06/05/2011 Site-M II
Tournament Conditions
Water Level Normal
Water Temperature 84-85
Water Color Lightly Stained
Air Temperature 80-90 degrees
Skies Rain early Sun Late
Wind 5-10 mph
Things started off a little rocky on Sunday as we all returned to Site-M for the second month in a row as we where delayed by lightning for about 45 minutes. Had a nice turn out with 7 boats and 7 co-anglers. Things where unstable early with the storms still hanging around, rain, wind and still a little lightning. But, skies cleared by mid-morning making way for hot and humid conditions. Once again, we had a 2 weign-in format. The first session was 5:30 - 10:30 where a lot of keepers where brought in by both high and low side. Ben V, Tom A and Kyle F had limits on the high side; Rob D and Fred M had limits on low side, setting the stage for and interesting afternoon of fishing. As I said before the weather changed dramaticly from morning to afternoon. Rain early and it was still cloudy right before the first weigh-in. Sunny conditions and rising temps ruled the second session, making it a lot tougher. No limits were brought in the second weigh-in, but that doesn't mean it wasn't interesting. On the high side, Ben and Tom both had 2 keepers and Kyle had one. Ben edged out Tom by a over a pound with a total weight of 14 lbs 5 oz. Ben reported he caught all his keepers on a frog on grass beds. Tom caught his fish on a Strike King watermelon seed flippin tube on the edge of the grass. Kyle said he had some rotten luck in the afternoon. Losing 2 nice fish at the boat. On the low side Rob and Fred both brought in 2 keepers in the afternoon. Rob's fish were slightly larger to give him the win. Rob hooked all his keepers on a AA swim jig in green pumpkin and orange color. Fred caught his on a frog and punch bait. Now, on to the big-fish competition, it had to be split 3 ways because Ben, Tom and Ross, each caught a 3 lbs 14 oz. bass. What are the odds of that? Good job everybody who competed. I think everybody had a good time. See you all in Jacksonville on July 31st.
05/11/2011 Site-M
Tournament Conditions
Water Level Normal
Water Temperature NA
Water Color Lighly Stained
Air Temperature 85 degrees
Skies Mostly Sunny
Wind 5-10 mph
As always we do things differently, however, this time it wasn't our fault, mother nature was to blame. We where supposed to fish at Waverly Lake. But, the rains came in and made it so muddy you couldn't tell if it was thick water or thin mud. So we went to Site-M instead, coverage on this one is a bit spotty at best. The tournament correspondent suffered from boat and back trouble and went home early. But, I did dig up a little bit of info. Tom Acton finished second by fishing for bedding fish with a AA jig, catching 17 lbs. 8 oz. with 6 fish with our normal 2 weigh-in format. Ben Venturini won the tournament with a huge bag of 21 lbs. 7 oz. using a frog on matted grass beds. Patrick Fawns won the low-side with 9 lbs 10oz. Sorry coverage is lacking for this txt. But, there is Site-M II in June which should get better coverage.
3/27/2011 Clinton Lake
Tournament Conditions:
Water Level: Normal
Water Temperature: 48-55
Water Color: Clear to lightly stained
Air Temperature: 24-40
Skies: Clear
Wind: ENE 10-20
Welcome back everyone for the second tournament of the year (first of of actual season). This is the first tournament where the weights count and the angler of the year race begins. Once again, mother nature threw us a curve ball and rolled in a cold front 2 days before the tournament dropping temperatures into the twenties and calling for 2 inches of snow. Turned out there was no snow, but the air was plenty cold. We took off at first light, 6 boats and 6 co-anglers. Windy conditions made it tough to control the boat, but some guys went back into coves to stay out of the wind while some stayed out and took the beating. At the end of the day, with weather conditions the way they were, the totals were rather impressive, with a 3 fish limit and a 16 in. minimum. On the co-angler side Matt caught a nice 3 lb 10 oz. largemouth bass to take 2nd place. JP Angrall brought in a limit weighing 9 lbs. 1 oz. took take 1st place on the co-angler side. JP used a crankbait to catch his fish off the ends of laydowns. On the high side, Kyle Fawns and Walt McCree brought in 2 keepers a piece weighing 7 lbs. Tom Acton and Tony Karrick both had impressive limits with 3 lunkers in each bag. Tom's fish came in at 13 lbs 4 oz. which had Tony a little nervous, but Tony's fish came in at an even 15 lbs to win with a 5 lbs 14 oz. largemouth to take the big fish award. Tony reported catching 8 keepers, culling a 4 lbs smallmouth. Tony keyed on windy banks with rock and laydown timber. He used AA jigs, spinnerbaits and Rat-L-Traps to catch his fish. Despite the cold and wind it was a pretty productive day and everybody seemed to enjoys themselves. Thanks to Walt McCree and Matt for coming out and joining us. Hope to see you at the next tournament at Waverly on May the 7th.
