Merritt Wins Back to Back ABA District 53 Tournaments!

ABA District 53 held its final two 1 day qualifying events of 2010, May 1 & 2 on Toledo Bend at Pirates Cove Marina.  Despite weather forecast, which called for winds of 20 MPH, the weather was beautiful at first light when anglers left Pirates Cove Marina.  The beautiful weather did not last long.  Starting about 8:30 AM the winds and scattered rain started and continued for the remainder of the day, with winds increasing to over 25 MPH.

Travis Merritt of Iowa, LA won the Saturday event by putting together an early limit of shallow Toledo Bend bass before the weather got bad.  Merritt reported catching his limit fishing shallow flats on the south end of the lake with a Stanley Wedge spinnerbait and a Stanley Ribbit.  Later in the day Merritt moved out to some deeper water in protected areas on the south end of the lake and caught several keeper fish including one that helped cull for a final weight of 12.24 lbs.  Merritt's bag included the American Rodsmiths big bass of the tournament at 3.52.  Travis would like to thank his sponsors, American Rodsmith, The Yamaha Shop of Lake Charles, Fontenot and Fontenot Law Firm, Bucsh Beer, Aucoin's Restaurant, Cajun Tackle, and Pirates Cove Marina.  The second place stringer brought in by David Czudek of Leesville, LA weighed 11.88 lbs.  Dave reported catching his fish on the south end of Toledo Bend on spinnerbaits and weightless soft plastics.  Third place went to Kendall Lamar.  Kendall fished the south end of the lake in his Triton powered by Mercury to catch 11.48 lbs. 

Sunday brought about a change in the weather but not in the leaderboard as Merritt won again.  The wind direction changed overnight and switched to the northeast.  Merritt reported that the change in wind direction caused him to reverse his plan from Saturday.  Instead of starting shallow and going deep, Merritt started on his deep fish and then moved shallow.  Travis said he caught a limit in about 30 to 45 minutes which included a 4 1/2 pounder he caught on a crankbait.  Fishing from his Yamaha powered Skeeter, Merritt fished long points with an unspecified crankbait in water depths of 8 to 12 feet.  Once the front moved in Merritt ran to his shallow fish and culled 3 times to finish his 13.54 stringer.  Second place on Sunday went to Galen Bennett of Slagle, LA with 13.02 lbs.  Galen reported catching over 25 keepers fishing the south end of the lake.  Bennett fished grass in 8 to 10 feet of water from his Mercury powered Triton using a split shot rigged Zoom Fluke in watermelon/ red.  Galen, owner of Galen and Sons in Slagle, said he caught fish all day and left them biting when he ran into the weigh in at Pirates Cove.  Third place went to Dallas Cole with his 11.88 stringer which included the American Rodsmiths big bass of the tournament, 4.65 lbs.  Cole fished from his Mercury powered Ranger in water depths of 10 to 15 feet.  Dallas reported catching all of his fish on a texas rigged Zoom Ole Monster worm in plum apple.

ABA Districts 53 and 45 would like to thank the anglers who have supported us all year and our sponsors, The Yamaha Shop of Lake Charles, American Rodsmiths, Bucsh Beer, Pirates Cove Marina, Butch "The Fish Whisperer" Perrodin, Fontenot and Fontenot Law Firm, Cajun Tackle, and Aucoin's Cajun Restaurant in Hayes.  The District 53 2 day Championship will be held on Sam Rayburn at Mill Creek Park May 29 and 30.  For more info goto www.fishabt.com.