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1st Place and Big Bass

2nd Place

3rd Place

Results

A 20-boat field of teams showed for the AC / SLM's inaugural tournament, even with the prediction of high winds and small craft advisory warnings for the afternoon. The National Weather Service, NOAA, forecasted winds to turn from the east at 5 to 10 knots to southwest with chances of thunderstorms and gale force winds increasing from 15 to 20 to 35 knots, with gusts to 50 mph by late afternoon. Tournament Director Ed Bohn said, "I'm sure this affected the turn-out this morning, a lot of these teams look at the weather and wind conditions before coming out this time of year. Even with the prediction of the wind conditions it won't affect the tournament today. Southwest winds at this end of the lake still give you the shoreline to run with waves of three feet or less in some of the open areas. It will only affect the teams on their return and we'll get them in early before the heavy stuff hits this afternoon." The day turned out just as NOAA predicted and by 2:45 PM all teams were checked in safely and ready to weigh-in their fish.

The veteran tournament angler Dave Trombetta (Hammond, IN) picked up where he left off last season in being consistent with bringing in limits of bass. The only difference this season is a new partner, Joel Vogel (Hammond, IN) and the new AC SLM tournament circuit. Dave and Joel navigated their way into a backwater steel plant cooling lake to claim the win with a five fish limit of 17.70 lbs. The two also took home the AC SLM "TOAD AWARD" ($200.00), big bass with a smallmouth of 4.76 lbs. just nipping Dave Adams (Schererville IN) smallmouth by six one hundredths of a pound. Trombetta and Vogel's first place finish earned them $1570.00 for the day's efforts. Joel told the weigh-in crowd that they used shad colored crank baits and tubes to retrieve their limit even though the bite was slow and the two had a total of eight fish for the day.

The second place team of Dave Adams (Schererville IN) and Mike Myers (St. John IN) earned a $642.00 tournament payday with 17.12 lbs. Their 4.70 lbs. smallmouth anchored the team's limit and just missed taking the TOAD AWARD. The team's pattern of success was fishing deep diving shad colored crank baits in two feet of water over and near an old shipwreck. "You had to kick up the sand and dirge the bottom, if you don't dig the bait you won't get bit. We only had two areas that would produce today because of the wind conditions, but were happy with the results," said Dave. Finishing out the paid positions and a third place finish worth $368.00 were Barry Panfil (Orland Park, IL) and Jeff Baffa (Orland Park IL). The two were also in the same backwater lake as the first place team but only managed a limit weight of 14.98 lbs. Jeff said, "We pretty much used more jerk baits than crank baits and we had a few fish on the pumpkin colored tube jig. We'll be back in two weeks and try again."

Total Teams 20
Total fish weigh 56
Total Limits 8
Total weight 157.92
Total teams weighing fish 17

Anglers Choice, Southern Lake Michigan would like to thank TV / Radio personality Steve Sarley for his presence and assistance as Weigh-Master / Host of the tournament circuit inaugural event.