Bass Champs East Region held their final regular season event for 2015 on Toledo Bend May 9, 2015 paying back over $61,000 to the top winners. Lone angler Jeff Rice of Bossier City, LA stayed ahead of the pack of 210 teams to win over $20,000.
Contenders were given a break from the rain for the most part, only having occasional sprinkles throughout the day. The biggest challenge was overcoming the increasing wind, blowing up to 20 mph. On a giant lake like Toledo Bend, that means big rolling waves and white caps, keeping many boats not too far from Cypress Bend to weigh in. A few went great distances for their creel, and for some it paid off.
Jeff Rice weighed in the biggest sack of the day to take the win. His partner, Glen Freeman, was unable to participate in this final tournament. Targeting ridges 8 to 22 feet deep, he pitched green pumpkin / blue flake football jigs for his catch. He wasn’t catching numbers of fish, but the ones he landed were the ones he needed.
“I only caught seven fish, and lost two others,” said Rice. The biggest weighed in at 9.15 pounds, nearly winning Big Bass of the day. Adding the other four, his total weight was 25.57 pounds, winning the tournament and the guaranteed $20,000 first place check. Sure Life added another $200 for using the product in his livewell.
Chad Potts, President of Bass Champs asked him if he got to keep all of the money since he fished by himself. “I’ll be splitting it with Glen. “He’d do it for me! He thanked God for giving him a great day, his family for their support, as well as sponsors of the team including Seaguar, Lews, Ranger, Yamaha, Nichols Marine and Lowrance.
Second place was won by Charlie McGee and John Durio with a total weight of 23.78 lbs.They also targeted a ridge, dropping from 8 to 12 feet, with timber. “McGee and Durio said it was pretty calm on the lake first thing in the morning
“We were throwing Carolina rigged Bass Kandi T-Craws.” They knew this ridge had the fish they needed, and stayed in that one spot all day.
“We only caught five keepers. We lost one that would have weighed around four pounds. If we could have culled our smallest fish (a one pounder) with it, we may have won.
Bass Champs presented them a check for $5,000. They also won the Ford Truck bonus, giving them free entries into Bass Champs events a $4,800 value! They also received the $250 Talon bonus.
The father & son team of Stan and Steve Burgay rolled the dice and made a very long run to the north end of Toledo for their creel and it paid off, winning 3rd place with 21.62 lbs.
“We probably hit five or six spots up there. We started out flipping the brush and boated around forty fish. Later we caught some off of a Spro frog. We didn’t get as many bites on it, but better quality fish.
