The Final Report

BASS Tour: Smith Lake, AL

   Just about every weather condition short of hurricanes and tornadoes whipped across Smith Lake, AL, during the recent BASS event held there. John Murray of Arizona predicted that 12 pounds a day would win this event. However, just over 8 pounds a day is what Charlie Weyer caught, and he won the event by 4 pounds, 3 ounces over runner-up Mark Tucker.

   The final numbers tell how challenging the event was: 157 pros caught only 5 five bass limits. The average bass weighed 2.58 pounds, and the entire field averaged slightly more than two fish that weighed 5.8 pounds total per angler, over a four day tournament.
 

Tough Win (and weather)

   Charlie Weyer from West Hills, CA, endured snow, ice cold rain, high winds, and very low temperatures for his win.  "These were some of the toughest conditions I've seen in a tournament," Weyer said. "I thought if I could at least catch three fish a day, I could possibly make the top 12. Today (Day 4), at 12 o'clock I didn't have a fish and I ran to a spot where I caught three fish yesterday and I got three fish in two hours."

   Afterwards, he hardly knew what to say about his first BASS victory.

   "I'm so excited," Weyer exclaimed. "I can't believe all these people want my autograph. It's unbelievable. I don't know what to say."

  Weyer knew where the bass would go and how they would act under the brutal conditions, and managed to use them to his advantage when the rest of the field was struggling. He knew that the bass would congregate around run-ins in creeks, so that's where he stayed:

   "I knew with the weather and the lake coming up, that the run-ins were going to be the key in this tournament. The water came up about 10 or 12 feet in the tournament. Friday, I found two of them and those couple of creeks are where I caught all of my fish."

   Carolina rigging a Fred Head shaky head worm on 10-pound test line was the setup that the Californian used to win the event. He fished backwater areas that were swollen from driving rain.

   His area was "about a half a mile on each side of steep bluffs," he said. "The fish are trying to find that warm water and the run-ins are two or three degrees warmer, plus all the shad are congregating in there because the water is a little off color." 

   Weyer also discovered that "The creeks are blowing in," he said. "I stayed outside the creeks 40 or 50 feet and cast in them. If the water level rises a lot, that's okay. They're just going to move up. If the temperature drops, that's okay, too. That'll bunch them up more."

   Weyer obviously found out how to fish in the tough conditions that most anglers hate, and he earned $101,000 the hard way.
 

The Stats:

Day	Rank	Weight
1	9	8-01
2	2	17-08
3	1	24-10
4	1	32-10

Breaking Fish

   "For the fish I broke off this week and the fish that I lost, it's amazing that I'm still here," Mark Tucker of Saint Louis, MO, said. "It was tough fishing. This morning I fished for two hours and had to engage my reel with my thumb. It wouldn't work, it was froze up and the water just kept coming up too much. I couldn't visualize where I've been catching my fish the last two days. All I needed was one of those big bites today and I might have had a chance."

   Need I say any more? That quote sums up most pro's tournament experience. Tough fishing... frozen up... water coming up... etc. That was how most pros likely felt during this event.

   In spite of the above quote, Tucker did catch nearly 12 pounds of bass on Day 2, which enabled him to leap from 35th to 3rd place. Impressive, especially under the conditions.

The Stats:

Day	Rank	Weight
1	35	5-06
2	3	17-02
3	3	23-05
4	2	28-07

Lee Bailey

   Lee Bailey of Hebron, Connecticut, was very comfortable 'spot fishing' during this tournament. "It's been tough, but I like spot fishing. I won an invitational at Table Rock and I've always done well at this kind of fishing."

   "I was fishing way up the river...," Bailey said. "When I went up there..., it was just rolling mud. Every once in a while the fish can get crazy; even when the mud's rolling you can catch them."

   Bailey did so well with his spot fishing, in fact, that he lead the field on Day 2, and placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th on different days during the event.
 

The Stats:

Day	Rank	Weight
1	2	14-02
2	1	18-08
3	4	22-14
4	3	26-15

As For the Rest...

