October 13, 2017 at 4:42 p.m.
Big Bass
Minocqua chain shows potential in UMBCS Tournament of Champions
Big Bass
The mandatory pre-tournament meeting Thursday evening was held at The Waters of Minocqua. Tournament director Gregg Kizewski was excited to have the tournament in Minocqua and was grateful for the hospitality offered to the series and the anglers from many businesses in the area as well as the Minocqua Chamber of Commerce.
Jane Kincheloe from the chamber was on hand Thursday night to welcome the anglers to the area. She also braved the pouring rain Saturday to present awards to the top finishing anglers in the two-day tournament.
Day 1
Friday morning dawned and brought beautiful weather for the anglers, who took off from The Beacons shortly after first safe light. Many anglers wondered if the largemouth would ever turn on, finding little action with the green fish during practice. At day's end, however, there were 73 largemouth and only 53 smallmouth brought to the scales. The 125 fish from day one had a combined weight of 276.44 pounds, an average of 2.21 pounds per fish. Three fish over four pounds would cross the scales before they closed that day.
Big fish for day one was brought in by Jesse Wolfe and Brent Serum. It weighed 4.39 pounds. The team beat out the father and son duo of Chad and Cole Marsolek for the Day One Big Bass trophy by only one hundredth of a pound.
At the close of the scales on Friday, little separated the top four teams. Par Schlapper and Wade Rickey, notoriously good sticks, were on top of the leaderboard with 12.26 pounds. Chet Netzel and Reed Rossier took second place with 12.20, including a 3.52-pound kicker. Dave Loewe and Dave Larson brought in a mixed bag of greens and browns for 12.11 pounds. Fourth place was also just over 12 pounds at 12.03. This spot was taken by Garrett Vorce and Brentan Miller with all brown fish. Jeff Hansen, fishing by himself, brought in a bag of all green fish for 11.10, including a 3.39-pound kicker.
Day 2
Braving all-day rains, some teams would struggle on day two, which is typical of a two-day tournament, but some teams did hook into some great fish despite the conditions. The biggest fish of the tournament was a 6.36-pound bucket mouth brought to the scales on day two by the team of DJ Brantner and Brian Zinn. They brought in all largemouth that day with a total of 14.65 pounds.
Eleven teams were unable to boat fish on Saturday, as opposed to only three teams blanking on Friday. Again, more largemouth than smallmouth were brought to the scales. While bigger fish did come in on day two, with two other fish over five pounds and another four over four pounds, the average size per fish varied little from day one. The 113 fish brought in on Saturday weighed a combines 248.96 pounds, bringing the average to 2.20 per fish.
Heavy rains persisted throughout the final day weigh-in, but the rain could not dampen the spirits of many of the anglers.
The team of Schlapper and Rickey brought in a mixed bag of two largemouth and three smallmouth weighing 9.25 pounds.
This would drop them to fourth place when all was said and done. Netzel and Rossier were unable to get their fifth fish to the boat. There 8.48-pound bag of smallies was still good enough for sixth place at the end of the tournament. The team of Loewe and Larson brought in a stout 12.42-pound limit of mostly smallmouth, moving them up one spot on day two to second. The fourth place team from day one, Vorce and Miller, clawed their way to the top on day two. Their 12.86-pound bag catapulted them into first place, bringing them a check of $10,000 for their efforts. Hansen, day one's fifth place angler, found himself in 10th place, only able to boat three fish for 5.47 pounds on day two. The team of Shawn Spaeth and Ben Graham may not have been on the radar with their 14th place 8.03-pound bag on day one, but they made the jump all the way up to third with a 13.49-pound bag, anchored by a 4.27-pound kicker. The team of Todd Holtman and Andy Dassow would also find themselves moving up the leaderboard and rounding out the top five at tournament's end. They had four smallmouth on Friday for a total of 9 pounds even.
Bringing in five smallies on day two for a total of 12.24-pounds landed them squarely in fifth place.
The Minocqua Chain, coupled with Mother Nature's wrath, proved itself a formidable adversary for several anglers, but others shined despite the difficult conditions on Saturday. Kizewski thanked all of the sponsors and anglers for a great ending to another great season on the water. The Minocqua Chamber, as well as the businesses in Minocqua, made for a very welcoming environment where the anglers could come to stay and enjoy the week with their families, he added. Many left with a different view of the chain and the great fishery it proved itself to still be.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
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