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Kansas BASS Federation Nation
2011 Youth State Championship
September 25th, Melvern Reservoir
What a beautiful day! Although the temperature was just a little nippy at blast-off (43 degrees), the sun shined, the wind blew at only 10-15 mph, and the temperature at weigh in was 70. As is often the case, a great “weather” day does not always make for great “fishing” day, and so it was for the Championship.
Who knows if it was the overnight dip in temperature, the blue-bird skies, the moon phase, or if the reason was due to the length of the hair on the backs of the wooly caterpillars? No matter what, the fishing was tough.
In the Junior division Connor Nimrod placed third with one fish weighing 1.18 pounds. Austin Smith claimed second place with a 1.70 pound fish. First place and the Junior division KBFN 2011 Youth State Championship went to Jesse Heflin with two fish and a total weight of 2.75 pounds.
In the Senior division Cole Bowen took third place with 4.88 pounds. Austin Bray weighed in 8.13 pounds for second. The KBFN Senior division 2011 Youth State Champion is Nick Luna, who weighed in 9.32 pounds. Just as a note; Cole, Austin, and Nick have all been KBFN State Champions before, and all three have advanced to fish the Bassmaster Junior World Championship. We are very fortunate to have anglers fishing in the BJWC three out of the last four years.
The Big Bass Award of a $25 gift certificate to MikesProBassGear.com was presented by Mike Neal himself.
The Heavy Boat Award was given to Matthew Smoot who volunteered his day and his boat for Nick Luna and Connor Nimrod to fish from. The award is six custom painted crank baits from Poor Man’s Custom Baits aka Matthew Smoot, so we gave Matthew a gallon Mercury boat oil and the two anglers got to split the crank baits.
The two State Champions each received the following: three custom painted crank baits of their choice from Poor Man’s Custom Baits, a tackle bag and soft plastics from Melvin Smoot (who added that they had been donated by BBC members), and a certificate good for a 30% discount off all purchases from MikesProBassGear.com. Mike Neal stated that the discount was good until these champions were de-throned next year.
In addition to the above, the two State Champions (through their parents) will receive help in offsetting expenses when they attend the 2012 Central Divisional.
After the tournament the anglers, boaters, and families were treated to hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, cookies, and soft drinks. We were also lucky enough to have in attendance two members of the KSU Fishing Team. Ryan Patterson and Nathan Kozlowski did a nice job of mingling with the youth and their families in an informal “meet and greet”.
Thank you to one and all for making this year a success, Brad V. |
