BWSTA 2003 Team Classic

Kentucky Lake     October 11-12, 2003

1st Place Winners Jack Hayes & Ralph Knepper, 2003 BWSTA Team Classic
1st Place 519 VS Ranger Boat Powered by Mercury worth $38,000.00

Draw Boat Winners Terry McCormick & Benny Stearman
(Natasha Oxford drew out the lucky number 88, pictured with Benny)

Draw Boat 155 Ranger Boat Powered by Mercury worth $18,000.00
(drawing after second day weigh-in must be present to win)

2003 Team Classic Results Top 25 Winners

BASS WORLD SPORTS
2003 TEAM CLASSIC

$102,000! CASH & PRIZES

Kentucky Lake, October 11-12, 2003 - The Bass World Sports Tournament Association (BWSTA) 2003 Classic was once again held on one of the most productive bass fisheries in the nation, Kentucky Lake. Kentucky Lake was chosen because it represented a neutral tournament site for the Classic and because of its reputation as an exceptional fishery that can both reward the hard working fishermen and frustrate even the most experienced angler. Another great advantage in going to Kentucky Lake is the physical size of the fishery. The huge size of the Kentucky Lake when paired with its neighbor Barkley is very conducive to hosting large tournaments and gives every team plenty of areas to fish without being crowded. The vast and varied watershed presents almost every type fishing condition that a fisherman could want so that all fishermen have a chance to fish to their strengths. This was the 7^th time in 20 years that BWSTA held its classic on Kentucky Lake.
Living up to its reputation, BWSTA once again held one of the largest classics in the nation as 226 teams attended the "Classic" after successfully qualifying through a tough tournament schedule in the 2003 season. Most of the top buddy teams in the Midwest fish the BWSTA events and it is quite an accomplishment for any team to qualify for the Classic! The 450+ anglers were fishing for a first place prize of a fully equipped 2004 Ranger 519 VS Boat equipped with 200HP Mercury Outboard, Garmin electronics, Wholesale Batteries of Missouri, and a MotorGuide trolling motor, valued at $38,000! In all, anglers were fishing for over $102,000 in cash and prizes! Also, some lucky team was going to walk away with a draw boat consisting of a fully equipped 2004 Ranger Cherokee 155 fully rigged with a 75 HP Mercury motor, Garmin electronics, a MotorGuide trolling motor, and Wholesale Batteries of Missouri valued at $18,000! The competition for the two days was outstanding and fitting for an event this size. As usual, several teams figured out the tough conditions and when the smoke cleared a new BWSTA Classic Champion had been crowned!

CLASSIC TOURNAMENT SUMMARY

Fishing conditions and success would have had to be rated as "average" leading up to the event and became even tougher during the two-day tournament. The lake was about 4-5 feet low and the water temperatures were in the low to mid 60s. Fair skies greeted the large field and typical feast or famine fall fishing conditions greeted the anxious anglers! According to how tough Kentucky Lake can get in the fall the fishing would still have earned the "fairly good fishing" rating for the two competition days but not many anglers could boat more than 2-3 keepers overall. On Day 1, 8 teams were able to bring the five fish limit to the scales but only 3 teams were able to limit out on Day 2. Not surprisingly, 2 of the 3 teams that brought in limits on Day 2 finished high on the money list. Only the winning team of Jack Hayes and Ralph Knepper were able to catch limits on both days. This enabled them to move up from a fourth place tie and win it all! As happens in many two day tournaments, the Day 1 leaders stumbled on Day 2 and were only able to bring in 1 fish on Sunday and dropped to 5^th place. The most consistent team overall was the team of Tony Waters and Scott McIntyre who finished in 2^nd place after the final bell. They brought 5 fish to scales on Saturday to rest in 2^nd place and 4 fish on Sunday to hold onto their 2^nd place standings. The real movers on Day 2 were the team of Keith Cloe and Chuck Gardner. Keith and Chuck only brought 3 fish to the scales on Saturday and stood in 31^st place, seemly out of the hunt for a check. They made a great Day 2 comeback with a 12.65 lb. limit that vaulted them to a 3^rd place finish. As the final team weighed in, the totals showed that 158 teams out of the 226 weighed in keeper fish during the two-day tournament. The day by day breakdown showed that 283 fish crossed the scales on Saturday and 175 keepers showed up on Sunday.

