Tournament Reports October 2011

Aaron Batson (left), of Oxford, and his son Blake, 17, won the Sept. 24-25, 2011 Camp Sunshine tournament at Lanier. The tournament, hosted by HD Marine, was special for the father-and-son team. Blake was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 8 years old. His treatments ended when he was 10, but Blake still attends Camp Sunshine every year. “That’s why Blake pushed for us to fish this event,” said Aaron. “I was sort of wishy-washy on it since I did not know Lanier. I sure am glad he convinced me now.”

Two-time Eliminator Champion Aaron Batson, and his son, Blake, 17, won the Camp Sunshine Benefit Tournament on Lanier Sept. 24-25. Aaron, who is not very familiar with Lanier, said he simply fished like he would Oconee or Sinclair, his regular lakes.

“It wasn’t location specific,” said Aaron. “But we just went to pockets and pitched a big Net Boy Baits jig tipped with a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog and a Zoom Ol’ Monster worm under docks. We dipped the tips of our baits in JJ’s Magic chartreuse die. On the first day, I had three come off right at the boat, all of them were over 5 pounds.”

Aaron had 17 pounds on day one and 21 pounds on day two.

“I also went to the deep water on the upper end of the lake and threw my 5-inch Strike King spoon. We targeted suspended fish in deep water. We probably could have won it on just that. We were catching some quality spots over 70 feet of water about 20 feet deep. We caught several limits of 2- to 3-lb. spots on that both days.”

David Lowery won the BFL Bulldog tournament on West Point with 25-lbs., 6-ozs. and won $4,882.

Jason Gunn’s 4.11-pounder was big fish in the ABA-AFT District 72 event on Jackson. The fish was worth $100.