Well Southern Boyz Bass Club was represented extremely well in this year’s ALBC Best Six tournament on Toledo Bend. The team consisted of Josh Sikes, Rick Villemarette, Brandon Nugent, Aaron Belgard, Wallace Woodson, and Kevin Woodson. We ended up in 2^nd place with a two day total of 80.91lbs. That’s 24 fish with an average weight of 3.37lbs. We were 1.1lbs out of first. One more good bite would have done it for us. This club was founded in 2007 and fished its first best six in 2009 with a 78^th place finish. It goes to show you how far these bunch of Deville/Jena/Pineville boys have come in a short time!

Practice went well for us on the first day. With only 4 members fishing our best 12 fish would have topped the 56lb range. Josh & Aaron had an 8.5lb fish with a couple of 4lbers. I had two over 6lbs and Kevin caught 24 fish with numerous over or around 3lbs. Day 2 practice got much tougher. The lake looked like glass most of the time. Every team was still catching fish but size was tough to get. That night we put all our information together and came up with a game plan. We knew we had some good fish located, but with the Bassmaster Elites and Bass N Bucks also having tournaments going on we didn’t know how well they would hold out.

Day 1 of the tournament started out with a bang. We had a limit by 7:30 which included a 5.5lber caught by Wallace Woodson & Kevin Woodson. Every team was catching! This allowed us to start going looking for bigger fish. We were running and gunning, hitting as many spots as we could trying to find bigger fish. By the end of the day each team had a fish over 5lbs. When we all meet up and starting culling fish we knew we had a good sack! The total for Day 1 was 41.71lbs. That’s almost a 3.5lb average. After Day 1, we sat in 4^th place 6.5lbs out of the lead. After all that we were defiantly ready for Day 2, but Day 2 wasn’t ready for us. By 7:30, we only had 7 fish and they were all line scratchers. We began to worry! Around 8 we got a little boost when Rick and I caught a 6lber, but after that the bite died. At 10:30 we still only had 8 fish. Around 11, we began to figure out that the fish had moved out deep. Once we did, we began catching fish, but with weigh in at 2 o’clock time was a real big factor. We only had a couple of hours left to fish.  Josh and Aaron took a gamble and made a long run and quickly caught a 6.5lb and 4lb fish. Now we had a shot. Everyone was able to catch a couple more fish before we had to go weigh in. When we meet up to cull fish, we realized that we had some better fish than we thought anchored by our 2 6lbers. When we got to the scales, we were all shocked that we had 39.2lbs (3.25lb average).  We knew we were close then. After it was all said and done, we fell a little bit short but this was the best finish we ever had. Our previous best was last year with a 4^th place finish so the club is getting better every year. Only one more spot to go!

All of our fish weighed in were caught on some type of Rig bait either a Caroline Rig or an Umbrella Rig. We were focusing on grass points off of spawning flats, drains, or the edge of spawning pockets. Anywhere these post spawn fish might be ambushing the shad spawn. We were hitting lots of spots each day sometimes not staying in spots longer than 5 minutes. With very little wind for Toledo Bend standards, it allowed us to move around with ease! The depth range was all over the place. We caught fish between 3ft and 25ft of water. The fish were in different stages of spawn and post spawn and the shad spawn was also beginning so fish were just scattered. We just had to cover a wide range of areas and depths.

On another note, it was very interesting to fish with all the Elite boys around. We had some interesting run ins with them. On Thursday, I had the privileged of being cut off by KVD himself (NOT THAT I MINDED). I’ve never seen someone work a jerkbait so quickly. He made about 15 casts caught 2 fish and then was gone before I was able to get a picture.  Then on Friday, Josh and Aaroon were fishing a spot and Rick Clunn showed up and asked if he could join them. They said sure it’s all yours. Three casts later Clunn caught a 7lber. He thanked them on stage at the weigh inn.

Brandon Nugent

This next article was written by Wallace Woodson the night after the Best Six Tournament.

Motivation

            What strong stuff that is! It used to come to me in bucket loads, now I’m happy for every tea cup I get. Four years ago I went to Toledo Bend as the SBBC team captain with a crew of anglers that had one easy goal: Do their best and hopefully achieve the best finish ever for the SBBC. Well, after a hard weeks work we not only did that with a 15^th place finish, but we also won a boat in the process.

            For a lot of us that was a successful years showing. For the two youngest “kids” on the team it was just motivation. After a low water year on the Red River, we came back to Toledo Bend in 2013 and I happened to be team captain again. Our goal was pretty much the same… Do better than we’ve ever done before. The work began and success came. We finished 4^th and along came more motivation for these “kids.”

            This year came and these “kids” have steadily been preparing for the chance. Long days on the water, hours of looking at maps and studying graphs, phone calls and questions, ordering baits/line, everything thought over even the fact that we have 3 major tournaments in one weekend. It all didn’t matter, we were ready. Two days of practice and we were fishing beside Rick Clunn, Randall Tharp, Randy Howell, and oh yeah… KEVIN VANDAM. Do you think we were in the right spots??

            Well guys we didn’t win, but we’ve been climbing this ladder for a few years and there is only one step left. That leaves nothing but motivation for these 2 “kids” who are already working on next year’s plans. Brandon Nugent and Josh Sikes are all heart and soul when it comes to fishing for SBBC. These “kids” and a young rookie like Aaron Belgard are what the SBBC and fishing needs for our future. As for this old guy, I get plenty of motivation trying to keep up!!