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USA BASSIN Couples Classic

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The 2013 USA Bassin Co-Ed Classic was held on September 7th and 8th on Barkley Lake. Tournament Director John Newton described the event as tough fishing. “We had light winds and a temperature in the low 90’s each day making for a tough bite. The weights were down but the thing that I was most surprised by was that the big fish of the tournament was less than 5lbs,” said Newton. 25 teams in total fished the event and the field was comprised of Co-Ed teams from around the region. Teams came from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and even Nebraska to fish the year end event.

The first place team was John and Lori Carroll who had a two day total of 23.55lbs. They were consistent with their stringers and weighed 12.13 on Day 1 and 11.42 on Day 2. John explained that they didn’t know the lake prior to the tournament and spent Thursday and Friday practicing. “We looked for ledges on Barkley Lake and found some good keepers on Thursday so we decided to leave them alone on Friday. Saturday we went back to those fish and caught them on deep diving Spro crankbaits,” said Carroll. The key he added was casting shallow and reeling the crankbaits right to the ledges. The fish would hit the crankbait as it came off of the ledge. The team also used an 8” Carolina-rigged Watermelon/Red Flake Lizard to catch some of their keepers. “We didn’t think we had a chance going into this event and it was our first win as a co-ed team,” added Carroll. For the win the team received $1500 plus an additional $500 for fishing the event out of their Nitro boat.

2nd Place was Steve Dickerson and Kelly Dube with 21.54lbs. The duo focused on ledges and bluff walls and relied on shaky heads and Berkley Chigger Craws to catch their fish. “We are from Louisville, but fish this area quite a bit. On Saturday we stayed in Barkley Lake most of the time but on Sunday we spent most of our time on Kentucky Lake,” said Dube. This is their 4th year fishing as a Co-Ed team and they qualified for the championship fishing closer to home in the Twin Lakes Division but they also fish the Green River Division. “We try to hit them all,” added Dube. The team walked away with $800 prize money for their finish.

3rd Place was Philp and Missy Risinger who had a two day total of 19.74lbs. “We heard they were on ledges and that is what we focused on. We also looked for areas in the backs of bays where the bass were chasing shad,” said Philip Risinger. The team fishes Barkley often and relied on soft plastics to catch their fish. The Risinger’s were awarded $500 for their finish.

The National Points Champions were Jason and Tanya Cassetty. The team also finished the event in 5th Place and had the biggest bass of the tournament, a 4.89lb fish caught on Day 1. The pair received a $500 bonus for winning the points title.


By: Tyler Brinks