May 9. 2010 by Short Bus.

Sixteen boats entered with nine boats successfully weighing in 18 fish at the 5/4/10 BNBC Tuesday Night Tournament at Bloomington Lake. First place went to Father and Son team Kenny and Ryan Pertersen with three fish weighing 9.29 lbs. Second place went to Scott Bree and Jamie Maisenbacher with two fish weighing 7.29 lbs. Third place and big bass was caught by Lynn Norris and her husband Brad with two fish weighing 6.53 lbs. Big bass was 4.68 lbs. Weather conditions were great but a little breezy.

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May 9. 2010 by Short Bus.

The second Tuesday Night Tournament was held April 13th at Dawson Lake. The lake was crystal clear with visibility 5-6ft. A very tough bite with only two fish weighed in. First place and big bass went to Chad Fandel and PJ Knott with one fish weighing 2.07lbs. Second place went to the brother team of Ryan and Erik Petersen with one fish weighing 1.68 lbs.

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May 9. 2010 by Short Bus.

Opening Night for the Bloomington Normal Bass Club was kicked off Tuesday April 6 at Dawson Lake. Conditions were a bit tough with near 30 mph winds. 13 boats were up for the challenge despite the wind. First place and big bass went to Jack Mikel and Rick Huette with a quality fish weighing in at 2.87 lbs. Second place went to Pat Welch and Brian McDaniels with another nice bass weighing 2.28. Rounding out the field with one fish weighing 2.10 lbs was the father son team Kenny and Ryan Petersen.

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March 22. 2010 by Short Bus.

March 21 is the date for the Club’s first Sunday Tournament to be held at Sangchris Lake. Hours have been set from 6:30AM to 3PM. Each angler will be fishing for three fish total, with size limits of one fish 15 inches or greater and two fish under 15 inches. We will take off from Strawkas Point Ramp located just off IL-104.

Casey Roofing and Strong Concrete are the sponsors for the event.

Here are the anglers in order of take-off:
Jerry and Chris Martoglio
Jason and Clint Horner
James Hurt and Adam Stark
Pat Welch and Larry Reece
Scott Bree and Keith Bahler
Jack Menssen and Jason Estes
Marvin and Rod Cooke
Jamie Maisenbacher and Tim Mott
Fred and Chase Myers
Brian and Braden McDaniels
Dusty Whitaker and Mike Campbell
AJ Bailey and Keith Drake
Dave Whalen
Andy Wegner and Tristan Smith
Ken and Erik Petersen

Scott Bree walked away with this one with 8.54 pounds anchored by the event’s big bass of 5.85 pounds! Scott used a jig to secure the win, and no doubt a timber pig as well. We’ll hear his top-secret baits at the April 7th meeting where he’ll receive his awards.
Dusty Whitaker brought up 7.41 pounds for second place and Andy Wegner edged in third with 7.32 pounds. Dusty is an old hand from the Ever-Bloom circuit who’s joined our ranks and is off to an awesome start. And what would a tournament write-up be without our own Andy Wegner mentioned in there.

Our thanks to Strong Concrete and Casey Roofing for sponsoring our first Sunday tournament. Be sure to extend your thanks and business to them throughout the year.

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August 7. 2009 by Short Bus.

Moving from our normal lakes and reservoirs to the running current and flying carp infested waters of the Illinois River proved to be nothing the club couldn’t handle.  Twelve teams launched from the Liverpool access to the low waters of the river.  At take-off, the river was between 6 and 7 feet down, closing off some anglers to honey-hole backwaters.  To add to the fun, Havana had the boat races on tournament day which resulted in a closure from there to Spoon River.

Pre-fishing reports weren’t giving many high hopes for limits, even with the 12-inch minimum length.  Post-tournament results spoke to the contrary, as 13 limits were brought in. Read the rest of this entry »

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July 22. 2009 by Short Bus.

Late July.  Most of us think of hot, humid and blisteringly sunny days.  Not when there’s a tournament around here.  Thirteen teams fished in seemingly ideal weather; mid 70’s, overcast and a slight breeze.  There was nothing ideal but the weather. Read the rest of this entry »

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July 16. 2009 by Short Bus.

Nine teams competed in the BNBC Charity Tournament at Dawson Lake on July 11.  The tournament raised money for Shriners Childrens Hospitals.  What a great cause to support.

The club raised  $795 in entry fees, raffle tickets and straight donation.  That amount was augmented by the McLean County Sportsmen’s $250 for a grand total of $1045 to support the marvelous efforts of the Shriners.

Among the copious sponsors were Wired2Fish, National City Bank, Show-Me’s, Panera, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Wings Etc., Maggie Miley’s, et al.  We would like to thank each and every one for their generous donations, for without them, the charitable donation would be much less.

And a hearty thank you to all the anglers who came out to support the charity.

