paddled straight to the lily pads and moss beds that covered large portions of the lake. Throughout the day you could hear loud surface strikes all around with some of them coming from deep within the pads and moss. Of course, as the day progressed the Trail wouldn't be complete without some type of weather event and mother nature didn't disappoint. Right in the middle of the tournament a major storm rolled across the lake offering up a little lightning, thunder, and a torrential downpour causing anglers to head for shelter. After losing an hour to the storm the anglers were back at it again and a few found a couple bass that vaulted them up in the standings. In total, there were 12 anglers out of 28 that posted their 3 bass limit (minimum of 12”). A large majority of the bass were in the 13-14” range and 5 bass that were over 16” with the largest measuring in at 19”.

The final totals were:

1st place: Rylan Hayes - Peebles, OH – 14.75, 15.25, 18 = 48 Total Inches

Rylan's Strategy: “I struggled the first 3 hours and hooked two bass that were less than 12 inches, one of which spit the hook and the other flopped out of my kayak, but it wasn't 12 inches so no big deal anyway. I finally found some success on a jig n craw working the lily pad and weed edges. I got my limit in about an hour after that with a 14 inch, 14.75 inch, and a 15.25 inch fish. I did hook one that was 20 inch plus and watched it jump 2ft out of the water and spit the hook...what a heart breaker. Hard to guess weights on big bass sometimes but I would say it was in the 4-6lb range. After the rain I found the 18 inch kicker using the same method.”

2nd place: Tim Sylvester - Charleston, WV – 14, 14.25, 18.75 = 47”

Tim's Strategy: “I caught a total of 4 measurable fish. Before the storm hit I caught two fish on top water frogs. I was twitching the frogs as fast as I could across the weeds, but unlike most anglers I was fishing the frogs on top of the suspended weeds out away from the pads, moss, and weeds near the shoreline. I never caught any in the lily pads. I caught the biggest one on a Booyah pad crasher and I caught another 12”er on a Captain Ken's frog. After the storm hit I caught the two 14”ers on a zoom finesse worm rigged up wacky style. They were both caught off of logs.”

3rd place: Neil Farley - Dayton, OH – 13.25, 13.75, 19 = 46”

Neil's Strategy: “The night before the tournament I fished for about an hour at dusk with a top water hollow body frog in the pads closest to where I would be launching at the tourney. I caught three 12-14” fish, so my plan was to hit the same area to get my limit. Within the first hour I didn't have a single strike on the same frog. I started looking to see what other anglers were doing and noticed everyone was throwing top water baits and getting short strikes. I knew I had to change strategies and began throwing a chartreuse/white spinnerbait with copper willow leaf blades. Right when I changed lures I ran into Jeff Bennett and he was having the same short strike issue, and later found out he decided soon after to change to a subsurface lure too and ended up in the top 5. As soon as I switched and started casting it into the lily pad pockets I caught 3 bass between 12-13” and got my limit. After another half hour of no fish I moved out a bit farther into the deeper subsurface weed line and was ripping the same spinnerbait through the weeds. It was tedious and I had to clean off my bait just about every cast, but I landed another three bass two of which replaced my smaller bass. Soon after the 19”er hit and that made my decision easy...I am ripping spinnerbaits in the weeds the rest of the day. I ended up with another 4 fish and only one was caught after the storm, but none cracked my top 3.”

4th place: Aaron Stiger - Wapakoneta, OH – 14.5, 14.75, 15.5 = 44.75”

5th place: Jeff Bennett – Delaware, OH – 14, 14, 16.5 = 44.50”

6th place: Chase Bateson – Zanesville, OH - 13.5, 14.5, 16.25 = 44.25”

7th place: Dick Nauta – Columbus, OH - 14, 14, 15.5 = 43.5”

8/9th place: Brad Lehman – Dayton, OH – 14.25, 14.5, 14.5 = 43.25”

8/9th place: Brian Lammers – Cincinnati, OH – 13.75, 14.25, 15.25 – 43.25”

10th place: Sean Stone – Peebles, OH – 13.5, 13.5, 13.75 = 40.75”

Big Bass: Neil Farley- Dayton, OH - 19”

Bonus Trail Points: No angler was able to cash in on the bonus points by catching a 20” striped (or hybrid) bass, but Keith Ranly of Sidney, OH was just shy with a 16”er caught while trolling.

PHOTO GALLERY