Two sacks over 30 pounds,Wilson, Harvey win on Rayburn
By PATTY LENDERMAN Lakecaster Managing Editor

Rayburn is HOT! Bass Champs East Region had its second 2008 event Feb. 16 at the Umphrey Family Pavilion. The overall stats were very impressive, but so were the individual weights. Twenty four limits over 20 pounds were weighed in, two of them over 30 pounds! Lots of big bass were brought to the scales, among them two 10 pounders!

It was an exciting day, not only for the spectators who came to watch the weigh in but for the anglers who had been out on the lake to experience it. The day was perched between thunderstorms the night before and severe thunderstorms on the way. The bass went nuts! Out of 256 teams, 174 of them brought limits to the scales. It was incredible.

During the early morning hours, as time for take-off was drawing near, the wind was still howling from the storms earlier in the night. The decision to allow the teams to trailer their boats to ramps closer to their fishing holes was made. Anglers were given strict instructions that they could begin fishing no sooner than 7:00am, and put their poles down by 3:00. The scales would stay open until 4:45 to allow time for everyone to get back to the weigh in.

It was obvious from the first teams to weigh that it had been a great day to fish. One sack after another over the 20 pound mark was weighed in. John Allen brought in the first double digit bass of the day at 10 pounds even. After that, Johnny Renfro brought in the first sack with an even weight, making him eligible for a bonus.

"Do you know what bonus you're eligible for?" asked Chad Potts, President of Bass Champs. "I have no idea" Johnny answered.

The first even weight weighed in each Bass Champs event is eligible for a Skeeter Dealer bonus of $250. All you have to do to win it is pick up a business card from any Skeeter Dealer and have it on you when you come to weigh in! The first team with an even total weight that has the dealers business card wins the bonus.

The weights kept stacking up, then Greg Christian and Bill Wilcox brought their limit in, trumping all of the weights that had been tallied at that point with 27.62 lbs. More heavy sacks came through, and it looked like they would win until Kris Wilson & David Harvey came to the line with their catch.

Kris was carrying one side of the double bagged sack, while David carried the other side. First they weighed their kicker, and had to determine which fish was largest. Putting it on the scales, she weighed 9.48 lbs. Not quite big enough to take over Big Bass, but adding it to the rest of their creel the scales jumped to 30.62 lbs, and the crowd roared!

We thought we had seen it all at that point, and the weigh in was about to the end. Another big sack of bass brought in by Chris Clemens and Dallas Cole was heading to the scales. It caught everyone's attention, especially Wilson & Harvey. First they weighed their big bass - 10.32 lbs, taking Big Bass honors!

Adding their other four, it was going to be close. The scales locked in at 30.02 lbs, another incredible weight and a close call for Wilson & Harvey!

Still reeling from their incredible day and their close win, Kris and David told us about their time on the lake.

"We trailered to another launch site. At our first spot, we caught one big fish, and wrapped up a limit pretty quick with four smaller ones."

They were throwing rattle traps in 5' drains. "We threw them every direction. The fish were everywhere."

After catching a few more in that area, they moved to another spot in search of bigger bass to cull with.

"At our next spot, we started throwing crank baits. We lost a six pounder, it just pulled off. We did manage to put two more big bass in the boat."

This all happened by 10 a.m., and they scrambled until 3 p.m. to try to find another big bass. While that search was unsuccessful, turns out they got all they needed to win 1st place and $20,000.

Chris Clemens and Dallas Cole won 2nd place with 30.02 lbs. "We caught 'em in the waves" Dallas explained. Fishing near the mid lake area, they targeted grassy points.

"We were using crank baits, throwing parallel to the shoreline in water about 10' deep. We had a limit by 9:00, but we kept moving and catching more fish. We also caught some on jigs." Their biggest, 10.32 lbs, hit on a crank bait at 11 a.m.

They won $1,000 for their Big Bass, and Chad asked them if they had an Abu Garcia REVO reel in their boat. They did, and won the REVO reel bonus of two more REVO reels! They also received a $5,000 check for their 2nd place finish.

In 3rd place with 27.62 lbs. was the team of Greg Christian and Bill Wilcox. They also trailered, and once they started fishing their morning went fast and furious.

"We were hitting points with a Carolina rigged watermelon red baby brush hog in 2'-6'. We put a limit in the boat around 8:00, and in the next two hours caught about five limits!"

They didn't cull a single fish after 10:30.

"We looked for deeper, bigger fish in brush piles, but couldn't find any we could cull with. Our smallest fish weighed about 4 pounds."

Bill is television host for Honey Hole All Outdoors. He had recently done a show with Cody Byrd.

"I had been teasing him on the show about how I keep finding bobbers that he leaves every time I'm out on a lake. He doesn't really leave them, I just have a little fun teasing him about it. Well, today when we went to put our first fish in the livewell, I opened it to find it full of floating bobbers!"

It didn't take them long to figure out who pulled the well deserved prank. They won $3,000 for their 3rd place finish.