Tales from Basschamps Championship on the Red River

Whew! Man that was tough. We stunk on Saturday but my partner with just a few minutes left caught a 4 that allowed us to go for a check on Sunday. Lost 3 fish that would have really helped. On Sunday we got 5 bites and put them in the boat. It was a valiant effort but we fell .08 of a pound from getting a check. Had a blast though glad the hurricane missed us! Louisiana is a strange place had a guy at a tackle store tell us to take our masks off! Lol how did you guys do?

No one wears mask here anymore. That storm messed it up as all us locals where figuring a 20lb bag or 2 would of been caught. Prefishing before cutoff was pretty good size wise

20lb bag on the red? Has it really rebounded that good?

U can do it but it’s a lot of running and gunning to get it done. The fish are making a come back as they have been trying stock it again. Tons of little fish back in the river system.

Well, started off practice Wednesday by dropping a cylinder about 40 miles south of the marina. Luckily we brought a small aluminum boat with us. Really wasn’t able to find anything with fish that big boats couldn’t get in. Had one good practice day. Had 7 something the first day culling twice. Second day had two large grinnel, two magnum sand bass, couple dozen rats and one keeper. Tough weekend.

This one stings a bit. We had some really good bites in practice and just couldn't land them during the tournament. Can't lose 6-7 keepers a day and be competitive. It was a fun experience overall. First time being on the river now I know what to look for to save a lot of time fishing dead water. Only got the boat stuck twice in practice and didn't tear anything up so that was good. Caught a gator on a frog on accident. Those suckers are quicker than you'd think. Didn't lose much at the casino. Would gladly go back.

Edit: forgot to add I had what I assume was an Asian carp jump up through my jackplate, onto the back deck, and back into the water. Scared the living you know what out of us. Thing was probably 20 pounds.

Good to hear.

We brought 2 boats, practice was good for me all 3 days. Caught 3 keepers and made 20 mile run. At the first stop 2nd flip caught one about 3.75, that fish was never stuck, as the hook barely penetrated the bait, talk about luck, 3 min later caught #5. Had our limit at 11:44. Made a move across the way and culled 4 times by 12:25. Partner wanted to keep fishing and I said no, 5 fish the next day will be crucial. Finished day 1 in 19th with 11.02. I had Fuel Filter issues so we used his boat on day 2 and started were we finished. Had our limit by 9:44 and culled 6 times to end with 11.46 and that allowed us to jump 12 spots and end up 7th overall. Been on the RR all of their championships and all 5 days this trip was by far were better than any of the prior visits and I am not talking about the finish, just getting the bites. Congrats to the winners and 2nd place as well, no both teams and they are sticks for sure.

I love that place, didn't fish well at all myself so no excuses for a poor showing but I really enjoy it there so I will be making regular trips down to learn.

So who got disqualified halfway thru the 2nd day? Think they were sitting 3rd after say one I’m told

Not sure about a team sitting in 3rd getting DQ'd but I do know of a guy who had his day one catch DQ'd for nearly killing a few people and pissing off a bunch of others as he ran into a back water on pad while everyone else was single file idling.

Where was this Dale ? I run everywhere I can but usually shut down when encountering others.

I did run the fake no wake zone in 12 mile yesterday while guys were idling there.


Mudd , check your phone

Something bout possibly an off limits area north of town

There was no off limits north of town.........It's pool 5 to Texoma

The team in second got a call from the TD on day two questioning whether the area they trailered to was accessible from the main river. He said he did access it in practice. Also said he only had one fish so he told the TD to zero his weight so he wouldn't take a chance being DQed.

Chris I'd ask the angler in question , to my knowledge this is not a factual statement

However the info the TD relied on to render judgement was inaccurate , my partner and I were also able to get that far North. There is no mud bar precluding entry to the Sulphur River and the main river is in fact navigable from the mouth of Red River South to the mouth of the Sulphur. At no point at the level it was saturday would there be less than 2 feet of water under my boat.

I am not calling you or anyone else a liar except the people that told BassChamps it couldn't be done. They are wrong.


***Also, I do not want to get into a p-match or be viewed unfavorably by Jeff W but based on the trailer texts and the follow up text my interpretation was that if you could get to an area from main river it and could manage time to fish that there was no geographic limit to the North until the Texoma Dam. We chose not to fish north because the water we were able to get to dropped too low in the ditch we had to bust through. At that point we decided to stay in 5 and have more "fishing time", we did poorly and probably should have trailered to a remote area and taken advantage of the distance.

I was just repeating what the angler had posted on Facebook when asked why his weight got zeroed. I have no direct knowledge of what went on.

Not sure what Dale is but it was the small creek that runs into the McDade backwater area.

Someone went all the way to Arkansas?

Apparently! Hey it’s legal though

In practice before off limits every boat I saw ran that cut to McDades , beauty water but like so many places were not interested in what I was throwing

If u idle that cut then u will get ran over plan and simple. That pocket should be off limits like they did past the marina cause of private water. I’m still shocked that guy allows people to fish it

So, they said one cannot enter the Sulphur River from the Red River? Looks pretty navigable to me...

is there a public ramp that provides access to the Sulphur River below Wright Patman, its been 30 years since I've been on that river and we accessed it off private property.

Yes right beside 49

sooooo apparently he new he was cheating , why else would you tell them to zero weight . SMDH Should not be allowed you made your decision .

He was legit, but what he was told to do to prove he could do it right then would have ended his fishing time for the day.

He was given no options that would allow him to continue based on complaints about how far north he was. The experts that the TD relied on to verify if it was doable were wrong. I know this because I also made those runs

Super unfortunate deal, but the dude is not a cheater.

Not as many tales as I’d thought there would be.

So did you actually enter the waters in question from the Red on tournament day.

