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TEAM TOURNAMENT
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| Date: | | May 10, 2014 |
| Region: | | 2014 North Region |
| Tournament: | | Lake Cedar Creek |
| Tournament Trail: | | 2014 Bass Champs Tournament Trail |
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| Father & Son Biondi rack up the winnings on Cedar Creek at Bass Champs |
| By: Patty Lenderman |
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Nearly 200 teams converged on Cedar Creek May 10, 2014 to fish the third North Region Bass Champs event where almost $60,000 was up for grabs in cash and prizes. The fish were in transition, and so was the winners circle with tight weights all the way down the money line in twenty five places paid, plus Big Bass. Mark Biondi and his son Billy absconded with nearly $23,000 in winnings at the end of the day.
“We got to the tournament site that morning to sign up and get our boat number. It was our day from the beginning,” Billy Biondi recalled. “The timing was right – no wait in line, just get in, get out and go!” They drew boat #40 and when they were released for take-off, they headed straight to the bridge. “The fish were biting pretty slow for us, but we saw others around us catching several small ones.” It wasn’t long before his dad Mark started their creel with a solid six pound bass using a shaky head. “We kept going, and dad caught a few more two pounders.” Once they had a limit secured, Billy switched to a 10” worm. “I caught a four pounder and a few more with that, and we stayed at the bridge until around 2:00, then headed to some docks. “ It was a grueling day, not having but around 11 bites to make their day with. “We didn’t get a lot of bites, just got the right ones!” At the end of the day, they weighed their best three for a total weight of 14.64 lbs. They won the guaranteed 1st place prize of a Ford F-150 pickup truck, for which they chose the cash option of $17,500. In addition, they won the Ford bonus, giving them free entries into any Bass Champs tournaments for the next 12 months – up to a $5,000 value! Sure Life kicked in another $200 for using the product in their livewell. “We’ve been fishing Bass Champs on and off for seven or eight years now. We were due to get lucky!”
Jeremy David and Chris Digino were mere ounces behind, taking 2nd place with 14.18 lbs that included a nice 7.17 lb kicker. Bass Champs awarded them a check for $4,500 for their 2nd place win, then Skeeter Boats doubled their winnings being the highest finishing team in a qualified Skeeter Boat.
3rd place was won by the team of Drew Sloan and Michael Nantz. “We decided to only throw big baits, and try to just go for big bass!” Drew said that a bunch of three pounders just wouldn’t do it for them, so they hit main lake areas in depths 2’ to 15’ starting out with a chatter bait style jig from New Tech Lures, tipped with an Optimum swim bait. “I caught a five pounder on that, and then we caught another on a New Tech Lure ½ oz Blitz football head jig, and others on Ima Crankbaits.” By 9 am they had their five pounder and a four pounder in the boat. “We didn’t get a ton of bites, and so we decided to run and gun, going to shallow water.” They wrapped up a limit, and felt they could be in the money so they switched back to bigger baits again trying to find another kicker. At the end of the day they had 13.88 lbs for a 3rd place win, and were awarded $2,500. “We have fished Bass Champs for about 12 years now, and this is our second 3rd place finish! We’d like to thank Bass Champs for having such a good trail for us to fish.” They would also like to thank Denali Rods, New Tech Lures, Poray Fishing Line, Ima Lures, Optimum Baits, Reins Tungsten, Bass Mafia Outdoors, “and our wives!”
There were several nice bass weighed in, and Keith & Kevin Carney had the biggest at 8.39 lbs. They won $500 for Big Bass, plus another $500 from Bio Bor and won the Revo bonus as well.
All total the top 25 teams won paychecks, the last $500 was awarded to Stephen and Jacob Shannon with a 9.73 lb limit.
After three events for the North Region, the top five teams in the Angler of the Year points standings are:
563 pts Dusty Spurgin & Garrick McPherson
535 pts Steve Schmidt & Rick Newton
525 pts Phill Elder & Greg West
512 pts Tim Cline & Raymond Smith
505 pts Mark Biondi Sr & Billy Biondi Jr
The next tournament for North Region anglers will be June 7 on Ray Roberts, and then will wrap up on Lake Fork July 12. All regular season events are open to anyone who would like to participate, so click to www.BassChamps.com or call 817-439-3274 for more information.
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