Lake Nelson Tournament Photos

Well the 2008 season for the Badlands Bass Bandits kicked off.....well, sort of. On April 26th the Bass Bandits met up at Lake Nelson to compete in the third annual "Power Plant Shootout." A record high of club members attended the event with a total count of 23. The tournament started at 9a.m. MTN after the spring meeting. Anglers were dressed up as if they were going ice fishing due to the cold 34 degree temps mixed with 35MPH+ winds and snow. Unfortunetaly the Bass Bandits were only able to compete for about an hour. Once the high winds from the north rolled in safety became the number one concern and the tournament was postponed until a later date. However, there were 12 members who still wanted to fish in the safer parts of the lake, so the club voted to hold a little cash derby. Coming in at 1st place was Todd Folkerts from Saskatchewan, Canada with two fish weighing in at 6.84lbs. Folkerts also bagged the biggest bass of the tournament with a monster bass weighing 4.78lbs. Michael Erickson of Bismarck was the only member of the day to come in with a three fish limit that weighed 4.53 lbs. That final weight for Erickson was good to take home 2nd place honors. Bryan Hinton of Minot brought in one fish that weighed 2.14lbs that finished out the top three places. Other anglers bringing fish into to weigh was Jason Bader of Bismarck 1.73lbs, Levi Long of Dickinson 1.46lbs and Matt Jahner also from Dickinson 1.43lbs. Despite the bad weather the Bass Bandits had a good time just getting out in the boat and fishing.

On May 10th the Bass Bandits went back to Lake Nelson to compete in the "Nelson Lake Reload" tournament since the first visit there was an unpleasant one. On this day mother nature was still trying to play a cruel trick on the Bass Bandits by throwing Ice,slush, and snow at them while traveling to the event. The road conditions were absolutely terrible as shown in the picture that was taking by new club member Leo Porcello. Porcello hails from the Minot area and stopped along the road to snap this historic Bass Bandit picture. Once the bass bandits reached Lake Nelson all was well. The winds had resided, the temps rose up a little and the bass were on the bite! Weighing in with a three fish limit that was good enough for 1st place was Paul Reinbold of Dickinson with a combined weight of 8lbs 12oz. Jason Bader of Bismarck was nippin' at Reinbold heels with a 2nd place finish that weighed 8lbs 4ozs with a three fish limit. Jason also took the Big Bass Award for the day with a 'Dandy' of a largemouth that weighed 4lbs 1oz. Coming in on a strong 3rd place finish was Tony Reinbold of Timber Lake, SD with a three fish limit that weighed 7lbs 8oz.

  The first two Bass Bandit meetings have been a brutal battle with mother nature, but so far the Bass Bandits show great heart and passion for the club and sport of bass fishing. As the old saying goes "You can't keep a good dog down!"  The next time the bass bandits will be meeting is on June 28th and 29th for there 2nd annual club camping weekend tournaments at Lake Tschida and Sheeps Creek Dam. Until then visit us on the web for any news and club updates and as always thanks for visiting!

 

 

Nelson 'Reload' Tournament May 10th 2008
	NAME WEIGHT POINTS 1 Paul Reinbold 8lbs 12oz 15 2 Jason Bader 8lbs 4oz 12 3 Tony Reinbold 7lbs 8oz 10 4 James Francis 7lbs 0oz 8 5 Alan Hildebrandt 6lbs 10oz 6 6 Levi Long 4lbs 8oz 5 7 Matt Jahner 3lbs 12oz 5 8 Bryan Bloodsaw 2lbs 13oz 4 9 Leo Porcello/Robert Reinbold 0lb 4