40 pounds or bust
Clear Lake finalists gunning for heaviest sack ever to win historic tournament
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – At most bass tournaments, fishing fans can generally expect the catch weights to drop a little on the last day. Not so this week at Clear Lake, where Stren Series Western Division anglers are etching their names into the history books for putting on the heaviest tournament of all time.
It’s a matter of sheer numbers: Once the field gets trimmed from around 200 to just 10 boats for the final round, the odds of big sacks of fish coming in drops proportionally.
However, Clear Lake has already defied the math on just about every front this week, conjuring up three straight days of record weights – and increasing each day. The way things are shaping up for the fourth day, there are just two records left to break: heaviest limit of all time and heaviest total tournament weight for an angler.
With temperatures expected to creep into the mid-80s and sunny, calm conditions slated for the entire day, Clear Lake represents a veritable Wonka Chocolate Factory of bedding bass for the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers Saturday. Whichever big females haven’t moved up yet to bank will do so today, and the sight-fishing, as they say, will be off the hook.
“Man, I wish I was fishing tomorrow because this place is going to be unbelievable,” pro Jim Lyons said Friday night. Lyons finished the week in 45th place and missed the cut despite catching over 55 pounds of fish the first three days.
Pro leader Jared Stone – who currently has an almost 7-pound lead on the field – and fourth-place Michael Tuck both made grumblings about going for 40 pounds of fish Saturday. If it happens, that would easily break the heaviest-stringer record, which is 37 pounds even, caught by James Stricklin Jr. at a Lake Amistad Texas Tournament Trail event earlier this season.
And if Stone – who currently sits at 80 pounds, 15 ounces – is the one to come up with a weight like that, he’ll also smash the four-day weight record of 105-8, which was caught by David Mauldin in Stren Series competition, also at Lake Amistad, last year.
The monster mash continues. Tune in today at 4 p.m. Pacific time to see who emerges victorious – and who goes down in the record books.
Bottom line
Both the pro and co-angler winners will be determined Saturday by four-day combined weight.
The pros are fishing for a top award of $25,000 plus a $40,000 519VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor, Lowrance electronics and EverStart batteries if contingency guidelines are met. Ranger will award another $3,000 to the winner if he or she is a participant in the Ranger Cup program. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $1,500 to the highest-finishing participant in the contingency program. Yamaha will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup earnings if “Powered by Yamaha” guidelines are met.
Co-anglers are competing for a top award of $5,000 plus a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.
Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 15960 Dam Road in Clearlake, Calif., beginning at 4 p.m.