The Hibernia Bassmasters Fishing Club very much appreciates the turnout we had on Sunday, and would like to personally thank all 26 of the teams that showed for the tournament. We had teams from as far away as Charlotte make the trek to try their hand at one of the best bass fishing lakes in the country – Falls Lake.
What a beautiful start to the day as the sun rose into a crystal clear sky, bringing safe light and blast-off slightly earlier than expected. Boat 1! Boat 2! Off they all went until all 26 boats were on the water – well 25 boats anyway. One experience a debilitating flat tire on the way over, but still managed to make it to the ramp, just after blast off. The team of Penhollow and Goss still managed a limit, good enough for 7th place.
Founded in 1970 Hibernia Bassmasters is the oldest organized bass fishing club in North Carolina. Over the years this Triangle area fishing club has seen its membership soar and slump, but has always managed to have enough fishermen around to keep it going. We currently have 11 full members and are looking to expand. A great way to get out the word about our club was to host this membership drive tournament, so we kinda through this together and it exceeded our expectations. The whole club put in some hard work to organize and recruit fishermen, and also to get everything set up to make the tournament day a rousing success!
William Small was the emcee for the event and kept the crowd entertained throughout the weigh in. Announcing each team’s weight and place was supplemented with ad-hoc interviews of many of the teams. Linnie Oakley and David Ford kept the fish coming across the scales at a steady clip, while Troy Jones was happily flipping burgers making sure every had a full belly by the time the left. Come on and get ya another cheeseburger!
The final piece of the puzzle for the successful membership drive tournament was the debut of our custom built live leaderboard. Created by George Just it allowed all weights to be immediately posted for all to see, so anglers didn’t have to wonder where they stood. The 52 inch display filled the back of a pickup truck, so one glance made it quite clear to anglers where they stood.
The fishing proved to be difficult in general, with a high pressure system moving in overnight. There were as many limits as zeroes, sending 9 teams home without getting to bring a fish to the scales. As always happens, one team shone the brightest bringing in a limit weighing 15.06 lbs to take first place. Team Fara & Lasher gladly claimed their $820 first place prize. Congrats guys!
Here are the complete results for the Hibernia Bassmasters Fishing Club Membership Drive Tournament held October 21, 2018. Pictures of the other winning teams follow.
| Boat # | Team | Fish | Weight | Big Fish | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Fara & Lasher | 5 | 15.06 | 820 | |
| 14 | Wentland & McDuffie | 5 | 14.49 | 330 | |
| 10 | Seabolt & Moonneyhan | 5 | 13.36 | 5.69 | 245 |
| 27 | Ellis & Stallings | 5 | 11.77 | 165 | |
| 13 | Haithcock & Taylor | 5 | 10.87 | 85 | |
| 17 | Barnes & Brandon | 5 | 10.84 | 3.16 | |
| 4 | Penhollow & Goss | 5 | 10.16 | ||
| 16 | Barrot & Purdue | 5 | 10.01 | ||
| 19 | Eriksen & Eriksen | 5 | 9.08 | ||
| 7 | Choosakul & Jacobs | 3 | 8.79 | ||
| 21 | Jenkins & Lee | 3 | 7.61 | ||
| 23 | Minken & Barnes | 2 | 5.58 | 3.19 | |
| 5 | Leonard & Bridgers | 3 | 4.96 | 1.98 | |
| 24 | Lewis & Mitchell | 3 | 4.67 | ||
| 9 | Morgan & Smith | 2 | 3.55 | ||
| 2 | Stewart & Stewart | 2 | 3.23 | 1.87 | |
| 8 | Ross & Kirsch | 2 | 2.68 | ||
| 1 | Williams | 0 | 0 | ||
| 6 | Pilcher & Tant | 0 | 0 | ||
| 12 | Connors & Hughes | 0 | 0 | ||
| 15 | Cox & Vanhoose | 0 | 0 | ||
| 18 | Clifton & Richard | 0 | 0 | ||
| 22 | Eckberg & Eckberg | 0 | 0 | ||
| 25 | Dreyer & Veggian | 0 | 0 | ||
| 26 | Fogleman | 0 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Black & Egitto | 0 | 0 |
Wentland and McDuffie – 2nd place – 14.49 lbs
Seabolt and Moonneyhan – 3rd place – 13.36 lbs and Big Fish – 5.69 lbs
Ellis & Stallings – 4th place – 11.77 lbs
Hibernia’s own Taylor & Haithcock grabbing the last check – 5th place – 10.87 lbs
Once again thank you to all the anglers who came out to Falls Lake today to fish in our bass tournament. We appreciate the support and are looking forward to next year’s tournament already. With proper sponsorship we plan to have larger prizes and a much larger field.