On behalf of the Shimano Corporation and your local tackle dealers, I want to thank all of the teams that supported the 2nd annual Shimano Free Team Tournament.
Participation was up 18% this year and 12 teams entered the Adult / Youth category.
Saturday was definitely the day for Smallmouth Bass because the top three teams brought 5 fish limits of the brown beauties to the weigh-in scales.
The Father/ Son team of Sam Loveless and Cody Loveless took home the first place prize of $250 in the adult / youth category with the winning weight of 5.30 lbs. Great job, Sam & Cody!
Congratulations go to the team of Barry Snell and Jeff Byrd. They topped the field with a 5 fish limit of smallmouths that weighed 18.14 lbs. For their efforts they received $1,500 from Shimano, but wait, I’m not done….they also had a reel spooled with Power Pro braided line in the new Red color, so Power Pro kicked in an extra $500 bucks, and there’s more….they also had big Smallmouth, so Shimano tossed in a new (only been in stores for two weeks) Shimano “Cumulas” rod which sells for $350!!! Not a bad day on the lake…they walked away with a grand total of $2,350.00
I’m sorry folks, but I can’t help myself, I have to shamelessly tout this new product. If you haven’t seen the new Shimano “Cumulas” rod….. Run, don’t walk to your nearest Shimano dealer and checkout this amazing piece of equipment. This rod only weighs 78 grams, that’s right, I said 78 grams! Close your eyes and imagine fishing with a feather, that’s what it feels like. Oh, and did I mention sensitive? Well, if you look up the word sensitive in the dictionary, you will see a picture of this rod next to it!
Okay, so let’s get on with the program. The top ten teams are listed below:
Boater Partner # Fish Weight
Barry Snell Jeff Byrd 5 18.14
Doyle Epperson Jeff Epperson 5 16.45
Warren Palmer Russ Palmer 5 15.41
Ray Turner Brandon Hensley 5 14.79
Kyle Sears Jason Akemon 5 14.44
Gordon Phillips Talmadge Marcum 5 13.48
Shawn Branscum Brian Smith 5 13.43
Jerry L Wells Patrick Wells 5 11.61
Mark Morgan L.J. Turner 5 11.02
Ted Grigsby Jim Tipton 5 10.93
Total amount of cash and merchandise awarded at this year’s tournament exceeded $13,000 dollars!! Again, thanks to all anglers that participated in this year’s tournament. We really appreciate your business and wish you the best of luck on your next fishing trip!
Take a kid fishing,
Steve Riley
Tournament Director
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