Once again, anglers needed a huge sack just to cash a check at the Skeeter Bass Champs South Region Tournament March 10 on Falcon International Reservoir.
Two hundred teams competed, and Waco anglers David Ridley and Alton Jones Jr. took top honors with a 39.15-pound sack to win more than $25,000.
The day was challenging as anglers worked with the rain, wind, and cold weather Mother Nature had in store for them. They were rewarded for their efforts as 26 teams caught limits exceeding 30 pounds.
“We didn’t have an opportunity to practice and locate fish, so we just went fishing,” Ridley said. “The lake has come up quite a bit with the recent rains, and we had about 20 different spots we wanted to check out that were bare at the last tournament here.”
They fished several spots that included points, ditches and drainages in 6-14 feet of water.
“What we found was the areas that had some kind of rock or gravel seemed to be holding the better fish,” Ridley added. “Using Bomber Fat Free crankbaits in a shad pattern, we didn’t find any one place loaded, just caught one here and one there. We also tried other baits, but the quality fish were all on the crankbait.
“We caught our two biggest back-to-back around 1:30.”
Jones caught the pair’s kicker weighing 10.02 pounds.
David Zak, San Angelo, and Randy Caddell, Andrews, caught a huge sack weighing 38.13 pounds to win second place and $5,000.
“It was a good day,” Zak said. “Randy and I were supposed to practice the week before, but I couldn’t make it. Randy located fish at rocky points in up to 18 feet of water. We picked six or eight of those spots to hit with a Strike King 6xD Sexy Shad crankbait.”
Third place went to Scott Saunders, Utopia, and Cody Johnson of Sabinal.
A dozen bass weighing more than 10 pounds were brought to the scales, but Mannie Lackey caught the biggest at 11.93 pounds throwing a Texas-rigged Senko.
It took 29.95 pounds to win a check.
With two events to go, Anglers of the Year standings are:
612 pts David Ridley & Alton Jones Jr.
603 pts Charlie Forster & Mike Bingham
590 pts Trent Huckaby & Tyler Young
571 pts Matt Rigby & William Rigby
571 pts Mike Bates & Ronald Heineman
