The 2016 SBBC season has officially begun and it started out with a bang. The first tournament of the year took place at Black Lake and as usual with all our tournaments at Black Lake we were fishing post frontal, but with one thing different this year. Usually we fish Black Lake post-spawn, this year it took place pre-spawn. Numbers of fish were down but quality was up. The morning started out in the mid 30s with heavy fog, but ended the day in the 70 degree range with bright sunshine. A lot of anglers reported having good numbers and size the day before in practice, but things changed dramatically overnight for the 43 anglers that showed up to fish Saturday morning.

There is always one thing you can count on at Black, someone is going to catch them flipping cypress trees and the person was Bruce Fisher. Bruce brought 5 fish for 17.19lbs anchored by a 6.26lber. Bruce is known for his flipping and pitching ability so the lake sets up great for him. All his fish came in less than 2ft of water on a beaver style bait rigged with a half oz weight on the South end of the Lake not far from the landing. He began catching fish on his first flip of the day and caught a few more throughout the day. At 2 o’clock he pulled into a pocket and caught 5 more in 30 minutes. I believe this is Bruce’s first win in the SBBC. Second place went to me. I had 4 fish for 15.40lbs. My fish were strictly junk fishing because my “pattern” I had figured out did not work at all. I started the morning by catching 2 fish at the bridge on a jig and shaky head and then didn’t get another bite until 2:15. At that point I caught 2 fish real quick including my big fish of 6.38lbs on a spinnerbait in about 2ft of water on the South end of the lake. Third place went to James Corley with 14.72lbs who was doing something you never hear about on Black Lake. He caught all but his big fish on a drop shot in the main creek channel on the South end of the lake. Said he seen the fish on his graph and couldn’t get them to bite anything else. His big fish (5.67lbs) came off of beaver style bait. Finishing out the top 5 were Michael “Woofy” Watts with 14.67lbs and Mark Barbat with 12.67lbs. Big bass of the tournament went to the big fish master himself Michael Watts. Michael fished weighed 6.7lbs and was caught on a jig. Michael won big bass twice last year and looks to be doing same this year. Congratulations to Bruce on his first win and all our top 5 finishers! Way to start out of the year!

So far we have 47 members signed up for the club with a good many new members this year looks like it’s going to be an exciting year. We had 43 anglers show up with the first tournament and 77 fish were brought to the scales (1.79 fish per angler). That’s not a very good average shows how tough the bite was. The average weight of each fish was 2.87lbs with 5 fish over 5lbs being brought to the scales.

The 2^nd tournament of the year will take place at Cane River on March 12. As discussed at the weigh in this will be a trailer tournament. You can launch from Shell Beach, Pruddens Landing, or the landing in town. The weekend before I will announce the official takeoff time on our website and Facebook page. Weigh in will still be at Shell Beach landing at 3 o’clock. If anyone has any questions just give me a call. Also sorry no video this tournament didn’t have much to show and also nobody else had theirs with them. Remember if you have a go pro bring it to the tournament and I will add the video with mine and post a video for each tournament. Also I would like to thank Caleb Stark of Farm Bureau insurance for sponsoring each tournament adding an extra $100 to the first place jackpot. This week first place got over $500 for a small club tournament. Not a bad pay day!
Brandon Nugent