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Kansas State Regional

Thursday, October 03, 2013

The Kansas State Regional was held on Wilson Lake on September 28th and 29th. The fishing was good for the 16 teams who entered the event. This was the second ever regional in Kansas and teams came from four divisions in Kansas as well as from a division in Northern Oklahoma. Tournament Director Rick Wheeler is pleased with the growth and popularity within the area and expects to grow even more next year. "Last year we had six boats at our regional and this year we had 16, I believe we will keep growing every year," said Wheeler. The fishing quality was about average for Wilson Lake for this time of year according to Wheeler. "The guys who fished for smallmouth both days seemed to do better. Some teams had good bags on the first day with largemouth but weren't able to do it for two days in a row," said Wheeler.

Taking the first prize was the team of Jason and Chase Theis who had a two day total of 21.57lbs. They fished for smallmouth almost exclusively and had a good idea of what to do since Jason won a two day tournament on this lake just a few weeks prior. "The smallmouth on this lake are heavier than the largemouth right now and we decided to fish for them. There is a really specific time when they have been coming up shallow each day chasing shad, you have to be there when they come up," said Jason Theis. The father/son team had limited success each day until the 12:00 to 1:00 time frame when the schools of smallmouth would come up shallow to sand and gravel flats chasing baitfish. "You could fish there all day from 6 in the morning until noon and not catch one, but when they came up we caught them. The first day we only ended up getting five bites but caught eight or nine keepers the second day," said Theis. They had similar bags each day, a 10.32lbs on Day 1 and 11.25lbs on Day 2 including the biggest bass of the second day, a 3.62lb fish. The key baits were finesse worms and a Zara Spook.

2nd Place was the team of Lyne and Lanoue who had a two day total of 20.85lbs.

3rd Place was the team of  Shepard and Call with 20.81lbs.

The Kansas divisions kick off the 2014 season in the Spring, but the Northern Oklahoma division will be holding their first event of the season on Kaw Lake on October 27th.

By: Tyler Brinks