The North Central Region, Club Division’s, fourth qualifier of the year took place on Sunday, May 18th on Lake Belton. The tournament was quite challenging, and the anglers would face numerous obstacles on the road to victory. Everyone knows that the first hurdle to clear on Lake Belton is grinding through the plethora of dinks and swimmers to bring their total weights up, and in that regard, Belton was true to form. However, Belton had other tricks up her sleeve on this day.
The deceptively calm and pleasant conditions experienced by the field at take off quickly deteriorated into chaos as the wind picked up and grew stronger as the day progressed, ultimately gusting over 35 mph. The wind did not stop it from being very humid and sticky all day, and the fact that there was no shortage of wake boaters only served to enhance the “fun”. As if that was not enough adversity, about an hour or so before weigh in, a most impressive thunderstorm rolled across the lake bringing with it some serious lightning and ensuring that the boat ramp would be a zoo. Despite all that, the anglers preserved and at the end of the day, it was boater DaShon Peck and non-boater Jordan Fudge, both with The Colony Bass Club, who dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged their way to the top of the leaderboard.
DaShon Peck would bring in the only limit on the boater side, weighing 8.51 pounds and anchored by the big bass of the tournament, a 2.27 pound small mouth. DaShon pocketed a total of $696 for his efforts. Second place on the boater side with 4 fish weighing 7.10 pounds was Andrew Wren, Tarrant Christian Bass Club, and his big fish weighed 2.20 pounds…oh so close Andrew!
Jordan Fudge’s three fish limit, the only limit on the non-boater side, weighed 5.28 pounds, and gave Jordan his second win in a row along with a $288 payday. Well done Jordan! Second place non-boater with 2.96 pounds was The Colony Bass Club angler, Chris Demiglio, again making up some ground on the current non-boater leader, Alonza Brown, tightening the race for non-boater angler of the year.
The last two qualifying events of this year will be June 21st at Ray Roberts and June 22nd at Texoma. Ray Roberts has been showing out all year and Texoma will be interesting to say the least! Be sure to register for these tournaments so that you don’t miss out on the action and your chance to show off your bass fishing prowess! See you in June!
