Dill and Lasher Take Home another first Place!
Shelbyville Lake, Aug 5, 2007, by Barry Featheringill

Lake level - 598.95
Ambient Temp. - 98 degrees
Wind – SSW @ 5mph with gust to 19 mph
Water temperature - 88 degrees

The team of Donnie Dill and Bill Lasher took the first place on Lake Shelbyville with five fish topping the scales at 18.41 pounds. This puts them in the lead with only one more tournament remaining before the ‘Classic’ to be held on Kentucky Lake September 15th & 16^th. They took home $2260.00 for the win plus “Ranger Cup” ($1000.00), Solar Bat money of $100.00, and for Illini Team Trail decal on their boat an additional $60.00.  Donnie and Bill in addition to leading the Northern Division of the Illini Team Trail they are also points leaders for the Southern Division. This is pretty amazing since they are competing against a combined total of 130 anglers.

Bill reported that all their fish were caught on jig and ten-inch worm fishing only main lake points. All day they only had six keeper fish with their largest fish weighing 5.10 pounds which was 0.31 pounds behind the big fish of the day caught buy the fourth place team.

The second place team of Jim Griffin and Mike Blazier brought 5 fish to the scales with a total weight of 15.68 pounds. They took home a check for $1290.00 for their excellent catch. They reported fishing main lake points using crankbaits which the crowd seem to not believe. Think they have a secret for the BFL tournament on lake Shelbyville next Saturday

Coming to the scales with 15.04 pounds to take third place was the two Brads, Brad Peters and Brad Thomas. Brad Thomas is a avid Carolina Rig angler, but today they caught their fish on jigs, spoon and spinnerbait.

In fourth place and winning the big bass prize was the two brothers Larry and David Rodman. Their total weight was 13.27 pounds which included the big fish which weighed 5.41 pounds. The big bass was caught on Carolina Rig in twenty feet of water on secondary point. They reported running and gunning all the way from Eagle Creek State Park down to the dam and back.

An interesting side story to this team is that Larry Rodman has been diagnosed with cancer and he is putting off the chemo treatments until after the end of the tournament season. Larry is not letting it get him down and has a positive attitude about life. I know everybody will have Larry in their prayers and know that he will be amongst the caner survivors for a long time to come.