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Austin and Mah Clinch Region #1 Team Championships
By Bill Hutcheson
“Swinging for the Fences” and “Zero to Hero” are
terms that are often bantered about when talking a come from
behind victory. In the case of the team of Ken Mah and Jason
Austin, the term would aptly apply to their decision to fish
untested waters on their way to winning the U.S. Anglers Choice
Region #1 Team Championships at Clear Lake.
Slated for the weekend of October 15-16th, 2011, the US Anglers
Choice Region #1 Team Championships saw teams from as far away
as Washington, New Mexico, and Southern California in
attendance. Glorious weather greeted the angling field on both
days of competition and helped to bring out the crowds to the
Clear Lake’s Red Bud Park weigh area.
In a post tournament interview, Mah stated that they had spent
three days pre-fishing leading up to the competition. “We pretty
much hit the entire lake, starting in the South on Wednesday and
working our way north by Friday”, Mah stated. “When the first
day started, we were boat number 72 out which pretty much put us
in the middle of the pack. We decided to run North and caught a
couple of fish throwing cranks and Lunker Punkers. There was a
ton of boat traffic in the area, so we moved over towards the
casino and started to work the tule lines flippin’ frogs. We
caught a few more. From here, we ran to the Rattlesnake arm and
picked up a couple more fish. All told, we ended up junk fishing
on Saturday to take about 12 to 13 keepers total on cranks,
frogs, topwater, and jigs. We ended up the first day in 14th
place with 22.96 pounds”, Mah closed.
Mah continued, “Jason and I had a serious heart to heart
discussion that night in the hotel room. We both knew that
another day of 4-pound fish was not going to win the event or
necessarily put us in the money. We knew that flippin’ frogs in
the afternoon was a strong pattern, but we needed something
early in the day to produce a couple of big fish. I had an area
that I had fished in the past but did not pre-fish for this
tournament. It was a small stretch of rocky sloping shoreline
that was only about 30 feet long, but had done me well
historically. It was a make or break decision and we decided to
go for broke and hit this area first thing”.
As day two started, the duo motored to the spot they had decided
upon and within a couple of casts with a wooden Lunker Punker,
they boated a 5 and a half pound fish. About 10 casts later, a 6
and a half-pound fish hit the deck. About 15 minutes later, they
had a fish that blew up three times before it ate the bait. That
fish also went 6 pounds, so by 7:45, Mah and Autsin had 18
pounds in the boat and were feeling good.
“Our topwater bite died and we fished a few similar spots until
about 10am when we started flippin’ frogs again”, Mah quipped.
“While it was slow, we ended up picking up a couple more 4 and a
half pound fish to round out our limit”.
When Mah and Austin hit the scales the final day, the had the
top sack of the day at 27.08 pounds which pushed their two day
weight to over 50 pounds, securing the victory. For their win,
the team was awarded a certificate good for a Legend LE186SCX
boat and trailer equipped with a Mercury 200HP ProXS motor and
MotorGuide trolling motor valued at nearly $30,000.
Second place at the USAC Region #1 team championships went to
the local team of Paul and Brian Bailey. Team Bailey had a
strong performance, bringing in a total of 49.61 pounds of fish
over the course of the competition. Much like the winners, Team
Bailey pre-fished for three days prior to the contest, covering
the entire lake. Come tournament time however, the duo started
down in the southern portion of the lake fishing with wake
baits. “I think we only caught seven fish on the first day, but
they were the right fish” Paul noted.
The second day, Paul and Brian found that their topwater bite
had fizzled, so the duo switched gears and proceeded to slow
roll trash fish swimbaits, bouncing them off the bottom to catch
their limit that included a 6.07 pound big fish.
For their efforts, the runner up team earned a certificate good
for a 200HP Mercury ProXS motor valued around $11,000.
Taking the Bronze was the team of Jack Goodby and Dan Wells who
earned their birth into the TOC via the Gold City-Oroville
trail. “Due to our work schedules, we only had the opportunity
to pre-fish on Friday”, noted Wells. “We did a lot of what I
call history fishing – keying in on areas we had done well on in
the past”.
The team spent most of the day in the Rodman Slough throwing
trash fish swimbaits and flippin’ Sweet Beaver plastics in a
California 420 color. They accounted for 16-17 fish. “We
basically had our best five by 8:30 in the morning, but were
never able to upgrage”, Wells stated.
Wells and Goodby spent day two doing much of the same and had
their weight by 11:00. They left the spot around 1:00 but were
never able to better their weight. Goodby and Wells earned
$4,000 cash and a Power Pole boat positioning unit valued at
$1,000 for their 48.83 pounds.
Fourth Place went to the Isabella Region Anglers of the Year
Mike Stiles and Jason Newby. This team started day one in the
southern area of the lake fishing Smith Smash Brand swimbaits in
a hitch pattern and D&M Jigs in a brown and purple color. “We
started on day one with kind of a milk run of 7 spots and ended
up catching about 15 fish all in the 2-3 pound class in the
process of weeding them out to come up with our 24.21 pound
bag”. Mike noted.
Stiles and Newby started day two down south as well, but started
in a different area. “We started out the day with topwater
swimbaits but the fish weren’t buying it, so we switched back to
the deeper running swimbaits and jigs”, Mike closed. Stiles and
Newby’s second day limit of 23.12 pounds locked up the forth
place spot. In addition to this, they were the top finishing
“Angler of the Year” team and closed out the event with a total
of $5,250 in cash and prizes.
Rounding out the top five was the team of Kris Sisto and Robert
Thornton. Following in the footsteps of the winning teams, these
guys also pre-fished for three days prior to the event,
eliminating unproductive waters in the process. Like others,
trash fish swimbaits in the south end of the lake seemed to be
the key in enticing the fish to bite. The team reported catching
only 8-9 fish the first day. “We would have fish that would
follow the swimbait but not eat it, so we followed up by
throwing a green pumpkin chatterbait to catch them” Sisto
stated. The team finished out the event with 47.01 pounds of
fish and earned $1,500 cash in the process.
Overall big fish of the tournament was a 7.53 pound fish taken
by Mike Tuck on the first day of competition, earning Tuck
$1,200 in option money.
The 115 boats participating in the USAC Region #1 Team
Championships boated 904 bass, including a smallmouth bass,
which is a rarity for Clear Lake. These fish weighed a total of
3,322.67 pounds for an average weight of 3.67 pounds per fish –
not too bad! Total cash and prizes awarded were just shy of
$70,000.
U.S. Anglers Choice would like to thank the many sponsors who
helped to make the 2011 season a memorable one. Thank you’s go
out to Legend Boats, Mercury Marine, Berkley, Abu-Garcia, Hooked
on Adventures, MotorGuide, Lowrance, Powerpole, General Tires,
Eye Surrender, Old Trapper Beef Jerky, Clear Lake Chamber of
Commerce, Clear Lake Bait & Tackle, Clear Lake Cottages, IGA
Foods, Grocery Outlet, Clear Lake American Observer, Clear Lake
Moose Lodge 2284, Penny Slaver, Lakeshore Sports, Bill Edmunds
Realty, Mediacom, Featherbed Railroad, and Tom Hewlett Dental.
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