The 2013 Future Pro Tour kicked off with a bang at the season-opener of the Big Bass Brawl on Clear Lake. Blue skies and warm spring conditions met the 135 boats that converged on the big bass fishery and weights did not disappoint as shown in the official results released yesterday. Big fish were hungry and ready to bite. Teams couldn't break into the top trio without a 34-lb sack and it took over 30 to get into the top-7.
"A-rigs all day," exclaimed Vince Herring and Kenneth Durling at their post weigh-in interview. "We did a lot of scramblin'. We pretty much ran the whole entire lake, caught our fish and made our bites count. We didn't catch a lot of fish like everyone else. We just had to grind for those good ones." Their grind got them 34.81, bolstered by an 8.95 kicker and was worth $3,400 for the win.
There was close competition for Herring and Durling as runners-up Brian Bailey and Cody Bashore came to the scales with 34.56 and their own 8.52 anchor. "It's actually been slower today than it has all week," reported Bashore a lake local. "We had a lot of good bites this week with a Trash Fish - a 6-inch Fatty. It helped us dial them in. We already had the locations; but today they were goin' for the bigger baits." Concentrating on the north side of the lake, they reported reeling in 25 fish. Bailey and Bashore banked $2,200 for their best.
BMX Mike Kranich and Alex Christianson rounded out the top-3 with 34.08. "We caught 'em all day; it was ridiculous," commented Kranich. These guys reported they got theirs burnin' crankbaits and swimbaits from Monster Tackle and were fishing within sight of the second place team. They netted $1,300 for their 3rd place finish.
The biggest of The Brawl went to the team of Markham and Harmon. "We pulled up to that jetty just north of Konocti, I threw a jig in five-feet of water and she ate it," said Harmon. This big one hit about noon and earned them $350.
Payouts and/or prizes were pocketed by the top-21.
A medal and a prize package with product from Lucky Craft, River2Sea and Yamamoto Baits went to the Future, Future Pro champion of the youth division Jarret Preston. Fishing with his father, the Preston team brought in 21.32. Second place was credited to Colt Boykin. Also fishing with dad, the Boykins' five went 16.65.
Remaining top-10 teams:
4th Gee/Ortiz 33.93
5th Valador/Chappell 32.01
6th Juarez/Wilson 31.84
7th Habernich/Thornton 30.64
8th Waddinton/Kornagay 28.16
9th Sagula/Smith 28.06
10th Wallace/Wallace 26.53
Enitre results are available at the Future Pro Tour website.
Blast off with the next FPT event on April 20th at Folsom Lake.
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