In first place and with big bass was James Hurt and Jennifer Nelson.  They weighed in 2 fish to win the event with 5.91 pounds, anchored by the event’s big bass of 3.78 pounds.  Nelson noted that her fish didn’t quite make the cut, but caught several bass throughout the day.  Hurt caught the big bass about 10 minutes into the tournament and then the second keeper at about 11 AM.  Their fish were caught on frogs and creature baits.

In second was the solo angler Andy Veselak with two fish going 3.68 pounds.  Veselak was given some great tackle and a rod for his efforts.

In third was the angler team of Fred Myers and Andy Bean, a recent state qualifier in the IHSA fishing event.  Bean was reported to have caught both the team’s fish.  Nice job, Andy!

BNBC member Rod Wallace hosted a cookout to attendees of the Charity Tournament, and it was a smashing success.  Thanks to you, Rod and Holly!

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July 16. 2009 by Short Bus.

In this edition of the tournament blogs, I’m going to focus solely on the positive things that transpired during the event, because there was much drama to be had.  I’ll save my commentary for another article.

Rod “Always a bridesmaid” Wallace and Adam Stark landed two fish for a third place posting.  Their fish went 5.12 pounds, anchored by a nice bass of 3.16 pounds.  Adam and Rod are striving to be  recipients of some first place cash this year during a Tuesday Night event.  If you’ve noticed, since Stark came on board they’ve placed in the money at two events.  Watch out for these boys in the upcoming tournaments!

Another solid 2 fish bag got Brian Bounds and Eric Sharrow a second place check.  Their 5.28 pound bag was anchored by an almost identical twin of Rod and Adam’s fish, weighing 3.18 pounds.  Eric should have gotten the “Best Dressed” award for the evening, as he was swanked out in business casual attire.  Nice job, guys!

Larry Russell caught a super-nice 17+ inch smallmouth during the event.  For those of you who didn’t get to see it, I’m posting a photo of it just because it is that cool.  Plus, our stocking efforts will one day yield more catches like this at Lake Bloomington.   Nice catch, Lar!

Chad and PJ caught a nice bass weighing 3.41 pounds and another bass to gain ground on TOY leaders Bree and Maisenbacher.  Keep up the good work!

Honestly, right here I was going to write a quick note on not wanting to sound like I’m ringing my own bell for what I’m about to write.  Forget that, because the bell has been rung!  Dennis and I got first place and big bass.

Dennis (Bierbaum) and I weighed in three fish for a total of 8.63 pounds, with the tournament’s big bass of 3.92 pounds.  Here’s a picture of the fish, and the expression on my face is priceless.  I look angry and DB is all smiles! Thanks to Gena Norris for taking the pix.  Bierbaum caught a bass late in the night, but neglected to catch the right species.  He made me get the net anyway after fighting a 10-inch white bass for a minute.  A few key bites were lost that may have cost us a limit.  We didn’t see the fish to tell if they were Dave Norris sized or not.  We try to lose them well away from the boat so as to not get that discouraged.  Dennis and I bought a couple rounds of celebratory drinks at Green Gables as is customary, and a good time was had by all in attendance.  I even sold some Sweet Beavers at a super cut rate while there.

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July 8. 2009 by Short Bus.

I guess that when I posted the article on the club homepage about the 3-way Team of the Year tie, I got what I asked for. All three of the teams responded with solid finishes tonight, hoping to keep the dream alive. The competition is hot, the fishing’s not.

Wrapping their collective arms around another first place finish are the Tueday Night Tournament Series anglers Scott “Put me first” Bree and Jamie Maisenbacher (Editor’s note to Jamie: I left your nickname off because you made good on the sportsmanship Tuesday!) who just keep the victory train rolling. This is their fifth win this season. Tonight they sacked up 4 fish for a total of 8.77 pounds. You can be sure there were some jigs, hogs and frogs thrown around on their boat. Celebratory drinks were not offered by the winning team, which was called unsportsmanlike by one of the fellow club members.

Following close behind were Randy Ferguson and Larry Russell with another 4-fish bag weighing 7.55 pounds. Their bass came from mostly shallow waters, but it was noted one came deep. Since Jerry was gone on vacation, Larry stole his Banjo Minnows to use. He’s not giving them back, either.

Jack Menssen and Jason Estes came out of the woodwork to post a third place finish with two fish going 5.16 pounds. Congratulations, guys!

Fred Myers and Keith Bahler chalked up a bit of big bass cash with a 3.26 pound beauty.

Dave Norris and Greg Bayles left early to find some cold ones before the crowd came in.

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July 1. 2009 by Short Bus.

The wheels of the bus… 

After a couple of weeks of extreme heat and humidity, the weather let up and offered our 19 teams some pleasurable conditions to fish in. Air temps were between 71 and 67 (at the end of the evening) with a mild breeze from the Northeast.  Water temps had fallen several degrees to about 75.  All of this lead to some fantastic fishing, and the best Tuesday Nighter we’ve had to date.  36 bass were brought in for a total of 91.67 pounds!  That is a 2.5 pound per fish average.   Here’s how the teams did it.

Read the rest of this entry »

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