. We've had several 2nd place finishes, but today we were able to catch the right five (bass)." They would like to acknowledge their sponsors, and thank them for their support: Ranger Boats, Evinrude motors, Abassador Revo reels, American Rodsmith, Berkley Trilene Flourocarbon line, Stanley Jigs, Terry's Marine, Darrell at Tri-Lakes Tackle, Gambler, A & W Rootbeer, Santone Lures and Needmore Tackle. As a Ranger Boat team, they also received the top Ranger Cup bonus of $2,500 in addition to their 1st place $15,000 check. "This is a great partnership between Bass N Bucks and Ranger Boats!"

KEVIN COLEMAN AND BRIAN SCHOTT seized 2nd place by a very narrow margin, weighing in 20.75 lbs. Outdoors photo/Patty Lenderman

There was just over a 1/4 pound spread between 2nd thru 4th place. Brian Schott and Kevin Coleman took second place with 20.75 lbs to win $4,000. "We did a lot of running and gunning" Brian said. They didn't do any pre-fishing, so pretty well came in to the tournament blind. "We just hit a lot of our old sweet spots, mostly concentrating on secondary grassy points in 4'- 6'." They had an initial limit in the boat early, around 8:30 using Rayburn red rattle traps. "We probably hit more than 20 different spots, and the fish bit all day for us. I'd guess that we caught about 25 keepers, and our biggest cull was 2 ? pounds." Every cull is so important. They only topped the next highest weight by 8/100ths of a pound! "We'd like to thank Dave & Tricia for running such a great tournament trail. We really enjoy fishing Bass N Bucks."

Top Teams:

1st - $15,000 23.44 lbs. Clayton Boulware and Chris McCall

2nd - $4,000 20.75 lbs. Kevin Coleman and Brian Schott

3rd - $2,500 20.67 lbs. Russ Carter and Scott Bailey

4th - $1,500 20.47 lbs. Harold Allen and Glen Freeman

5th - $1,300 19.99 lbs. Larry Byrd and Quincy Byrd

6th - $1,000 19.72 lbs. Stan Burgay and Lance Hughes

7th - $1,000 18.36 lbs. Robert Glende and Ted Odell

8th - $1,000 18.33 lbs. Landan Ware and Rick Scott

9th - $1,000 17.47 lbs. Obie Culp and Obie Culp III

10th - $1,000 17.17 lbs. Jason Wells and Vic Cooper

......and a tie for last in the money.....

26th - $300 14.63 lbs. Chad Heitman and David May

26th - $300 14.63 lbs. John Lynch and Todd Driscoll

That's not the end of the payouts! Ranger Boats sponsors three more checks every tournament for the top three finishing qualified Ranger Boat owners!

1st - $2,500 Chris McCall

2nd - $1,000 Russ Carter

3rd - $500 Glen Freeman

"I am really happy to see all of our new teams!" stated Dave Concienne. "There are so many anglers that have been fishing with us for years, and we have watched them get better and better. There are several anglers that we have watched grow up as well. Even if you missed this first tournament, I'd like to invite everyone out there who may be thinking about trying their hand at tournament fishing to join us this year. Our next 1st Series tournament will be Feb. 3, on Toledo Bend out of Cypress Bend. Come on out and win some big money! Our Conroe series kicks off Jan. 26 on Lake Conroe. That series will consist of three Conroe events and two Rayburn events. Register for all five of these tournaments and qualify for the Championship!"

For more information, click to www.BassNBucks.com or call 409-727-8941.