FT. WORTH, Texas - Evansville, Ind. Is the home of the greatest weekend bass angler in North America, and his name is Marty Sisk.
Today Sisk celebrated his 24th birthday by winning the inaugural Skeeter BassFan Army Weekend Warrior Championship (WWC) with the biggest five-fish limit of the tournament (12.85 pounds). His eight-fish, 17.73-pound total edged runner-up Tadjen "Pete" Peterson of Olathe, Kans. by half a pound, and Sisk clinched the $20,000 1st-place prize plus the title of the greatest weekend warrior on the continent.
"It feels good," he said of his victory here on Eagle Mountain Lake. "I didn't know if I'd won. I felt like I'd probably come up a little short - maybe 2nd or 3rd. All the hard work this week paid off, I guess."
He hopes this boosts his fishing career. "I'm hoping this will let my fishing career take off a little bit. I do have some money saved, and this ($20,000) might be enough that I can take off with it."
Today he said he "got off to a good start. I got my head screwed on right. I didn't get a lot of bites, I just got the right bites."
He also noted that celebrating his birthday today "maybe helped a little mentally. I thought that maybe it was meant to be my day."
He threw a black Chatterbuzz buzzbait and a Lazer crankbait (chartreuse back/foil sides) around shallow wood.
That was an unconventional pattern, but runner-up Peterson fished what conventional wisdom said would be the winning pattern: flipping main-lake docks, in his case with a Zoom Trick Worm (green-pumpkin with a chartreuse tail).
But Peterson only weighed in three fish today out of a possible five. "It's kind of bittersweet," he said. "I'm tickled to death that I got second and won the boat and money. That's a lot of money ($15,000).
"I'm ecstatic, and it's excellent to be able to fish this tournament. On the other hand, I'm still disappointed I didn't finish it off like I wanted to."
As the highest-finishing Skeeter boat owner, he also won a fully-rigged Skeeter SX-180 with Yamaha 115-horsepower outboard. "It's great to win a Skeeter," he said. "I think they're the best-built boat in the world.
"I'm still kind of in shock. I'm on cloud 9 right now."
Timothy Cline from Sherman, Texas made the WWC as a wildcard. His four-fish, 8.99-pound sack today pushed his 2-day, 7-fish total to 16.77 pounds. He finished 3rd.
Finishing in 4th place was Springfield, Mo.'s Corey Eutsler. He weighed three fish today for 6.74 pounds for a 2-day, eight-fish total of 15.52 pounds.
Federation angler (and recent Bassmaster Classic competitor) Jami Fralick from Martin, S.D. finished 5th. He caught one of four limits today and added 8.33 to his 6.65 pounds yesterday for a nine-fish, 14.98 total.
Norman Ligon of Moulton, Ala. goose-egged today, but his 4.79-pounder was good enough for the Tru-Tungsten Big Bass Award of the tournament, worth $500.
Several of the world's best pros -- including Takahiro Omori, Dean Rojas, Tim Horton and Scott Rook -- were at the WWC weigh-in to get a feel for the fishery and the techniques used by the WWC competitors. The official practice for their event, the Cabela's Top Gun Championship, starts tomorrow (Wednesday). Competition for that event starts Friday, August 12 and runs through Sunday, August 14.
Noted bass fishing host Fish Fishburne emceed the WWC today, and will emcee all three days of Top Gun. Top Gun weigh-ins will be held in the evenings at the Cabela's retail store in Fort Worth: 12901 Cabela Drive, Ft. Worth, TX 76177, Phone: 817-337-2400.
About the event:
The Skeeter BassFan Army Weekend Warrior Championship will crown the best weekend bass angler in North America. This inaugural "unification" amateur championship qualifies anglers from the best regional trails on the continent, and pits them in a 2-day winner-take-all format. The event is title-sponsored by Skeeter Boats (www.skeeterboats.com) and is presented by outdoor outfitter Cabela's (www.cabelas.com) and the Skeeter BassFan Army (www.bassfanarmy.com). Associate sponsors include State Farm Insurance (www.statefarm.com) Mann's HardNose Baits (www.mannsbait.com), Bagley Bait Co. (www.bagleybait.com), Lowrance Electronics (www.lowrance.com) and Oakley sunglasses (www.oakley.com).
See the list of final standings on page 2 >>>>>>
