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River Road Junior Bassmasters
Stoddard, WI

2007 Casting Kids Contest

Saturday June 30th, 2007

Saturday, June 30th marked the River Road Junior Bassmasters Double Header.  Eleven kids took to the water in search of monster bass. 

  The morning started of with dense fog and comfortable temperatures with the forecast calling for sunny skies and a light breeze.  Most anglers started their day working some form of top water hoping to get an aggressive strike.  As the sun came up, tactics were switched to slop for some and current breaks for others. 

  At the first weigh in the kids were excited to show off their fish as everyone had fish to weigh.  The “Big Bass” award goes to Justin Panno 3.49# Largemouth.  First place for the 11 – 14 age group went to Broc Bina and the 15 – 18 age group was Cade Laufenberg.  As I said, all anglers caught fish and it appeared that fun was had by all.

  After the weigh in, the anglers took pictures in front of our highly respected sponsor banners.  Unfortunately, not all of our sponsors had banners to provide.  Thanks to Quillins of La Crosse, the kids and their families were able to have hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch with buns provided by one of our own Greg Olson.  The rest of the food was provided by the parents, and our own cooks of Laudy Allen and Thomas Whitehead made sure everything went smooth.  Thank you to all who helped and provided for the picnic.

  The second tournament proved to be a little more difficult.  Some of the anglers continued to work on their morning pattern, and some of them were successful.  Others changed to a different pattern and found their own little piece of the pot.  The afternoon weigh in showed the differences in techniques.  Cade once again brought in the big bag for the 15 – 18 age group along with the 3.82# “Big Bass” award, while Jared Larue nudged out Broc in the 11 – 14 age group by just over 1 pound.  This afternoon also brought in a mixed bag with Cole Bina and Ryan Welch finding a few smallmouth.

  All in all the day was a huge success.  In total their was 47 fish caught and a combined weight of 96.68 lbs of both largemouth and smallmouth.  Not bad for only eleven anglers.   Great job by all,  and thank you for a wonderful and safe day.

Saturday May 26th, 2007

River Roads Junior Bassmasters hit the water again.  The weather was calling for T-Storms but they held off.  Today we managed to come through with all the boats we needed. I would like to thank Jeff Schott for coming out and helping.  With out him we would have been one boat short.  I would also like to thank Brent, Laudy, Jimmy, and Bill for their continued support.  I know the kids appreciate your guidance.  As I mentioned before we came through without getting wet and the kids had a blast.  I do not know of anyone who did not catch fish, however a few anglers struggled to boat some legals.  Great job to all of you.

  Twenty-one fish were weighed today with Justin Panno getting the big bass at 2.90 lbs.  Great job.  There was a mixed bag of smallmouth and largemouth brought in.  Tony had a great smallmouth that weighed in at 2.65.  He was so excited, I could tell by the ripples the boat gave off from him shaking for about 20 minutes.  All in all we had twelve anglers with Cole Bina being the youngest in the crowd at only 8 yo.  He caught several fish but nothing legal.

  The next River Road Jr Bassmasters event is the Casting Kids event at Gander Mountain on June 2nd from 1:00 – 5:00.  Hope to have a good turnout. 

  Again Great Job!   Thank you to all for your cooperation.  I have the current standings listed below.  Tie breakers based on Big Bass.  To date there has been a total of 36 fish caught weighing 81.17 lbs.

Photo from the first tourney of the year. (April 21st)