Despite harsh wind conditions and a rain out on Friday, anglers managed to catch a huge amount of fish on day one of this year’s classic.  90 limits of bass and almost 1800 pounds of fish were caught on day one. Thomas Berkley and Gerald Mudroch managed to bring in the biggest bag on day one with 20.54 pounds. Luke Estel and Josh Jackson were in second place with 18.89. Paul Desherlia and Dave Mueller were third with 18.02. Craig Cowan and Jason Estel were forth. On Dennis Newton’s birthday he and John Newton captured the 5th spot. The Newton’s also gobbled up big bass with a nice 7.30 largemouth. On Day one, three of five teams came from the same division in Illinois.

As day two arrived so did the winds making it very difficult to pass through the channel between Kentucky and Barkley lakes. Many anglers found themselves jumping from spot to spot because the fish had changed somewhat from day one. Drew Sadler and Brain Richmond brought the biggest bag of bass to the scales on day two and the largest sack of the tournament at 22.19 pounds. Team Sadler and Richmond made the biggest charge of the tournament despite not catching a limit the first day they moved up from 117th place to fourth, just one position away from a new boat. 

John Harrison and George Guffey came from 11th place to claim the fifth spot with a two day total of 29.88 pounds.  Shawn Penn and Steve Freeman were able to catch a limit both days for a two day total of 31.68 pounds to claim third place of a new Z-5 Nitro. One of the most amazing stories of the classic is Todd Hollowell and Adam Skaggs. The two fished together on day one and caught five fish that only weighted 12.92 pounds this put the two in 36th position after day one. 

Because of the rain out on day one Adam did not have the opportunity to fish on day two due to an obligation at his work and Todd was forced to fish by himself. Fish is exactly what Todd did. Having fished a tournament on Kentucky Lake the weekend prior, Todd put all the data together he had collected and on day two he was able to catch a 19.22 pound bag by himself.  He was able to sit on the hot seat through four of the top five anglers from day one for second place on day two with a total weight of 32.14 for the tournament giving the team ownership of a new Z-7 Nitro.

Strike King sponsored Luke Estel and Josh Jackson from southern Illinois was able to catch a 5 fish limit both days and edge out for the win by .063 pounds over Hollowell and Skaggs. Throwing crankbaits and tubes the two won a new Z-8 Nitro and captured the honors of Classic champions. Announcer for the Classic and Elite Series Pro Gene Ellington asked the two at what moment in the tournament did they feel a win? Estel replied “when we caught the last fish I felt like we might have a top 5 but I never imagined a win”.

Team mate Josh Jackson said “this classic win is one of the biggest ever for him and thanked Kevin Yeary (CEO and founder of Bassin') and the Bassin crew for providing such a wonderful event as the Nitro Classic”.

Congratulations to all who qualified for the Classic that alone in our growing organization are a great accomplishment.  A very special thank you goes out to all who made this year’s classic one of the best ever. Our new stage made the event very impressive. Our anglers are some of the best in the country and they all proved it at the classic this year. An extreme amount of work goes into putting on a classic event. National tournament director Gary Earl is to be commended for a job well done. Thank you to all the directors across the country. With the work of everyone we have created an amazing team tournament series.