Indee Bass Club April Tournament on the Wapsi

1st Place: EJ and Sam with 10.95#

 The Wapsi River near Independence has been in excellent shape all spring long.  The river has not been over three feet high all spring which is very rare, allowing students and adults to enjoy a lot of fishing this month.  That is the good Mother Nature can give, but then she deals three straight days of below freezing temperatures the week before the first youth event of the year, NOT NICE Mother Nature.  

The water temperatures were in the mid-upper 50s the weekend before the Indee Bass Club tournament, those same waters were showing 48-49 degrees during the tournament on April 24th.  One thing bass do not like in the spring is a massive decline in water temperature, and that is exactly what the club members were up against.

Saturday morning saw temperatures right at 45 degrees at the 7am blast-off, chilly no doubt.  As the morning progressed to the noon weigh-in the wind picked up and the real-feel never really felt any warmer than 45 degrees.  To say the least the kids had to battle the cold weather, wind and a river full of bass that were not in the mood to eat.

One thing I have learned in my 25+ years of fishing bass tournaments is that someone always finds some active fish, today was no different as 15 students battled the weather and the Wapsi Bass.  Two different teams were still able to bring a tournament limit of 5 bass to the scales.  EJ Miller and Sam Hamilton brought 5 nice smallmouth bass to the scale that weighed 10.95#, including the Big Bass of the event by EJ that weighed 2.29 pounds.  Their captain was Brian Miller.  They were able to find a school of smallmouth bass feeding in once general location on the Wapsi for the victory.  EJ reported that a Texas-Rigged Craw was the hot bait for the day.  Randy Toale was the captain for Jackson Toale and Dalton Hoover, they too had 5 keeper bass and placed 2nd with 6.00#.  In 3rd place was a pair of 7th graders; Ranger Reed and Carter Cameron had two keeper largemouth bass for 2.59#, the captain was Todd Reed.  Fourth place went to another Junior High team of Cal Sweeney and Remy Ressler.  They had two keeper largemouth bass that weighed 2.38#, their captain was Dan Sweeney.  Fifth place went to Zach Sidles with captain Landry Jones, Zach caught one nice largemouth that weighed 1.86#.  Kegan Postel and Jackson Wold teamed up for sixth place with one chunky largemouth that weighed 1.81 pounds.  In 7th place was Caleb Weber, Teegan McEnany and their captain Keith Corkery with one largemouth that weighed just under a pound.  The weigh-in went smoothly for Coach Todd Reed and his volunteers Randy Toale and Dan Sweeney.  All bass were released back to the Wapsi to be caught another day.  The weather was cruel, the students were cold, but seven teams were able to bring bass to scales to be weighed in, congratulations to all that braved the weather and caught some Wapsi Bass.

A huge thanks goes out to the club sponsors; Buchanan County Wildlife Association, Bank Iowa, Klever Concrete, Scheels in Cedar Falls, Hank's Bait and Tackle, Quantum Rods and Reels, The Rod Glove, Strike King and Hot Rod Baits.  With the contributions of these sponsors over $700 of prizes and fishing gear were given away to students at this event, nobody went home empty handed.  The next event for the Indee Bass Club is an away event at Big Woods Lake near Cedar Falls.  You can find out more about this youth club on Facebook, Instagram and their WEBSITE LINK.