                                                                         FIRST PLACE

The first place team of Jack Hayes from Hillsboro, Mo. and Ralph Knepper of Kirkwood, Mo. were more than up to the task of staying on fish and handling the pressure of "Classic Competition". As you know Kentucky Lake is so big that fishermen can find their favorite water types and conditions if they look long enough but then finding active fish in a given area is the key. Jack and Ralph look like the perfect team on paper with Jack listing his favorite lake as Mark Twain and Ralph listing his favorite lake as Bull Shoals. In this team you have expertise in clear water and deep fishing associated with Bull Shoals along with the expertise to fish the shallow, murky type conditions normally associated with Mark Twain. By being a versatile team, Hayes and Knepper could keep an open mind and fish the type conditions that were producing at the time of the Classic rather than being limited to a certain favorite condition. In the end the "Mark Twain" experience paid the biggest dividends.
Day 1
Hayes and Knepper exploited a spinnerbait pattern to win the tournament. On Day 1 they able to boat a good limit of fish that weighed 11.33 pounds and ended the day tied for fourth place. Although they were in fourth place the odds of pulling off a win seemed somewhat long because they were over 3 pounds behind the leading team and the fish they were catching, while keepers, only averaged 2.26 pounds. Although they did show their water held big fish by capturing 2^nd big bass of the day with a 4.37 pound bass, they had their work cut out for them on Day 2. Unless the teams above them stumbled, they would need a much heavier stringer on Day 2 to have a chance for the win.
Day 2
As it turned out, both things that Jack and Ralph needed to happen did unfold perfectly and happened on Day 2. The teams tied with them or above them were not able to repeat their Day 1 performance and Jack and Ralph were able to bring in the heaviest limit of the tournament. The leading team from Day 1 was only able to boat 1 keeper and dropped to fifth place. The second place team could only bring 4 small fish to the scales but held on to second place while the third place team only brought 3 small fish to the scales and dropped to fourth place overall. The team tied with them blanked on Day 2 and fell out of contention.
Jack and Ralph weren’t aware that the other teams above them were struggling on Day 2 and did what you have to do, catch a limit big enough to pass the teams above you and give yourself a chance to win. As it turned out, the combination of going out and catching a big stringer along with troubles of the other Day 1 contenders turned a close race into a rout!
Knepper and Hayes brought five quality fish to the scales on Day 2 weighing 16.39 pounds, for an average weight of 3.28 pounds! They were the only team to weigh in limit on both days (out of 226 teams.) and ended up passing everyone and winning by over 9 pounds with a final tally of 27.72 lbs.! A 9 pound margin of victory is almost unheard of in Classic level of competition and especially over a two day tournament!
Ralph and Jack stayed out on the main lake and exploited a very shallow spinnerbait pattern. They threw a homemade spinnerbait in a white color. The key to catching their fish was to stay in "murky" water and fish stump beds that they found in 2-5 feet of water. The areas where they caught most of their fish also had a few weeds mixed in with the stumps.
This great come back and a sterling performance on Day 2, in a pressure packed atmosphere, netted the team over $40,000 in cash and prizes for the tournament! When the "smoke cleared", Jack and Ralph were headed for home pulling a brand new first place prize of a fully equipped 2004 Ranger 519 VS Boat equipped with 200HP Mercury Outboard, Garmin electronics, Wholesale Batteries of Missouri, and a MotorGuide trolling motor, valued at $38,000!

