Weather Conditions:

Low – 57

High – 79

Foggy/Hazy clearing to Sunny Late

Wind – South 5-10mph

The 2^nd tournament of the year took place on the #10 ranked lake in the US according to BASSMASTER, Toledo Bend Reservoir and it sure lived up to the hype. The day started out with a huge fog that didn’t clear until around noon. With water temps finally starting to warm (52-57) from a very harsh winter, fish were getting ready to move into spawning areas, but not quite yet. This kept the numbers of fish we are usually accustom to seeing this time of year from being brought to the scales, but did contribute to some HUGE sacks for a few anglers!! SBBC records were crushed by one of our young guns and multiple big fish were brought to the scales.

As everyone knows Toledo Bend offers anglers a variety of choices of fishing tactics, but it seemed the anglers that chose to fish near or in deep creek/river channels are the ones who stood above the rest. And one angler definitely stood WAY above the rest of us. The very last person to weigh in, and rightfully so was Josh Sikes. Everyone’s jaw dropped as he placed big fish after big fish into the weigh bag. Basically he threw the record book into a shredder and then burned the shreds and threw the shredder down a mountain with an unbelievable 26.21lb sack anchored by a 10.22lb SLOUNCH DONKEY!!!!! WOW is all you can say! Congratulations Josh on a truly awesome catch!! This was Josh’s 2nd win in the SBBC. Josh was focusing on a grass point next to a deep creek channel. His boat was sitting in 20-25ft of water throwing an umbrella rig onto edge of a grass point. He said the magic depth was 13ft which is where the grass line ended. Most anglers can only dream of a day like that. Josh broke the SBBC big bass record by 1.78lbs and largest sack record by 2.99lbs, both of which were held by our defending Angler of the Year Russ White, but don’t feel bad for Russ. He also brought in an impressive sack of 19.44lbs anchored by a 7.68lb largemouth which was good enough for 2^nd place. Russ was also throwing an umbrella rig on main lake points in 15-25ft of water. You can always count on Russ doing something different from the rest of the crowds. This is what separates him as an angler. Third place went to new member Jerry Silas with 18.95lbs. Jerry was focusing on 5-6ft of water with grass near creek channel swings. He caught his big fish 9.17lbs on a red ¾oz rattle trap and the rest of his limit came off of a watermelon red fluke. Once again a congratulations goes out to each of our top 3 for some awesome weights. Rounding out the top 5 was Brian Lucas with 16.65lbs and Michael Watts with 16.01lbs. One thing that makes Michael’s catch a little more impressive is that he did it in the back of 2 time Angler of the Year Wallace Woodon’s boat. Imagine what he could have done in the front, he might have been able to give Josh a run for his money. Well….. On a second thought probably not.

After it was all said and done 31 anglers brought in a total of 4 fish that weighed in over 6lbs. A total of 75 fish were brought to the scales with an average weight of 3.21lbs. This is also a new SBBC record. Another congratulations needs to go out to 2 time Angler of the Year Wallace Woodson, who during practice Friday caught his new personal best of 10.42lbs!!!! This was officially weighed in at Toledo Tackle into the Toledo Bend Lunker Program and Wallace will get a free replica in May during the Big Bass Splash tournament. To my knowledge over 3 days of fishing a total of 6 (2 10lb, 1 9lb, 3 7lb, 1 6lb) fish over 6lbs were caught by SBBC members either during practice or the tournament. I’m sure there were more but that’s all that I know about. The Bend definitely lived up to its reputation this weekend!!!! Our next tournament will be March 29 at Black Lake. We have the cabin booked so if you need a spot contact myself or Curt Paul. Hope to see everyone there!!

On a separate note, I realized that after weighing Josh’s sack of fish (or bricks) the legs of our weigh table were bowed out. Josh I will have to take back your winnings to buy a new table!!

Sorry no video for this tournament. I will start that back up at Blake Lack.

Brandon Nugent