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This year was the smallest field of anglers since the inception of the IBBT in 1999. A total of 20 boats entered this year’s event. Many of the faces seen were those who frequent to the event. However a few have been on hiatus from the IBBT and decided to join us once again. It was good to see everyone and share old stories. As is does almost every year, a cold front decided to visit the area the same weekend we did. Fortunately for us, it didn’t turn out to be as bad as the weatherman said. We had highs in the 70’s each day and only a few intermittent showers the entire trip. The wind decided to blow a little, but nothing that turned out to be too dangerous. A few of the anglers turned up Wed night. Those who were around came over for Hamburgers that night. Jonesy makes a mean batch of taters, and Mr. “Smithkoski” manned the grill. Ivan Williams brought his new Basscat Puma by to show everyone, and demonstrated the new step up entry mounted on the tongue of the trailer. An extremely useful idea, and yet another addition to “Pimp Daddy” Ivan’s awesome boat! More anglers arrived on Thursday. Jonesy and Mr. “Smithkowski” did it right on this night. Fried Catfish, Taters and Hush Puppies!!!! Cranky made up some “squaw bread” that had me digging through the rest of the food to find it. This was an AWESOME addition to this year’s event. THANKS to the chefs!!! The rest of the anglers arrived on Friday. We visited B&P’s Hickory Pit BBQ for the traditional Friday night dinner. More past IBBT stories were shared, and since most had had a couple days of fishing in by then, many fishing lies were told too! :o) And yes, we actually did fish too!! :o) Below are the results of this years event. RESULTS
* - Big Bass
Ivan “Pimp Daddy” Williams and Danny “Jake the Snake” Collier repeated their performance from last year by topping the field with 32.21 lbs over 2 days. The bag was anchored by the Big Bass of the tournament, a 7.12 monster! This is the IBBT record for biggest bass and may be hard to beat!! The team fished a variety of baits (jigs, spinnerbaits and crankbaits) to catch their fish each day. With the fast warming trend, the fish were really on the move. Ivan and Danny stated they fished all new water and “fished the conditions” as things changed each day.
If you want to talk about overcoming adversity, our 2nd place team can give you an earful. Duane “Biiggdee” Erickson and Earl “Mr. Drop Shot” Best ran into a major obstacle. Earl’s motor died on them Thursday, so they lost most of their practice time on Thursday and Friday going all the way back to Springfield to drop Earl’s boat off at the shop and get Duane’s boat. But they kept their nose to the grindstone and brought in the most fish of any team fishing, with 9. Their 28.58 lbs over 2 days included the 2nd Big Bass at 6.78 lbs, which put them in 2nd place overall. “Rumor” has it that they caught there fish shallow on jigs.
Third place went to Chuck “Fluker” Campbell and Brent “Fishnut” Haimes. They brought in the heaviest 5 fish limit of the tournament on Saturday, but could not fend off the charge of those following close behind. They weighed in a total of 7 fish for 24.73 lbs including the 3rd Big Bass of the tournament (6.44 lbs). The “Yankees” caught there fish on jigs and spinnerbaits from 2 to 12 foot of water halfway back in coves.
Other Notables:
There was 1 more fish weighed in over 6 lbs. Dave “Bassman IA” Steppuhn and Bill “Ol Smoothie” Mausbach (shown) brought in a 6.28 on day 1 of the tournament. Rumor has it, Ol Billy swung her in the boat like she was a crappie!!! 6 lbers aren’t nothing to worry about for these boys!
The father / son team of Billy and Draven Ray get the most improved award from Day 1 to Day 2. They struggled on day 1 and did not weigh in a keeper, but bounced BOLDLY back on day 2 with 3 fish weighing 12.20 lbs, jumping them all the way to 6th place.
Dale “Jonesy” Jones and Mike “Fish On” Szczechowski weighed in a total of 7.77 lbs. Dale called the next day and booked his trip to Vegas to try out his lucky numbers! I’d like to finish up with some personal THANK YOU’s! First and foremost, a HUGE thanks to our 2007 Sponsors. There was a ton of great prizes given away! I hope everyone enjoys them!! Please think of our sponsors the next time you need to make a purchase. E-mail all sponsors (click here)
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