Numerous tornadoes had touched down the night prior and into the early morning hours of the day. The storms were loaded with torrential rains, hail, high winds and lightning. It was one of the most active storm systems to hit the area in years and spread devastation throughout the area. The front had past through the area just about take off time and the numerous warnings were ending. The remainder of the day anglers only had heavy rain to deal with. The lake had been producing heavy weights and it would be no different on this day.

The first place team of Jack Belt and J.D. Kyle made the trip over from Indiana to fish the division opener as they have in the past. They seemed to find the weather situation to their liking as they hoisted their awesome 21.38lb bag to the scales. The team reported fishing a small pocket off the main lake. The pocket seemed to be loaded with pre spawn bass. They caught their fish on jigs an the fish were located extremely shallow “right on the bank” said Belt. “There was a run off that had a little clearer water to it and they loaded up in front of it” The teams 21.38lb bag earned them checks totaling $1,566.00 on the day. The team is sponsored by: Pure Fishing. Great Job Guy’s!

In second place is the well known team of Jerry Bate and Buck Bate. The team reported a somewhat similar pattern as they concentrated on water runoffs. “The fish were right on the bank anywhere the current was pushing clearer water through” reported Jerry. “We flipped Sweet Beaver baits right up on the bank to get our bites. The runoff was rocky providing much clearer water than the surrounding area” The team had a total weight of 20.06lbs earning them checks totaling $921.00 on the day. The team is sponsored by: Triton Boats, Mercury Motors, MotorGuide, Harrison’s Sport Shop, Tim Grounds Championship Goose Calls and Dunn’s Sporting Goods.

Third place goes to the team of Scott Kirk and Jason Thomas. The team flipped tubes and beavers to extremely shallow water to catch their fish. They also mentioned runoffs to be important to their success. They had their limit early and said that many of their fish were located all the way in the backs of the pockets. It seemed that no one type of cover were holding fish “Wood, rocks, grass it didn’t matter as we caught fish off all” said Thomas. The team had a total weight of 17.91lbs and earned $454.00 for the days bag.

The big bass of the day went to the team of Tony Dowdy Jr. from Elkville IL. and Tony Dowdy Sr. of Murphysboro IL. The big fish was fooled by a Texas rigged Zoom Brush Hog and weighed in at a hefty 6.61lbs. The bite earned the team $280.00 on the day. The team is sponsored by: Ranger Boats, Rend Lake Marina and Marlow-Hill Drilling.   

Angler's Choice would like to thank all those who fished and we hope to see you at our next event April, 1st at Smithland Pool. I would also like to thank our sponsors for making this possible. National sponsors include Bass Cat Boats, Mercury Outboards, Motorguide Trolling Motors, Lowrance, Eagle, Competitive Edge Fishing and Bass West Magazine.