Groh and Schmehl win the classic!!

[mad craw 77]

congrats to chris groh and jimmy schmehl for there awesome two day total of 39.96lbs to take first place in our big bucks classic in la crosse wisconsin. they totally blew away my prediction of 36lbs to win. I decided that after gettin on the fish we did during prefish but of course when tournament day came they weren't biting.
here are the rest of the results.
http://www.bigbucksbass.com/08_tournaments/2008_Championship/2008_Championship_total.htm

[fishing3]

DITTO-- TO ALEX's Comments!

The Big Bucks Bass Classic was an excellent event this year! It was held within 4 hours from the Chicago area, at a location where there truly were NO locals fishing. Seems like everyone started with the same platform! The Mississippi River in LaCrosse Wisconsin.

Al and I caught the crap out of these fish in 4 full days of prefishing. We were catching 15 to 18lbs per day, on different spots- new spots. The average keeper smallie for us was 3.0 to 3.75lbs! The keeper largies were 2.50 to 4lbs. We were pulling up to spots and catching 2 to 6 keepers in 3 minutes! We were never as ready for a tourny as were were last Thursday night. So....as we thought:-)! Boy oh boy were we taught a lesson.

The areas we fished were fairly shallow wing dams, not far from the launch ramp, they were sooooo freakin' loaded with fish, it was incredible! And different ones were loaded all 4 days...which lead us to believe they were resistant to different weather/current/etc. But...guess what, when the sun is up high, and the wind is completely dead in these areas.....THE FISH SEE YOU A MILE AWAY! Yea yea yea....we tried fishin' them with hugely long casts, and we kept catching fish----but, they were all dinks.:confused: The bait fish also were gone.... Bottom line, we ended up spending too much time on these praying we would fall into the motherload as we did for 4 days prior.

Back to Chris Groh and Jimmy Schmehl, whom are both members of FishTheNation, and also fish the Mutiny Bass Club tournys. These guys CAUGHT THE CR^% out of the fish! Not only that, THEY WERE ALL SMALLMOUTHS!:eek: We're talking 3.00 to 4.65lb SMALLIES! There goes the whole myth: "Huge Smallies just aren't consistant enought to catch in tournaments!" Not this time boyz! These guys put in their dues! These guys grew up in the Fox Chain area, NOWHERE NEAR THE MISSISSIPPI! They spent many many days up there...doing homework, and finding these fish. Hats off guys! :cool:

Honorable mention of other local boyz in the top 26!

#9. M.BUBEL-D.DUFFY, 12/12, 30.94
#11. B.FELTEN-B.LUCAS, 12/12, 30.31
#18. C.ERIKSEN-Z.SCHMIEGLITZ, 12/12, 27.63
#21. W.CIBOROWSKI-T.KARAFA, 10/10, 26.88
#22. B.FLEMING-R.FLEMING, 12/12, 26.85
#26. M.MATTSON-J.MAZZUCA, 12/12, 24.68

Till next time. Tommy C.

[winnebasschamp]

Nice job guys! Way to PEEL em! I was hoping someone we knew locally would win, being you guys makes it that much better! Way to cap off an awesome year!

[AtitAgain07]

Congrats to you both! 20 lb stringer average both days is great.

[Bgbass29]

Congratulations!!!

[MasterBaiter]

Thanks everyone appreciate all excitement with the guys from the area. Its nice to have The Chain Rats win everynow and then.

[fishing3]

Hey Jimmy---Great job again!

Hey...so what do you guys do with that boat? Is it sold already? Looking for a buyer?

[MasterBaiter]

Thanks Tom. Chris and I have the boat up for sale now. If anyone is interested in a brand new 19.5" skeeter with a 200 yamaha on it.
If anyone interested contact me at (847)376-0547

[fishing3]

email me a picture at tomc28@aol.com

I will get it uploaded!

[walkthedog]

Chain rats freakin rule! Go green machine