02/19 - February 12th Lake Claiborne

There was a hint of rain in the air this morning when I walked out of the cabin at Pleasure Point Marina. It was 4:00 AM, at least two and a half hours before take off time, but there was already one team in the parking lot waiting for me to open the weigh trailer so they could register. Gayle was having her second cup of coffee in the cabin so I opened the trailer and registered Chris Patton and Ben Jones. Soon the parking lot began to fill up with trucks pulling boats and excited fishermen were scurring here and there prepairing to launch boats, checking running lights and tying on lures. It was the morning of the very first North Central Louisiana division of Media Bass and everyone was ready to get started.

Gayle joined me at registration and we had all 45 boats in the water and staged by flights as the Eastern sky began to brighten.There was just enough breeze to make Ole Glory wave as we all stood for our National Anthem. Finally after those three long months of sitting on cold deer stands or freezing in a duck blind, it was here, time to go fishing.As I called their number each boat would idle out of the pack and rocket off in search of those lake Claiborne Lunkers.

When the last boat had departed, I glanced to my left and saw a boat drifting against the rocks on Pleasure Point. I recognized it and its two occupants as our # 5 boat which were Monk Anderson and Scott Smith. I walked down to where they were and found them frantically working to swap batteries around. Their cranking battery was dead so they changed everything over to one of their trolling motor batteries and finall got underway 15 minutes after everyone else.

Gayle and I, along with Dan Roberts who is on our staff, spent the day getting everything ready for the afternoon weigh in. by 3:00 PM a small group of spectaters had gathered as the first flight of 20 boats began to arrive at the holding tanks and we began what turned out to be a very impressive weigh in.

When the first flight had all weighed in one team sat atop the leader board with almost a 6 pound lead. That team was Monk Anderson and Scott Smith the #5 boat that had taken off late because of battery problems. Their 5 fish limit weighed in at 20.18 pounds and held up through the rest of the weigh in to give Monk and Scott the victory. Monk said that they caught all of their fish on heavy jigs fished in brush piles and around stumps in 14 to 17 feet of water. The jigs they were useing were Homer Humphries new Bass Getter in black blue and purple and trailed with V&M sapphire blue craws.

The second place team of Doug and Steve Crain weighed in a limit of 16.66 pounds. Their stringer was anchored by a 5.59 pound brute that was the big bass of the event.

Third place went to Bucky Bailey and Nick Cardin with a limit weighing in at 14.87 pounds. Close behind in forth place were Mickey Fontana and Craig Kolb with 14.47 pounds and rounding out the top five were Jason Williams and Malcolm Cooper with 14.13 pounds.

Mike Owens fished alone for his team and made his partner Shane Malone proud by finishing sixth with 13.98 pounds. Mike was followed by William Grafton and Richard Scaife who finished seventh with 13.47.Scott Tanner and Buddy Norris finished eighth with 13.04 pounds and the well known team of Jeff Pate and Eddie Shaw grabbed ninth with 13.00 pounds.

This was the way to start a new year and a new circuit. The rain that was threatining in the early morning never developed, the temperature was comfortable, the wind was light out of the south and the fish bit. With 28 limits weighed in and only two blanks, and with a 100% live release, I would say that our first tournament with Media Bass was a huge success.

Gayle and I would like to say thanks to Gordon Stauffer for giving us the opprotunity to join Media Bass. We think that Gordon runs a top notch organization and we are proud to be a part of it. We also want to thank our anglers who turned out in good numbers to show their confidence in our choice of Media Bass for our North Central Louisiana tournament circuit.

Last of all we want to than k all of our area sponsors. Without the support of good local businesses it would be impossible to bring you the top quality events that we do. We ask our anglers to please patronize these sponsors when possible.

Ruston Area: Depot 33, 318-255-5681--Farmerville area: The Tan Depot, 318-368-0666-- Farmerville First National Bank, 318-368-8482-- Farmerville Motors, 318-368-3181--Pro Fiberglass and Pool Service, 318-368-2030--Pecks B Gone, 318-368-6719-- Office Plus, 318-368-2951---Monroe Area: Linh Johns Marine, 318-387-4221--Bayou Outdoors Magazine, 318-699-0262--The Ole Bait Store, 318-323-8006--- West Monroe Area: Bar B Q West, 318-396-7455--Toledo Tackle, 318-396-3600--Ductwork Inc., 318-397-9948--The honey Hole, 318-323-8707--- Natchitoches Area: V&M Lures, 1-800-762-8397

See Ya next month at D'Arbonne Dale & Gayle