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The recently concluded Champions Week on Kentucky Lake brought anglers from across the country to fish for big money and numerous prize boats from Nitro and Tracker. In addition to vying for the top prizes, USA Bassin had another event going on, the "Mystery Fish" prize. Prior to the event, USA Bassin officials came up with a mystery weight for a single bass that would be worth up to $20,000 for the lucky team who brought it to the scales. This year the weight was 5lbs even. Anglers were aware of the weight and were hoping they would be the winners. National Director Kevin Yeary added "We had done this contest before but nobody has ever hit it, this was the first time someone actually did it. The fish itself was worth $10,000 and anglers could receive up to an additional $10,000 if certain requirements were met." If the winning team was fishing out of a Nitro or Tacker boat they would win an additional $5,000. There was also a $2,500 bonus for anglers fishing with a USA Bassin All-Pro rod and also $2,500 if the anglers were wearing jerseys with the USA Bassin logo. The lucky winners were Jerrod Easley and Tim Simpson who caught the 5lb bass and also had a USA Bassin jersey on, meaning they walked away with $12,500. If they were fishing in a Nitro or Tracker or had the All-Pro rod with the USA Bassin logo, there large prize would be even bigger. Interestingly, the prize almost didn't happen. According to Simpson they didn't think they had anything close to 5lbs and were well aware of the prize. "We actually don't even know which one of us caught it or what we caught it on. We both caught a few that were all about the same size and on different baits, we didn't think any of them were close to five pounds," added Simpson. The team went to the weigh-in scales and the weighmaster asked which one they wanted to try. "He said this ones a little fatter, maybe you should this one, but we couldn't decide. We ended up doing the 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe' until we picked one," added Simpson. Luckily they made the right choice and the fish finally settled on 5lbs even, "It bounced around from 5-3,5-2,5-1 and finally stopped on 5-0. We are both still in shock about winning this," said Simpson. They were also fortunate to wear the jersey this time around, "We wear them most of the time unless it's really hot," said Simpson. Luckily for them, they had the jersey on and took home an extra $2,500. By: Tyler Brinks