Participation rates were down and not many people racing the river to spots because of the trailering decision. My guess is that people were either spread out and catching fish or grouped together in community areas and not catching. Less congestion = less drama?

Nope, decided to stay south, but I know the water levels and know the rate of drop. It would have been no problem at all for us.

So some sissies complained about how far north an angler was? Why do sissies fish? Go back to golf you babies.

How did the TD find out if he was almost in Canada?

He had a cameraman in the boat. He was as open and honest about where he was fishing as it gets. If I had known we were trailering Thursday night I probably would have went up there too.

The rules state that fishing areas must be accessed without the use of additional fuel. The mouth of the Sulphur River is 70 miles from red river south, not knowing the guys boat type but assuming it has a 250, will assume close to 3 hours of running up and back at WOT. A 250 gets 23 miles per hour at WOT in perfect conditions, running the Reds bends are not perfect conditions. So it is very doubtful he could run both directions and up the Sulphur without additional gas.
I would guess, that If he needed additional gas under normal tournament conditions then he violated the rules.

I’m betting since they spent couple days before cut off up there it’s doable. Also have to remember u don’t have to run wot to achieve the fuel mileage but since Champ failed to ask all these questions and took word of mouth by others, the end result is disqualified instead of one of them getting in a boat and getting him to take them up there himself after the tournament ended to verify everything it’s pretty [censored] deal.

Fuel wasn’t a concern based on circumstances that are not my place to say, but I can say that had we decided to make the run ourselves if no trailering fuel to get to where we were fishing was not a concern.

Please tell me it wasn't my old buddy that whined

70 miles is easily doable especially if you aren't hammering down wot. That's unfortunate

What you wrote here doesn’t really make any sense. I don’t know of any bass boat with a 250 that only goes 23 miles per hour and there damn sure isn’t one that gets 23 miles per gallon at wide open throttle. Could you clarify?

Please help me and point out the section of the rules that address the additional fuel rule and how it pertains to trailering. If he trailered 60 miles and dropped his boat in, at that point he has used zero gallons of boat fuel and likely not going to need any additional. Nowhere that I have seen anything about needing to use a nautical chart to calculate the mileage from the host site and the projected fuel consumption, and then apply those calculations to determine the validity of the fishing area.

What a ridiculous premise...

I have read them a few times when entering big bass tourneys and the one on ray bob when I bought my truck, there is no rule for extra gas.

http://www.basschamps.com/rules.cfm

lol, 70 miles in newer boats is easily doable, some in less than an hr. even on the river I would have to guess that 1.5 hrs would be doable and probably 1/4 to 1/3 of a tank of fuel, runnin a sho or new 4 stroke you get a lot of range out of 50 gals of fuel

Seems to me all he had to do was run back to weigh in by water answer the question of access by boat ,why wouldnt you do that .

That an easy point of view to take, but doing that effectively ends his fishing day. If he had enough to win at that point he may have done just that. Trailering was called and trailer he did, during fishing hours singling him out and cutting in to his fishing time was not the right call. I don't want champs mad at me but I am posting because I did the home work too, the fuel consumption the water levels the historical data , the obstacles all of it. In the end my partner and I felt like we had some thing figured out in 5 and went with it. We had a pool way up North as well but the ditch into it was just too shallow to get in, the main River was not a problem , we had enough water in our routes to get up there down to where it was Saturday and then some. I understand the pressures by competitors and even apparently one competitor's spouse and I get the tough position he was put in I really do, I dabbled in being a TD at one point and because this type of stuff I do not have the stomach for it and will never do it again. I am not Tim and Raymond's legal council but I am their friend and I don't want them looked at in an unfavorable light or by the typical online community kangaroo court. We all have our opinions of a better way this could have ended but the truth is a team with a chance at winning a significant pay out lost that chance and that is just awful. I completely disagree with how this unfolded and wish I had been standing there to offer the ride up to whomever needed the validation , we had blown it and were out of the game. I actually was just out there fun fishing sunday my partner had had enough of the Red. I would have happily hauled one of the experts up there to show them.

I will add to this and be done, Tim and I kept each other informed throughout all of our on water practice, when you go to backwaters or very remote areas there is no help if you have an accident or break down. You have to have a person know where you are and where you intend to go. We reported back and forth "off the water" or " on the water headed to" you get it. We also worked on all the research as well, figuring out water gauges , sand bar movement over the years , the historical data on the gauges , satellite imagery etc.

He meant 2-3 miles per gallon at wot.

Or maybe 23 GPH at WOT.

since he made up a rule it matters not what he meant, he is still wrong.

I received the email from Champs and it said "Fuel Rule is in effect". Basically it stated no auxiliary tanks are allowed. When they called for trailering, the need for auxiliary tanks went away.

Sorry for the confusion, Yamaha and Mercury list fuel consumption for their 250 four stroke at 23 gallons per hour at WOT. BC championships on the Red have always prohibited carrying extra fuel or re-fueling, their standard tournament rules do not.

BassCat has a couple of boats with 60 gallon tanks other Basscats have 55 and smaller, Rangers 520’s have 55 gallons, the larger Nitros have 55, again not knowing his boat type there’s a slim change of both directions.

So little of what you have stated is correct, I will just presume you actually know next to nothing regarding everything you have commented on.

My interpretation ;
Rule 13 of BC tournaments states PERMITTED FISHING LOCATIONS: Contestants may fish anywhere on tournament waters accessible by boat and available to the public, so if normal conditions / non trailering prohibit access to the location without additional fuel then the area is not accessible for trailering.

Put down the pipe

Yup we have run all the way to knigstown from the pavilion before in the old ox66 powered skeeter and had plenty of fuel left.

HUH??

I'm not on their email list, that would explain it tho.