02/26/2011 Powerton Lake
Tournament Conditions
Water Level: Normal
Water Temperature: 55-58
Water Color: Stained
Air Temperature: 30-35
Skies: Cloudy
Wind: SE 5-10 mph
Hello again everybody, and welcome to the 2011 Five Alive Bass Anglers season. After a successful 2010 season, we hope this year will be as good or better. We started off with a fundraiser tournament held at Powerton Lake just south of Pekin. With a cold front just passing through the day before, anglers were anticipating tough conditions. This tournament ia a little different than our usual tournaments in that it is a buddy tournament. There were 5 boats competing. Reports throughout the day said that fishing was pretty slow, but once again somebody always figures them out. Today that guy was Kyle Fawns. He reported catching 7-8 keepers at an 18" minimum - that is amazing! Kyle caught his fish on a crawdad colored Rapala DT-4. Kyle was the only fisherman to bring a 2 fish limit to the scalea - both of which were largemouth bass. Second place was won by Kerry Trueblood with a 4 1/4 lb. smallmouth. Third was Tony Karrick and John Tiemeyer with a 3 lbs. fish.
Up next for FABA. We have a meeting on March 9th at the brickhouse in Springfield. Then its tournament time on March 26th at Clinton Lake. Hope to see everybody there.
09/12/2010 Schuy-Rush Lake
Tournament: Conditions
Water Level: Normal
Water Temperature: 74-79
Water Color: Clear to lightly stained
Air Temperature: 75-82
Skies: Clear
Wind: 5-10 mph
I'll start off by saying we had a tournament at Evergreen Lake near Bloomington in August. Ben won with the only limit caught by anyone. The rest of us could have put our fish together and he still would have won. Kyle Fawns caught the biggest bass of the season with a 4 lbs. 8 oz. lunker. Thats all the effort I'm putting in to that tournament.
On to brighter days at Schuy-Rush Lake, where we started the day with 6 boaters and 4 non-boaters. We idled off at daylight, the Friday night before brought stormy conditions. Leaving high pressure and a bright sunny day on Sunday. Reports that came in mid-morning said the fishing was slow but everybody was catching a few here and there. By the end of the day, most everybody had put some kind of pattern together. Tony Karrick and Clint Vinyard both said a mix between crankin and finesse fishing brought fish to the boat. They both had 4 keepers in the live well. John Tiemeyer fishing mostly jigs and soft plastics, caught a limit of fish and big bass of the tx weighing 4 lbs. 3 oz. Good job, John! But, Ben Venturini once again showing he's too tough to tame, came in with a limit of bass weighing 11 lbs 11 oz. beating John T. by a half a pound. On the low-side Mike Daley and Patrick Fawns tied with 6 lbs. 9 oz. A good finish to a good day. Ben also locked up the "Angler of the Year" title by catching 40 lbs. 14 oz. for the season. Tony Karrick came in 2nd with 35 lbs. 12 oz. Clint Vinyard finished 3rd with 26 lbs. 5 oz. Fred Marx won low-side AOY by a huge margin with 25 lbs 9 oz. Mike Daley finished 2nd on low-side with 9 lbs. 6 oz. May I say it was an outstanding year all in all. If anybody wants to fish competitively and have some fun without spending a lot of money. This is the club. This was the first year I've fished in this club, and I've been in a few, and I can say this club is exactly what I was looking for. I'd like to thank Rob, Ben, and Ross for all you do for the club. We'll see you guys at the classic.