In a one-day tournament luck can and many times does play a big role. Many tournaments are won by lucking out and pulling up to right place at the right time and "busting" a big stringer of bass. Any one can catch a big stringer once in while but not many teams can go out and do it two days in a row. You can watch the weekend tournaments at any major lake and rarely does the team that won the Saturday tournament repeat their performance and come back and win another tournament on Sunday. It is a rare team that can even put decent stringers back to back, especially under "Classic" pressure. In a two-day tournament, luck tends to even things out and consistency usually wins the tournament.
Day 1
Tony Waters of Springfield, IL and Scott McIntyre of Decatur, IL proved that consistency will take home checks more often than not. Tony and Scott stood in second place after Day 1 as a result of bringing in a solid 5 five limit of bass that weighed 12.04 pounds. They were almost 3 pounds behind the leaders and had several teams behind them that could easily pass them in the standings if they faltered. Waters and McIntyre went out and did what they had to do and that was boat a decent stringer of fish to go with good Day 1 performance and make the other teams behind you do the same.
Day 2
On Day 2 Scott and Tony brought in 4 fish that weighed 6.58 pounds to give them a two-day total of 18.62 pounds. That total weight was in fact good enough to overtake the Day 1 leader and hold off all the teams that were behind them except for the eventual tournament winning team, which brought in 16.49 pounds and moved up from 4^th place to win it all. Not surprisingly, Tony and Scott were on the exact same pattern that the winning team was. Tony and Scott stayed on the South end of Kentucky Lake and caught their fish very shallow in less than 5 feet of water. Like the overall winners, they threw white spinnerbaits but also added a white buzz bait and at times threw a black/blue jig. At the time, they probably felt failing to boat a limit was going to cost them some dollars at the weigh-in but in fact they would have had to have a "kicker" fish over 9 pounds to have pulled out a win! Except for the winning team, they were the only team able to bring as many as 9 keepers to the scales. As a reward for this outstanding two-day performance, Tony and Scott took home a great check for $5,650!
Tony Waters is sponsored by Midwest Marine, Ranger Boats, Mercury Marine, Mad Dog Lures and Falcon Rods. Lakeside Boat & Motors, Ranger Boats, Mercury Marine, RC Jigs, and Falcon Rods sponsor Scott McIntyre.

Winning money in a two-day tournament under "Classic" pressure is hard enough when you are on fish and your pattern holds up for the two days. As stated above it is very difficult to bring a good sack of fish to the scales on the second day of competition, even when you a following a good performance on Day 1. It is even harder to make an adjustment under tournament pressure when Day 1 seemingly left you out of the running. This is exactly what Keith Cloe of Sesser, IL and Chuck Gardner of Frankfort, IL were able to do! Keith and Chuck made the biggest move of the tournament on Day 2.
On Day 1, Cloe and Gardner could only manage 3 keepers that tipped the scales to 5.46 pounds which left them standing in 31^st place, seemingly out of the hunt for a good check. The odds of passing all the teams above you for a high finish are very long indeed! After a very disappointing performance on Day 1, many teams would have just gone through the motions on Day 2 and wrote the tournament off to experience. On Day 2 Cloe and Gardner "danced with the one that brought them" and continued to exploit a pattern that was different than any of the other top 6 teams’ patterns. Keith and Chuck went relatively deep for their fish to boat a solid second day limit that weighed 12.65 pounds. They fished ledges around the mid-lake area that were in 8-18 feet of water. They both threw black/blue 7/16 ounce jigs tipped with blue/red super chunk trailers. Chuck and Keith ended the tournament with 8 keepers overall that weighed 18.11 pounds which was good enough for a third place finish and a great check for $2,825.  Cloe Chiropractic and Rend Lake Sporting Goods sponsor both Keith Cloe and Chuck Gardner.

Tad and Chris Richards of Maryland Heights, MO captured 4^th place and a very nice check for $2260. Tad and Chris were able to bring 8 fish to the scales over the two-day classic that tipped the scales to 17.80 lbs. Tad and Chris caught all their fish on 3/8 ounce fire tiger colored crankbaits. They were able to weigh in a solid five fish limit on Saturday that weighed 11.54 pounds and stood in third place, ready to make a move on Sunday. As can happen, they only brought in 3 fish on Sunday that weighed 6.26 pounds and dropped down to 4^th place. Tad indicated that they put in lots of practice days and really located their active fish by trial and error. All the fish they boated were related to points and came from about 3 feet of water. They stayed in Kentucky Lake and fished the "mid-lake" area. Tad Richards is sponsored by Ranger Boats, Tri-State Trolling Motor Repair, Lowrance, C-Sports Optical and Pradco. Tad also commented that Kentucky Lake is a good lake for holding a tournament this large!

