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USA Bassin Coffeen Lake Fall/Winter Division

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Director Dan Blanton kicked off his first of five-tournament circuit for the U.S.A. Bassin Fall/Winter Division this past Saturday October 3rd. As you Coffeen addicts know there was a change in the rules of the lake this past spring. This made things a little more interesting at the weigh-in. At the pre-tournament meeting Dan went over the changes and reiterated the USA Bassin rules to the anglers.

It was a chilly morning with heavy cloud cover. The wind was a gusty West wind at 10-15 mph. This was a Coffeen day, so my partner and I thought! The cloud cover stuck around throughout the day along with the wind. The fourteen teams including one flying solo were ready for the challenge. Dan released the teams right on time for their search of two bass 15 inches or over and the rest between 12 and 15 inches. On with the stats!

The first place check went to the team of Jon Rinderer of Greenville, IL and Scott Sautman of Pocahontas, IL. This dynamic duo weighed in 5 fish for a total weight of 11.02 pounds. They also claimed the big bass check with a weight of 3.95 pounds. Jon and Scott are fishing the BWSTA tournament on Sunday so we respected their catch and didn’t ask questions of how and where the fish were caught.

The second place check went to team of Joe Gray of Butler, IL and Jim Spurlock of Ramsey, IL. Joe and Jim weighed in a 5 fish limit weighing 8.83 pounds. Joe and Jim are also fishing the BWSTA on Sunday so the information was limited on how and where the fish were caught.

My partner and I on the other hand got spanked! At take off, I looked at Dan and said, “We got this”. It was a chilly, nasty, windy, cloudy day. My kind of day. A perfect Coffeen day? Nothing but moving baits? The rattletrap, square bills, and spinner baits right? WRONG! It should have registered that this was October not November or December. We had a difficult time putting fish in the boat. Although I can say I did miss two fish that had that heavy shake to their heads. We weighed in four fish. But they were the fish between 12 and 15 inches so they amounted to very little weight. We have a lot of catching up to do at the next USA Bassin tournament.

All said and done, the tournament went very well from start to finish. The anglers fishing the USA Bassin Tournaments are competitive and an all around a great group of guys and gals. Director Dan Blanton kept things moving at the weigh-in to keep the fish out of water as little as possible and the anglers done their part as well keeping the fish alive. Hence, zero dead fish were returned to the water. There were a total of 67 fish that touched the scales. The total weight was 107.32 pounds. There were 9 limits weighed in.

The next USA Bassin Coffeen Lake Fall/Winter division tournament will be November 7th with a start time of 8:00am.

As always if you have any questions or suggestions please email or comment.

See ya on the water!