Previous Next

Latest News

← Back to Latest News

Lucas Oil Tournament of Champions

Friday, May 10, 2013

The Lucas Oil Tournament of Champions is really that, a large field of divisional champions, state point champions, teams with 1000 points of more, and multiple winners for winning weights and big bass weighed in. In short, the field is stacked with the best USA Bassin has to offer.National Director Kevin Yeary added, “This field was truly the best of the best and the real die-hard fishermen.”A total of 105 boats took to Kentucky Lake to attempt to take the title of the Lucas Oil Champion.

The winning team was Jeff Berger and Kenneth Voelkerding who weighed in 27.76 pounds. Berger recalled the day and said they had their monster bag in the morning and actually quit fishing at 10:00 am in an effort to save their fish for another USA Bassin event later in the week. “We caught them a long way from where we launched, it was 80 miles one way. Once we had all those big ones, we took it easy and drove back slowly to take care of the fish,” said Berger. Their big bag included all solid fish over five pounds, with a 6.29lber being the biggest. They fished main lake points and were catching a mix of pre and post spawn bass as they were coming in and out of the shallows. For the win the team won $5,000.
Second place was the team of Shawn Penn and Steve Freeman, who also recently won the USA Bassin TRACKER Cup last weekend. They used the knowledge from their great tournament and weighed in 25.81lbs by fishing crankbaits on points in various areas of the lake. The team also had the biggest bass of the event, with an 8.01lb bass. The team won $2,500 for their finish.
Third Place was the team of Bill Hurle and Bobby Dorton who weighed 24.73lbs. Dorton added that the team also fished a long way from the launch ramp, traveling 60 miles each way to their prime fishing locations. “We caught lots of fish and probably threw back 20 four pound fish because they didn’t help us. We were fishing in water that was 8-12ft deep and used crankbaits, reeling them right into the submerged tree tops,” added Dorton.
The Lucas Oil Tournament of Champions proved to be a test for the best in the nation and the weights showed with the top seven teams all weighing in over 20lbs of bass.
By: Tyler Brinks