Tournament Reports – April 2022

Beaver Wins $18,500 On Eufaula

Rodger Beaver Jr. won the first event of a second season in the American Bass Anglers Top 150 Solo Series, Presented by Caymas Boats, when the Southeast Division opened the competition at Lake Eufaula, Ala. on March 4-5.

Rodger Beaver Jr., of Dawson, won $18,500 at Eufaula.

Launching at Lakepoint Resort State Park near the town of Eufaula, Ala. for the two-day event, Beaver swapped standings with Day 1 leader Tony Couch. Fishing consistently, Beaver landed a two-day tournament limit of 10 bass weighing 35.51 pounds. Beaver banked $18,500 for the win.

On the first day, the Dawson angler held third place with five bass at 17.55 pounds. He caught most of his fish on a 1.5-oz. spinnerbait. He fished deep honey holes around brush and hard, rocky ridges most of the day. Then, he switched to punching mats, but lost a good fish that might have elevated him into second place on Day 1. Soon after, he caught a 4-pounder in Cowikee Creek, somewhat easing the loss of the bigger fish.

On the final day of the tournament, Beaver added 17.96 pounds with a 4.86 kicker for the victory. He still caught all except one fish offshore. He returned to his deep brushy and rocky spots and threw that big spinnerbait again. This time, however, he observed something with his Garmin electronics that he couldn’t possibly learn otherwise.

“The Garmin LiveScope brings things to light,” Beaver said. “On the second day, when I’d bring a spinnerbait up to whatever structure I was fishing, it would spook the fish. When I saw what was happening on the Garmin Livescope, I swapped to a big Texas-rigged Brush Hog and started catching fish. That Garmin is amazing. I caught one weigh fish by punching the vegetation.”

Bowynn Brown and Shane Dill won the Feb. 26 Georgia B.A.S.S. Nation event on Lake Seminole. All photos from the tournament were taken by Hazel Cromer. Her photos are at https://hazelcromer.smugmug.com/GA-BASS-NATION-2020-21/Seminole-Feb-26-2022.

Mike Cleveland had big fish at the March 5 Berry’s event on Sinclair.