Under the light of a harvest moon on beautiful Patoka Lake nearly 150 teams awaited take off for the 2009 southern Indiana regional. This year the event would hold a top prize of 5000 dollars and a chance for 40 teams to advance to the USA Bassin Classic. The tournament meeting held at the Clarksville Bass Pro Shops the night before and had revealed the order of take off and boat check was completed at the ramp. Promptly at 7:45am tournament director Gary Earl began calling boat numbers. One by one the teams took off to what was going to be one of the most challenging tournaments the USA Bassin members had faced on Patoka Lake this year.

 With a cold front plowing its way through southern Indiana, practice had produced few keeper bass. Water temps on the main lake was around 68 degrees and the backs of the creeks about 8 to 10 degrees cooler making the bite extremely slow. Thursday night the area received about a quarter of an inch of rain making the upper portion of the lake up river cold and stained. Friday and Saturday prior to the tournament the winds made fishing main lake in practice nearly impossible. Although the water temps had remained the same the winds had calmed tournament day and the Bassin anglers were ready to tackle Lake Patoka.

Despite the conditions some anglers were able to find some nice fish during the morning bite. However, many fishermen say that the bite came later in the day but only three teams would catch a limit of fish that day. Shallow water had been the talk around the docks, but despite the dock talk team Todd Woolems and Kevin Robbeloth choose a deeper approach and was able to put together a limit of bass with a total weight of 16.24 to win the southern Indiana Regional. In an interview with Woolems and Robbeloth after the tournament they confessed to fishing shallow water earlier in practice with no success. The team started fishing deeper water in the range of 18 to 21 feet and found keepers. Both admitted to shaking off big fish earlier in the week during practice. A jig would be the bait that helped them catch the winning bag weighting 16.24. Team Frank Mc Clain and Bill Buckner would claim the second place prize with a limit of bass weighting 13.95. Thomas LeGear and Clyde LeGear would take the third place spot with only 3 fish weighting 12.93; one of the three would be the big bass of the tournament at 6.33. Divisional champions Phil and Dustin Miller would snag the 4th place spot with 4 fish weighting 12.82. Randy and Lucas Roberts would take 5th place honors with a limit of bass weighting 12.72

Special thanks goes out to all who helped make this years southern Indiana regional happen. Brownies Marine for many doors prizes and the continued support through the year. Bass Pro Shop for all they do throughout the year and providing a great venue for the meeting. Don Wood with DR Lures for his continued support as well. Thank you also goes out to Nemier Lure for door prize donations and all the support this year. I encourage everyone to patronize these sponsors for they play a big part in making USA Bassin tournaments the success they are.

I would like to congratulate all the anglers making the top 40 and advancing to the USA Bassin Classic that will be held on Kentucky Lake in May 2010.