Banks Lake Qualifier

By Ben Hanes, Writer

Northwest Bass Pro Staff

On April 14 at 6:00 a.m., the entire field of 123 boats began to wonder if the continuous rain would help or hinder their efforts.  It was a gloomy start to a historic day for Northwest Bass, where only one team would come out on top and claim the crown in the largest tournament ever in the Circuit’s history.   When the engines were fired up, even the wind and rain couldn’t take away the anglers’ anticipation and competitiveness.  The first boat blasted off and it was at that point that everyone knew…

It was time for some serious business.

1^st   Patience Pays Off for Clark & Slippy

      After a tremendous practice the week before, the team of Neal Clark and Jeff Slippy from Spokane entered Saturday with one goal in mind: to win the tournament.  “We couldn’t sleep all week,” said Neal, “During practice, we caught eight, 3-pound largemouth in 15 minutes, and we had to pull off that particular spot.  We knew that if those fish were there the next week, we would have a good shot at winning the tournament.”

            The pair’s enthusiasm faded when they discovered they would be the third-to-last boat to blast off. 

            As it turned out, the extra two hours of fishing turned an average finish into a win. “In the last two hours, we caught 3 nice largemouth over three pounds that culled out our smaller fish.  Being third-to-last to blast off kind of saved the day for us.”       

In addition to the late bite that significantly boosted the team’s weight, the line they used in the last two hours helped propel them to the top of the leader board.  “With clear, shallow water, we knew that line color and visibility would be a factor,” explained Neal.  Thus, the anglers had several rods rigged with different lines, and they experimented to establish which line would be the most effective.  Through trial and error, they determined that a type of Berkley Fluorocarbon drastically increased their catch rate, and made the bigger fish less spooky.

Clark and Slippy focused on a particular spot that quickly dropped to 6 feet, and was a bass highway.  “We mostly caught cruising largemouth that would move in and out all day,” said Neal. At times, the pair of anglers would wait 3 hours before getting a single bite, and then their remarkable patience would reward them with 3 fish in less than 10 minutes.

            When the day was done, Neal Clark and Jeff Slippy weighed in a mammoth Banks Lake bag that tipped the scales at 16.34 pounds.  All of their fish were largemouth, and for their efforts they received a check for $3,975 dollars and two great pairs of Solar Bat Sunglasses.      

 2^nd   Weeds, Rock, and Clay for Conklin

While many other anglers viewed low water as a problem for finicky largemouth, Courtney Conklin from Moses Lake applied a strategy borne from over 20 years of experience on the water:  focus on the solution, not the problem.  In this case, Courtney learned through pre-fishing that the ticket to a win would be a limit of quality largemouth, and with the water low, he moved out from the bank and found transition areas where rocks intersected with clay flats.  “The key was to find a transition line or weed edge,” he explained, “where the weeds were just starting to grow.”

Courtney caught his fish swimming a Jerry’s 4-inch smoke with gold and silver flake grub on a ½ ounce football jig head.  He also expertly probed the transition areas on the flats with a crank bait, employing an effective stop and go retrieve that varied based on the attitudes of the fish.  His rod of choice was a Lamiglas 6’8” cranking stick.  The ‘play’ of the rod and Conklin’s own skill enabled him to single-handedly—literally—net his own fish.  Conklin described his experience on the water on Saturday, “I was in the zone.  Everywhere I went I caught fish, and I didn’t lose any fish all day.”

Courtney Conklin finished the day with 16.10 pounds.  He was less than 4 ounces out of first place, and cashed a check for $3,550 dollars.

       3^rd    Big Tubes=Big Money For Bland & Whitley

Les Whitley and Mack Bland from Kennewick tirelessly fan-casted a flat with rocky humps, prying the depths for signs of intermittent weeds, a necessary ingredient for there to be fish.  When they found weeds, they found fish.  By casting a Yo Zuri Rattlin’ Vibe and retrieving it at a ‘burning’ speed, the pair was able to trigger numerous strikes over the vegetation.  And when the bite would slow, Les and Mack would move to the nearby tulles, and pitch 5 ½ inch green-pumpkin Bass Kick’n Baits tubes as far as they could into the reeds.  “The 5 ½ inch tube offers the bass something different, and it’s perfect for hungry largemouth,” said Les.  Perfect it was, as it afforded the anglers a couple of hefty largemouth, and an even larger smallmouth. 

The anglers caught numerous fish on Saturday, and did not lose one.  They both attribute their good fortune to an extra-tough type of Calcutta line that withstood the force it took to heave ferocious smallmouth out of the rocks and reeds.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of all, aside from this team’s fish-catching tenacity, was the sheer desire of Les Whitley to continue on, even with a torn meniscus in his knee.  The angler spent nearly the entire tournament sitting down or on crutches. When Mack Bland would catch a fish, he would have to calmly maneuver the fish to the back of the boat, where Les could net it.

The team completed the day with 16.06 pounds, and received a check for $2,000 dollars.

Lamiglas Big Bass

            Dave Lewis and Ray Young brought in the largest bass of the day.  It was their very last cast, with only seconds to spare.  Not giving up enabled the pair of anglers to haul in a 5.16-pound largemouth that made the difference and put them into 4^th place.   They used a rattletrap and a 7’0” Lamiglas rod to pull the fish out of shallow weeds near a small secondary point.

            For their persistence, the team received a Lamiglas rod certificate and $2,640 dollars in cash.

Northwest Bass is the largest fishing circuit in the Northwest, and in the 2007 year, will feature 5 qualifying tournaments.  All of these tournaments lead up to the Northwest Bass Challenge Circuit Championship, with the top prize being a fully-rigged, tournament level Triton TR-196/200 HP Mercury boat package sponsored by Nixon’s Marine. 

Northwest Bass is sponsored by Nixon’s Marine, Inc., Mercury, Triton Boats, Lamiglas Rods, Tony Lind Paving, White’s Boots, Solar Bat Sunglasses, VIP Studios, Princess Pickled Foods, and  Clearwater Custom Tackle.

Angler’s Sponsors

Courtney Conklin is sponsored by Jerry’s Lures, All State Electric in Moses Lake, and Masco Construction.

Les Whitley and Mack Bland are sponsored by Grigg’s Department Store, Ace Hardware, Calcutta Baits, Bass Kick’n Baits, Red Mountain Feed & Irrigation, Diamond Chiropractic, Boating Solutions, and Big O Tire.