After an intense rain storm Friday and early Saturday morning the skies cleared up and graced us with a beautiful fall day for FAN’s second qualifying tournament at the City of Granit Shoals Bluebriar Park.
Inching closer to the Berkley AOY points and qualifying for the Championship with over $6,000 in Scholarship Funds, and the Skeeter Super Six Invitational. With a solid 7th place finish to go with their win on Lake Belton, Ben Marczynski and Jason Duvall, from Hyde Park are still leading by 3 points over the student anglers, Cody Barchenger and Ethan Ochoa, from Thrall HS.
Fishing their first FAN HS Tournament and representing the South Texas Bass Commanders of San Antonio were Baylor Hall and Wyatt Haschke with Captain Efrem Dicochea.
Here are Baylor’s comments and teams winning strategy.
Being new to the FAN trail my partner and were not expecting to do as well as we did. My partner Wyatt Haschke had never been on the lake in his life and I hadn’t been for about a year. Even our new boat captain Efrem Dicochea hadn’t been real familiar with the lake. The day before the tournament I was worried about the quickly changing weather patterns not knowing that all of this rain would help us do the way we did. We launched at a different boat ramp than Blue Brier where the tournament was and we arrived to Bluebrier Park, paid, got signed in, and proceeded to get ready for takeoff. Our boat captain and I had debated on where to go first so I finally decided on a cove off the southern end of the lake that had some good grass and docks to fish. We made our way to the back of the cove where we had some good grass marked when we noticed a white water current coming out of a drainage ditch from a nearby neighborhood and I was intrigued by it. The water was very stained and had debris scattered along the surface. I had to change our game plan completely switching to chartreuse colors and top water lures. My partner Wyatt caught our first keeper on a white buzz bait on the inside grass line. Transitioning into our next spot (the next cove over) we had a few bites on docks but nothing to make us stay. Coming into the mouth of our next cove I threw a chartreuse chatter bait on the grass line outside the docks to catch our second keeper. After catching that fish I had changed my trailer from a 3 inch yum money minnow to a 6 inch because of the water clarity. As we made our way out of the cove there was an old grey stoned house in the water. The 4th cast with the new set up I caught that 6.00 pounder that definitely got us the win that day. So with 3 bass for about 9 pounds we felt good. In the back of the next cove there was some good bank cover with flooded grass. Wyatt caught a good keeper again on the buzz bait to give us 4 fish early. It had been 2 hours without a bite so we went to a grass flat that Efrem had suggested. We got set up in about 12 feet with the wind to our backs and started throwing into the grass. I put on a Carolina rig with a 6 inch watermelon red paddle tail worm to catch our last keeper and give us a limit just an hour before weigh in. With having 13 pounds in the boat we still didn’t think we had enough to win. Frantically fishing for a final big bite to cull we had to get to the weigh in by 2:00 pm. When we got to weigh in the big bass was 6.44 and the top weight was 13.04 so we knew it would be close. As we went up on stage and saw those scales passing 13.04 to 13.76 we were overwhelmed with joy. We had just done it! It was a great feeling. The trophies where exceptional but the fact that we went in to the tournament blind and used our skills to figure the fish out to win and beat all of the local anglers was the best feeling of all. Well said, Baylor.
Baylor and Wyatt each received a beautiful trophy and Abu Garcia Vendetta casting rod with an Abu Garcia Black Max reel – Captain Efrem won the Academy Captain Incentive award of a $100 Academy Gift Card – GREAT JOB GUYS….
Earning the second place spot was the team of Cody Barchenger and Ethan Ochoa from Thrall High School with a 13.04 pound limit with Captian Kevin Barchenger.
“I practiced for LBJ the weekend before the tournament and found spots with grass,” Barchenger said. “On the day of the tournament we threw wacky and Texas rigs along grass lines and docks to put in several keeper fish. Around 11:30 I picked up a topwater bait and threw it over an isolated grass patch to catch our 5.11 pound kicker fish.
The FAN tournament trail has done an awesome job organizing these tournaments and we appreciate the time they take to run this series,” Barchenger continued. “I would like to thank Rick Smith and the rest of the staff at Marine Outlet in Temple, Custom Angle Rods, and everyone else who has supported the Thrall Fishing Team.”
They each took home a Abu Garcia Orra SX Low Profile Casting Rod and Reel Combo and a second place trophy.
Wrapping up the third place position was the team of Nathan Wright and Zachary Washburn representing Rouse High School with 12.13 pound’s with Captain Dale Reed.
They each won a large Berkley PowerBait Tackle Bag and a pair of third place trophies.
Taking the Kistler Custom Rods Big Bass honors of the tournament was Clayton Green with Cen-Tex Bass Hunters with this 6.44 Big Bass. Nice bass Clayton.
Wrapping up the top 10 teams:
4 Collin Lansdale Sheldon Allamon TxBA 11.68
5 Cameron Carter – Zach Knowles – Magnolia 10.67
6 Cody Crabb – Garrett Crabb – Thrall 8.59
7 Ben Marczynski – Jason Duvall – Hyde Park 8.47
8 Tyler Easley – Keller Munroe – CenTex 8.37
9 Will Davenport – Brenham Burgess 8.34
10 Cameron Clouse – Clayton Green CenTex 8.15
You can see all the results and photos in the tournament section here
Catch statistics:
Total Teams: 48
Total Fish: 116
Ave. Fish per Team: 2.4
Ave. Weight per Team: 5.0
This event would not be possible without the volunteers and staff that put everything together, from helping check in, set up, cook hotdogs, launch boats, park trucks, merchandizing and getting it all back into the trailer. Thank you sincerely: Justin Rieger, Skeet Freeman, John Hyndman, Mary Anderson, Ruth Hale, Stephanie Cook, and the many others that jumped in to assist.
Captain Incentives and Awards
Captains are essential to the success of our High School Fishing program and we are honored to be able to recognize them with some great sponsor products and incentives.
Winning the Academy Sports and Outdoors Captain Drawing $100 gift card was Allen Gass with Lake Travis HS.
Winning the Berkley Captain Drawing for a Berkley Power Battery– $49 value pack – Ray Buerkle with Round Rock HS.
Winning the SuperNova Captain Drawing for a SuperNova Nav Kit – $89 value- was Shawn Uschan with Cen-Tex Bass Hunters Youth.
We would like to thank all of our 2015/16 Sponsors and Supporters and ask that you give them a chance to earn your business when the opportunity arises.
Faith Angler Network is a 501©3 non-profit organization serving the Central Texas Area with Youth Fishing Events/ Charity Events/ Military Supported and Awareness Events/ Professional Run Bass Tournaments. For more information please visit our Website or Facebook
