TBF BONNEMA WINS WIND-WHIPPED DISTRICT 9 TBF NATIONAL SEMI-FINALS
Longtime The Bass Federation member Scott Bonnema topped a hard-fishing field of 100 fellow Federation anglers to win the District 9 TBF National Semi-Finals on Minnesota’ s Gull Lake Sept. 24-25.
Bonnema, of Zimmerman, Minn., is no stranger to Gull Lake, a popular fishery nestled in the Brainerd Lakes region, having won other events there such as the 2011 TBF Northern Division Championship.
Still, he was a little nervous when high winds during pre-fishing challenged anglers to locate the lake’ s abundant largemouths.
“ I found three good areas earlier, but when practice was tough I started getting worried,” he admits.
To make up for it, Bonnema kicked off the competition by focusing on classic Gull Lake structure such as small points and inside turns in the 10-foot depth range. Bonnema also credits a new high-tech trolling motor for helping keep his boat in striking position when strong winds continued in competition.
“ I was using one of Minn Kota’ s brand-new Ultrex units,” he says.“ It’ s basically a hybrid that blends the body of a Fortrex with i-Pilot technology, complete with Spot-Lock electronic GPS anchoring.” Bonnema opened the Semi-Finals with a banner day.“ I probably caught 40 to 50 bass on day one,” he says.“ I would circle around the key areas I had marked, catch a fish, engage the Spot-Lock, tag my fish, get right back up on the front deck, and catch another two or three fish off that same clump. The Ultrex is the only thing that would’ ve allowed me to do that. Without it, I would’ ve been blown across the lake. It’ s definitely a game-changer.”
Bonnema mainly flipped jigs into patches of cabbage and coontail. He notes that 8-foot-diameter clumps held the best numbers of bigger bass.
He began day one using a 3 / 4-ounce jig on the edge of the vegetation, but switched to a 1 / 2-ounce head after being plagued by pike.
Bonnema ended the day with an 18.10-pound limit and turned in another solid performance on day two to finish the event with 32.53 pounds. Brad Leifermann came in a close second with 31.01. John Fairbanks Jr. topped the non-boaters with 25.80 pounds.
The District 9 Semi-Finals offered a 118.5 percent payback, with $ 18,120 in cash and prizes, including $ 2,500 for the top boater and $ 1,250 for the top co-angler. Plus, the top boater and co-angler from each state advance to the 2017 TBF National Championship.
Scott Bonnema( left) and John Fairbanks Jr.
TBF MEMBER TIES NEW YORK SMALLMOUTH RECORD
TBF member Patrick Hildenbrand tied the New York state smallmouth record with this obese bronzeback.
New York The Bass Federation member Patrick Hildenbrand carved his name in the record books Aug. 28 by catching a giant St. Lawrence River smallmouth that tied the longstanding state record.
Hildenbrand, of Red Hook, N. Y., was competing in a state TBF tournament out of Cape Vincent, sponsored by the local chamber of commerce. At around 7 a. m., fishing in calm conditions under overcast skies, he marked a large arch on his sonar in 35 feet of water.
He reached for a 7-foot, medium-light spinning outfit loaded with 15- pound-test braided main line with a 6-pound-test fluorocarbon leader and deployed a drop-shot rig. His go-to setup included a goby-colored Berkley PowerBait Dropshot Power Bass Minnow on a 1 / 0 drop-shot hook with a 3 / 8- ounce tungsten weight.
The obese bronzeback inhaled the soft bait, and Hildenbrand quickly deposited it in his livewell.
Although the fish’ s weight was originally reported as 8.15 pounds, the scale needed to be recertified to verify the potential record weight, and after recertification the fish checked in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces. It tied the New York smallmouth record set by Andrew Kartesz on Lake Erie in 1995.
Hildenbrand’ s historic catch stretched out at 21 1 / 2 inches long and sported an enormous girth of 20 3 / 4 inches. After being weighed, measured and photographed, the fish was successfully released back into the St. Lawrence.
Along with tying the state record, Hildenbrand scored big bass honors in the tournament and ended up finishing in second place overall.
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FLWFISHING. COM I DECEMBER 2016