You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to be on the water for the wrap up of Bass Champs’ East Region event on Toledo Bend on May 7, 2016 out of Cypress Bend Marina. Teams fished for a portion of the nearly $69,000 purse to be paid out in this last push for Anglers of the Year title. Two sacks over 30 pounds were brought in, with the biggest weighing over 11 pounds. Martin Elshout and Mark Price pulled out the win with the biggest of the 30 pound sacks, taking home $20,000 and Anglers of the Year.
Martin Elshout and Mark Price did exactly what they needed to do to wrap it up, winning 1st place and Anglers of the Year.
Elshout and Price agreed it was a great season. “Last year we didn’t win a single check. This year we won a check in every event.” They said they had done some scouting before the tournament, and caught a big stringer in this one particular spot. “We decided to start out in that spot for the tournament, and we were able to catch them again.” It was an area that was bare other than some scattered stumps, around 10 foot hole dropping 13’ plus.
Price landed their first fish, weighing 9.75 pounds, using an 8HD crank bait. “The fish just didn’t bite after that. We decided to move to some of our other spots.” Using drop shot rigs and football head jigs, they fished two more hours before boating their second fish.
The bite was definitely better in the afternoon. “We started culling two pounders for fives, then we culled a few of the five pounders!”
Coming in at a close second was the team of Stephen Mitchell and William Walker. “Our day started by losing a good fish right off the bat,” Walker recalled. They were flipping in shallow, grassy areas. “The first fish we put in the livewell weighed around 4 ½ pounds. At 8:30, I caught our second fish, my biggest fish ever!” It was the biggest weighed in at 11.19 pounds. They fished multiple spots, all very similar to each other. When it was all said and done, the team had amassed a total weight of 30.41 pounds to win second place and a check for $5,500. They received an additional $1,000 for biggest bass of the tournament, then added even more to their winnings through sponsors.
Third place winners Brent Broussard and Jason Bonds won $4,200 for their sack weighing 28.36 pounds. “We got on a good bite early, fishing main lake points with structure,” Broussard explained. “It was a shad spawn area, and we started out by catching two or three on a Strike King spinnerbait. After that we moved to deeper water with Carolina rigged brush hogs and put a quick limit together weighing 15-16 pounds.”
All total the top 32 teams earned checks, the last $600 check going to the team of Shaine Campbell and Weston Bryant having a weight of 16.39 lbs.
