Back in the Saddle

Well the Bass Bandits held their annual Ice Bowl tournament three months ago and it was a big success with such warm weather. Unfortunately on May 26th when the Bandits held their "Battle of the Canals" tournament on the McClusky water system Mother Nature reminded them who is in charge! It was a bitter cold and windy morning with temps in the mid 30's and light winds to start the launch off. Twenty three club members showed up for this year's event in hopes to catching those trophy smallmouths that lurk in McClusky chain of lakes. There were high chances of rain in the forecast for the tournament and thankfully that's where Mother Nature gave the Bandits a break and held the rain off until later that evening. Surprisingly the smallmouth bass were very cooperative and gave the Bandits a good showing!

Completing the top five with a 5th place finish was Nate Dirks of Minot with 8.47lbs. Dick Roland had an early morning bite go his way to help him bag a three fish limit that weighed 9.55lbs which was good enough for a 4th place finish. Of course when you come to a Bandit tournament at New Johns ya' know your going to have to beat one of the Wetzels. For some reason they just fish good at these waters and coming in with a strong 3rd place finish was Janine Wetzel of Mandan with a total weight of 9.85lbs her biggest bass was 4.04 lbs! Bring in a 9.88lb limit of smallmouth's was the Power Plant shootout champion Duane Lankford of Minot. Duane once again brought in the big bass of the tournament and set a new tournament record for biggest smallmouth that tipped the scales at 4.52 lbs. He is certainly making it hard for anyone to win the big bass of the year award right out of the gates this year! Another bandit angler that fishes very tough on these waters is Marty Mantz. For the 3rd time in a row Marty brought home the winning weight of 10.21lbs. It's probably a good thing that the Bandits are only fishing New Johns once this year because between Mantz and Wetzel it is a tough tournament to win.

The Bandits also crowned a Junior Champion that day, Dylan Sandberg took top honors in our Junior division with a three fish limit of 4.65lbs. Dylan's biggest bass weighed 1.65lbs and he is currently in the lead for Junior Angler of the Year. Way to go Dylan hope you and others can attend our next tournament!

Fun was had by all despite the cold weather. Out of the 23 members that showed up for the event 22 of them weighed in fish. That probably is a record and we will provide those details a bit later. The next stop for the 2012 season is a new lake called Spiritwood which is located by Jamestown , ND. This is a deep lake that offers big smallmouths and should be a good time on June 16th. Stay tuned to see what happens as well as keep track of the Rookie and Angler of the year race!

-Paul Reinbold