Finally… It seems as if the seal has been broken. Spring has truly come to stay, the Bass are moving up and Chomping! Well, at least for some…
Week four of competition here in the Hoosier State brought us a rollercoaster of emotions and fish catching action. For the first time this season, we have seen some truly impressive totals and a number of anglers finding success.
While the GRBY - Columbus Moving Water Series was rescheduled due to unsafe water conditions from recent rains, the other two GRBY series, Sullivan Lake and Summit Lake, kicked off with a BANG!
GRBY | Summit Lake - presented by Gittin Jiggy With It Bait & Tackle
Thursday morning the GRBY summit lake series put on an absolute fireworks display, giving us all hope that there were some good fishing days ahead.
Josh Robbins stunned us all early, with a giant 22.50” largemouth bass and continued to put quality fish in the boat throughout the remainder of the day. Josh ended with 90.75,” which you would think would be enough to lead, but coming in with some last minute entries was the red hot, Antoine Hayes.
Antoine was able to find a very consistent size stringer, equalling 91.00 inches! Antione has been racking up a ton of solid finishes and even some wins over in Illinois lately, so seeing him at the top of the leaderboard after day one shouldn't have surprised anyone.
However, everyone knew there were a lot more hammers to hit the water Friday through Monday. One, in particular, was the 2022 GRBY Summit Lake series AOY, Michael Luke, and he picked up right where he left off with a Giant Indiana bag on Saturday. Michael’s 5 fish limit equaled 95.00” with his smallest fish coming in at 18.50” and biggest at 20.00 inches.
Michael’s total was enough to not only take the hot seat from Antoine, but it was good enough to hold off the rest of the anglers and claim the W!
Fifteen of the forty-two anglers brought in a limit of over 70 inches, with several others just shy of that mark. Needless to say, this lake has them and it's going to be a blast to watch/compete in this series once again in 2023.
GRBY | Sullivan Lake - presented by American Legacy Outdoors
While the action wasn’t as intense on Sullivan Lake, the anglers still gave us a few headlines to talk about. With no anglers signed up for Thursday, we had to wait in suspense until Friday when 5 of the 23 competing anglers took to the water.
The bite was tough with only 2 anglers submitting a fish. One of those anglers, however, showed everyone what was possible. GRBY Admin, Ryan Reedy, finished the day with 5 solid keepers for a total of 82.00 inches! Which was good enough to outlast the remaining anglers, giving him the win!
2022 Sullivan Series AOY runner up and 2022 GRBY Champion, Bryan Sparks, fell just shy of the lead with 80 inches. Bryan also landed the Big Bass of the event with a 21.25” prespawn largemouth and once again the red hot, Antoine Hayes, found himself on the podium in 3rd place with 61.25 inches.
While we're on the subject of Antoine Hayes… We should mention that he also currently leads the KBF April Challenge Series for the Hoosier state with 91.00 inches and is holding down the hot seat in Illinois with 100.50 inches !!
USA BASSIN | PATOKA LAKE - presented by Jackson Kayak
USA Bassin breaks into the Kayak scene this season, with it’s first event here in the Hoosier State. The USA BASSIN organization has been running successful regional and localized boat tournament trails for years. Like everyone else in the industry, USA Bassin decided they wanted to get in on the emerging kayak industry and give anglers another option.
Heading up this new division of the organization are Hoosier natives and good friends, Chad Brock and Jason Cassetty. For 2023, USA Bassin has two separate divisions here in Indiana. One on Patoka Lake and the other on Lake Monroe.
Patoka Lake was the first event on the calendar this season, taking place last Saturday, April 08. Unfortunately, the turnout was less than ideal with only 7 anglers signed up. The results were also not there as anglers battled a stingy early spring at Patoka Lake. Four anglers got on the board, each putting up one fish.
USA Bassin's next event is this Saturday (4/15/23) on Monroe Lake. We hope to see more anglers get involved in this new series and hopefully, Monroe provides fish-catching action for the anglers.
It is also important to note that USA Bassin will receive HKB State Championship qualification for 2024, assuming they are able to reach an average of 10 anglers per event. More details on the 2024 HKB State Championship qualifications for USA Bassin and all other series here in the Hoosier State will be released next week.
Congratulations to all our Top Performers for week 4!
Get ready y'all, week five is going to be really juicy with a bunch of events and the weather is looking amazing.
UPNEXT
IKA | Tippecanoe River | April 29
