Despite the tough weather conditions the first Badlands Bass Bandits tournament of the 2024 season has been completed from Lake Audobon. There were 17 teams that braved the cold and windy weather in hopes of finding the winning bag of fish! The smallmouth were sparse in a lot of areas of the lake with the majority of the population still moving up from their winter holes. As anglers moved around the lake so did the smallmouth. Most anglers found bass moving up shallow anywhere from 8 feet or less, some as less than 2 feet of water. A few teams were able to locate bigger schools of fish a bit deeper making it a fun day of catching both size and numbers. As expected, the bass were caught on jerkbaits, square bills, tubes and drop shot which lead to a record breaking day! Taking home first place prize was team Jason Mitchell, Jason Votava and Scott Winkels with a whopping 20.26 lbs, a new Lake Audobon club record! Also having a great day was team Josh Birchet and Chuck Gaston bringing in a heavy bag of smallmouth that weighed 19.73 lbs which also topped the old club record, they also won the big bass award with a 5.00 lb smallmouth. No strangers to the winner circle team Logan and Brandon Bullinger and Bryce took home the 3rd place prize by bagging a 5 fish limit of 19.34 lbs.

  Overall the fishing was good and most anglers had a good day. Looking forward to our New Johns tournament, please note that we will be launching from East Park lake on May 18th!