As daylight broke over Lake Chicot the 60 boats staged in Connerly Bayou awaiting  the start of the first ever ARKLA Team Tournament Trail event appeared to all be white in color. With air temperatures at a balmy 23 degrees, everything was coated with a thick icy frost. As their numbers were called for take-off  fishermen bundled up in winter hunting clothes hunkered down for the brisk ride to their first fishing spots.

Fishing was slow at best but a few teams found some early success with the best bite coming between the 11:00 till 3:00 time frame. With the first flight due in at 3:00 pm a crowd of locals had gathered to watch the weigh-in. As anglers arrived at the scales it became painfully clear that the sever cold front had had its effect on the fish. Most teams were either without fish or only had one or two to weigh-in: that is until ULM Bass Fishing Team members Connor Nimrod and Jacob Andrews brought the only 5 fish limit to the scales, and what a limit it was. Anchored by the events Big Bass, A mammoth 11.12 pound bass, their limit tipped the scales to 25.16 pounds.

Nimrod and Andrews said they caught their fish on a 150 yard stretch of bank throwing a crank bait. Their bites all came between 11:00 and 12:30  with the monster 11.12 pounder being the second fish they caught. Connor caught the big fish and said he didn’t realize just how big it was until Tournament Director Dale Taylor lifted him out of the bump sink saying ” We have a real bass here folks, probably one of if not the biggest I haver ever weighed-in.” For their win Connor and Jacob collected a total of $5500.00.

Shortly after the huge bag came another bag of Chicot lunkers. ALTTT board members Todd Wolff and Dusty Mobley brought 4 bass to the scales that weighed 17.50 pounds. Dusty who owns Hooked Up Marine in West Monroe and Todd Wolff used forward facing live scope to locate bass in brush tops in 20′ of water. Their 4 bass fell for jigs fished slowly in the tops. Dusty installs and instructs customers on the use of marine sonar equipment. For their second place finish Todd and Dusty collected $2000.00.

Greg Terzia”s partner Landon Burnham suffered a cut hand this week that required sugary so alternate partner Ivan Daggs had to step in for him. Throwing Texas rigged Zoom Watermelon Lizards to cypress trees Greg and Ivan captured 4 Chicot bass that weighed 12.81 pounds and a 3rd place finish. Greg who owns Terzia’s Tackle in Ruston said late in the day he pitched his lizard up to a tree and looked off at his next target. That is when a four pound bass swam off the tree with his lizard and as he swung his hook set there was too much slack in his line and the fish came off at the boat. Although that fish cost them they still made the long drive back to Ruston with an extra $1200.00 in their pockets.

Chicot’s fish were very healthy fish, of the 56 Bass weighed-in 54 were released back into the lake. The total weight was 214.86 pounds for a 3.83 pound average per fish. Many Thanks to the anglers and sponsors for making this circuit possible. We will be at D’Arbonne Lake on March 5th for the next tournament. You’ll be safe and we will see you there!