07/11/2010 SiteM
Tournament Conditions
Water Level Normal
Water Temperature 84-85
Water Color Clear
Air Temperature 88 degrees
Skies Mostly Cloudy
Wind 5-10 mph
Hello again, its good to be back again for the July edition. After a two month break, we're ready to proceed with the second half of the season. It took place at Site M near Chandlerville using a different format this time, with a 3 fish limit double weigh-in. The committee decided to have two five hour periods for this tournament, taking the combined weight from the two "periods" to come up with a winner. The first period started at 5:30am. Reports weren't to upbeat, but a few anglers put together some good stringers. Tony Karrick was the only high side fisherman to bring in a 3 fish limit. Fred Marx had 3 of his own on the low. Big fish was 3 lbs. 13 oz. caught by Tony K. on a buzz bait on his very first cast. The second half of the day was much different, almost everyone changed tactics, and it seemed to work judging by the scales. Rob Danielson who came in with 0 fish in the first period, brought in a 3 fish limit weight 9 lbs 4 oz. fishing a AA swim jig and a worm (he claims his worms are over 12 years old too). Rob said he caught 20 fish in the second half. Ross Santos caught a slightly heavier sack that weighed 9 lbs. 9 oz. using a Zoom Super Hog deep, in and around standing timber (The color is a well kept secret - it's somewhere between Icecicle and Black). Tony Karrick only needed around 3 lbs. to lock it up for the day. He brought in his second limit wth a total weight of 15 lbs. 7 oz. winning by almost 6 lbs catching them on a green pumpkin red flake brush hog. He almost had the tournament swept with heaviest weight and big fish, but, Fred Marx after catching a limit with a frog in the morning, adjusted with a green senko with gold flake to catch his second limit, walking away with the low side victory and also spoiling Tony's sweep with a bass that weighed 3 lbs. 13 oz. tying the big fish from the morning. Good job everyone!!! Next tourney is at Evergreen Lake, north of Bloomington, hope to see everyone there.
04/11/2010 Lake Petersburg
Tournament Conditions
Water Level Normal
Water Temperature 62-65
Water Color Clear
Air Temperature 70 degrees
Skies Mostly Sunny
Wind 5-10mph
Like the last tournament, this one was somewhat different with some anglers having to fish from borrowed boats. Thanks Ben, Tony and Ross for finding the extra boats. The weather man was a little more cooperative this time with a beautiful day to fish. We had a 12 in. minimum set for the tournament, so that everyone could get on the board, and that is exactly what happened. All 8 boats brought in 5 fish limits! 2 co-anglers brought in limits as well. John Tiemeyer caught 5 lbs 6 oz. Kyle Fawns had 6 lbs. 8oz. Ben Venturini fighting 1st degree burns and sleep deprivation caught 6 lbs 12 oz. Ross Santos reeled in 6 lbs 14 oz. Rob Danielson had 8 lbs 11 oz. Clint Vinyard briefly on the hot seat caught 9 lbs 4 oz. Tony Karrick took over the lead with breaking the 10 lbs mark with a bag of 10 lbs 2 oz. Tom Acton fought off a pre-dawn ritual of syphoning all the gas out of his boat to take the win and big bass honors with a 11 lbs 7oz. with his big bass weighing 3 lbs.12 oz. Way to go Tom! Co-angler was won by Josh Tiemeyer with 5 fish weighing 9 lbs. 4 oz. Fred Marx had a limit that went 8 lbs. 13 oz.
03/21/2010 Lake Springfield
Tournament Conditions
Water Level Normal
Water Temperature 47-53
Water Color Clear
Air Temperature 40 degrees
Skies Cloudy & Rain
Wind 15-25mph
This tournament was a bit different with an intermission for the Illinois State College Tournament weigh-in, FiveAlive club members assisted with the weigh-in. The tournament started with 6 boats with 3 co-anglers competing. The fishing was tough to say the least. Fishermen reporting throwing crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and plenty of pitchin and flippin. Ben Venturini had some bad luck when he broke off a 4 pounder at the boat. At the of the end of the day, Tom Acton and Phil Jarog put together 2 good bags of fish with Tom edging Phil out by 11 ounces. Tom's total weight was 10 lbs. 8 oz. It was Tom's first tournament with the club. So much for "easing" in. Big bass was caught by Rob Danielson with about 45 minutes to go. He caught it on a 1/2 oz. Angler Assets jig. There were no low side fish caught. Thanks to everyone who came out to brave the wind and rain.
09/12/2009 Site M
Tournament Conditions
Water Level Normal
Water Temperature Normal
Water Color Clear
Air Temperature 80 degrees
Skies Clear
Wind 5-10mph
The tournament began at 6am with all boaters ready to go but one, who showed up 5 minutes after start and went on to win the tournament.
The tournament was owned by those that either knew the lake or were able to quickly adjust to conditions. Most anglers reported that "junk" fishing was the theme for the day. Many rods, reels and lures were on deck. Some patterned, the winner reported that he fished a Frog and Blue/Black tube with Chatrreuse dipped tentacies to collect his check. Many anglers reported over 20+ keepers on this 3 keeper lake, so upgrades were made throughout the day.