   Edwin Evers of Mannsville, OK, caught 11 bass that weighed 26-01, collected a check for $20,000, and was only 14 ounces behind Lee Bailey. Trailing Evers was Gerald Swindle of Hayden, AL, with 8 bass weighing 22-06. The pre-tournament favorite earned $15,000 for his efforts. Rick Morris of Virginia Beach, VA, rounded out the Super Six with 8 bass that tipped the scales to 21-06, and won him $14,000.

Standings:

For more complete standings, please refer to The Full Story or each individual day's story on the National Tournament News page.

Day 1:

Rank	Name	Hometown	Bass	Weight
1	Greg Hackney	Gonzales, LA	5	16-00
2	Lee Bailey	Hebron, Conn.	5	14-02
3	Chad Morgenthaler	Coulterville, IL	4	10-15
4	Ben Matsubu	Mineola, TX	3	10-10
5	Edwin Evers	Mannsville, OK	4	10-08
6	Chris Baumgardner	Gastonia, NC	3	10-02
6	Rick Clunn	Ava, MO	5	10-02
8	Kevin Short	Mayflower, AR	4	8-11
9	Charlie Weyer	West Hills, CA	3	8-01
10	Rick Morris	Virginia Beach, VA	3	8-00
11	Brett Hite	Phoenix, Ariz.	3	7-07
12	Kelly Jordon	Mineola, TX	3	7-04

Day 2:

Rank	Name	Hometown	Bass	Weight
1	Lee Bailey	Hebron, Conn.	6	18-08
2	Charlie Weyer	West Hills, CA	5	17-08
3	Mark Tucker	Saint Louis, MO	5	17-02
4	Rick Morris	Virginia Beach, VA	6	17-00
5	Jack A. Gadlage	Benton, KY	7	16-03
6	Greg Hackney	Gonzales, LA	5	16-00
7	Edwin Evers	Mannsville, OK	6	15-05
8	Gerald Swindle	Hayden, AL	5	14-07
9	Scott Suggs	Alexander, AR	4	13-12
10	Chad Morgenthaler	Coulterville, IL	5	13-05
11	Ben Matsubu	Mineola, TX	4	13-03
12	Kevin Short	Mayflower, AR	6	12-10

Day 3:

Rank	Name	Hometown	Bass	Weight
1	Charlie Weyer	West Hills, CA	8	24-10
2	Edwin Evers	Mannsville, OK	10	23-10
3	Mark Tucker	Saint Louis, MO	7	23-05
4	Lee Bailey	Hebron, Conn.	7	22-14
5	Gerald Swindle	Hayden, AL	8	22-06
6	Rick Morris	Virginia Beach, VA	7	19-08

The following anglers did not qualify to fish the final day.

Day 4:

Rank	Name	Hometown	Bass	Weight	Points	Winnings
1	Charlie Weyer	West Hills, CA	11	32-10	310	$101,000.00
2	Mark Tucker	Saint Louis, MO	9	28-07	295	$39,000.00
3	Lee Bailey	Hebron, Conn.	9	26-15	295	$23,000.00
4	Edwin Evers	Mannsville, OK	11	26-01	285	$20,000.00
5	Gerald Swindle	Hayden, AL	8	22-06	280	$15,000.00
6	Rick Morris	Virginia Beach, VA	8	21-06	276	$14,000.00

Big Bass:

Day	Name	City, State	Weight	Award
1	Robert Hamilton, Jr.	Hattiesburg, MS	5-03	$1,000.00
2	Mark Tucker	Saint Louis, MO	6-11	$1,000.00
3	Ben Matsubu	Mineola, TX	5-08	$1,000.00
4	Charlie Weyer	West Hills, CA	3-12	$1,000.00

Tournament Totals

Day	# of Limits	# of Fish	Weight
1	3	177	444-06
2	2	153	407-08
3	0	18	49-12
4	0	9	21-08
Total:	5	357	923-02

New AOY Standings:

Rank	Name	Previous	State	Points
1	Scott Suggs	9	AR	521
2	Chris Baumgardner	10	NC	495
3	Kelly Jordon	19	TX	482
4	Marty Stone	1	NC	476
5	Edwin Evers	47	OK	466
6	Gerald Swindle	59	AL	437
6	Kevin Short	46	AR	437
8	Mark Kile	30	AZ	436
9	Tim Horton	21	AL	428
10	Jason Quinn	8	SC	420

By Brandon Shook