Ron Fletcher and Bob Wilkas, fishing out of Thompsonville, IL, finished in 5th place and earned another nice check for $2034. You would think that winning $2034 would make anyone happy but Ron and Bob were probably lamenting the fact that the tournament was theirs to win with just a little luck. On day one they brought in the heavy stringer weighing 14.96 lbs. but were only able to bring in one small keeper on Sunday that brought their final weight to 16.29 lbs. Ron and Bob caught all their fish on a spinnerbait pattern on the North end of the lake. They found this pattern during pre-fishing days and refined it to the use of white Samson’s Spinnerbait and caught their keepers out of 5 feet of water .Ron Fletcher and Bob Wilkas are sponsored by Samson’s Lures, Gray Marine, Bobbi Jo's, and R S Baits.

Mike Williams from O’Fallon, MO and Brian Upton from Old Monroe, MO wound up in sixth place overall and took home a very good check for $1,695. After Day 1, Mike and Brian stood in 9^th place based on a 4 fish weighing 9.39 pounds. Although the two were only able to boat 2 keepers weighing 5.05 pounds on Day 2, it brought their total weight to 14.44 lbs. and was good enough to move them up to 6^th place overall. This 3 place move netted them almost a $1,000 bigger check than if they had settled for 9^th place! As with most of the winning teams, Brian and Mike stayed on the main lake and worked a shallow pattern. All their fish came out of 6 foot of murky water and came on a combination of a white spinnerbait and a green pumpkin tube.

The lucky team composed of Terry McCormick from Granite City, IL and Benny Stearman of St. Peters, MO walked away with the Ranger Cherokee 155 fully rigged with a 75 HP Mercury motor, Garmin electronics, a Motor Guide trolling motor, and Wholesale Batteries valued at $18,000.

Big Bass on Day 1 was caught by Lonnie Bowlin from Sesser, IL. This 4.54-pound bass was caught on the North end of Barkley on a black and blue jig in about 8-12 feet of clear water. This one nice bass anchored the 24^th place stringer and was worth a check for $2260!

2^nd Big Bass on Day 1 was caught by Jack Hayes of Hillsboro, Mo as part of the tournament winning stringer and earned Frank an extra $1130. This fish anchored the day 1 fourth place stringer and weighed 4.37 lbs. This bass fell to a homemade white spinnerbait in shallow water. According to Jack the big fish was lying among stumps in 2-5 feet of murky water.

Big Bass on Day 2 was caught by Mark Stewart from St. Charles, MO. This 5.74 lb. bass was the overall big bass of the tournament and was worth $2260. Mark and his partner caught their fish in a bay just south of the take-off area. The big bass fell for Bass Pro 12-inch worm that was green pumpkin in color. The fish came off a 6 foot deep hump with brush stacked on it. Mark and his partner, Rob Jones from Washington, MO found this spot by studying a map.

2^nd Big Bass on Day 2 was caught by Mike Glen from Mt. Vernon, IL and weighed 4.85 pounds and anchored the 15^th place stringer. This money-winning bass was also worth a nice check for $1130.

BASS WORLD SPORTS WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING SPONSORS:

Ranger Boats - Mercury Marine - MotorGuide – Garmin - Ranger Trail - Please Release Me – BWSTA Ranger Cup - Lucky Craft Lures - Solar Bat Sunglasses - RCTackle.com  - Syberg’s Family Restaurants –  Tri-State Trolling Motor Repair - Wholesale Batteries of MO - Belleville Sport Sales – Merten’s Boats & Motors – Nameoki Village Marine

2003 Team Classic Results All Places