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The
Illini Team Trail Classic event for the two divisions was help on
Kentucky Lake September 15th and 16th going
out of the
Kentucky
Lake
Dam
area. Between the two divisions there were fifty-seven teams that
came with hopes of taking home a brand new 2008 Ranger 188 fully
equipped including a Mercury OptiMax motor.
Day
one found the teams fishing under sunny skies with stiff winds and
finding it difficult to hold on their spots. Water temperatures
were in the mid seventies. As teams brought the first days catch
to the scales the early leaders were Jason Jacobs and Marion Cores
from the Northern Division. Not only did they bring in the
heaviest bag they also weighed in the big bass of the day. Their
first day weight was 14.81 pounds of fish which included that big
fish which hit the scales at 5.04 pounds.
Of
the fifty-seven teams weighing in fish on day one twelve teams
brought in their five fish limits. Day one saw one hundred and
forty two fish weighed in with a total weight of 310.94 pounds
making an average fish weigh 2.19 pounds. The five largest fish
weighed in had weights of 5.04, 4.95, 3.91, 3.78 and 3.76.
The
second day greeted the anglers with cloudy skies and a slight
drizzle that stopped
before take-off. There had been a cold front moving over night and
the air temperature at take off was fifty-four degrees. As the day
progress the skies cleared and again the water temperature was in
the mid-seventies.
The
second day weigh-in found only seven teams bring limits to the
scales. There were a total of one hundred and three fish weighed
in having a combined weight of 235.74 pounds making the average
fish a little heavier on the second day (2.23 pounds average).
This
was the seventh year for the Illini Team trail to hold a classic
and the first time they held the classic outside of the state of
Illinois
. This year had a payback of $125,000.00. This included a Ranger
188 fully equipped for first place. $10,00.00 for second place,
third place winners took home check for $4,000.00, the fourth
place team got a check for $2,000.00 and the fifth place team took
home a check for $1,000.00. In all thirteen teams took checks home
plus checks were awarded for the top two big fish.
The
winning team of Jason Jacobs and Marion Cordes fished in the
Blood
River
area both days and reported catching most of their fish on
half-ounce white spinnerbait with copper blade on top and silver
blade on the bottom fishing in the back of coves. This was in an
area where they started pre-fishing on Thursday they put four fish
in the boat almost before the put the boat in the water. They fish
the same are both days of the tournament. On day one they had
their limit by noon. Their two day total was 25.13 pounds
The
second place team Leroy McDuffle and Aarron Mays who fished the
southern division this it’s first year. They brought in a total
weight for the two days of 24.14 pounds. This team used a variety
of baits to bring in their full limits both days using
spinnerbaits, Rat-T-Traps, and worms.
The
Third place team of Larry Moorehead and Jeff Stroud brought in a
two day total of 22.90 pounds having five fish limits both days.
Jeff told of using a watermelon-candy worm that Larry had brought
back to him from trip to
Arkansas
. After the first day they had to go buy more since they only had
the one pack. Along with catching fish on the worms they also
caught some on spinnerbaits.
Additional
winners included:
Fourth
place
Travis Boley and Terry Potts
21.20 pounds
Fifth
place Greg
Coleman and Todd Bates 20.71
pounds
Sixth
place Josh
& Brad Kirchoff
20.41 pounds
Seventh
place Brad Peters
& Brad Thomas 20.04
pounds
Eight
place Rod
Childerson and Dan Nicklin
19.80 pounds
Ninth
place Ben Holmes
and Derick Holmes 18.79
pounds
Tenth
place Danny
Schipowski and Steve Tucker
18.33 pounds
Eleventh
place Jeff
Atchison and Toby Corn 17.34
pounds
Twelfth
place Scott
McIntyre and Tony Waters 17.00
pounds
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