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The South Haven Big Jon Pro/Am is in the record books and after all the weather that Michigan has to offer the scores are in. Day one started with a hour delay as the tournament committee pondered weather reports, that delay turned into a cancellation of the fishing day. But as Michigan weather goes, if you don't like the weather now wait five minutes proved to be true as available weather forecasts were completely wrong and the day turned out to be fabulous and water conditions settled within a couple hours of the decision. Day 2 revealed windy initial conditions again but the forecasts indicated that the winds should tail and settle down the water. Refer back to the Michigan Rule. Those forecasts proved to be wrong again as the winds stayed on the offensive delivering consistently building seas throughout the day forcing the tournament to be called more than an hour early. Stop fishing was set for 11:30 leaving 45 minutes for boats to return to pierhead at 12:15 after that period. This early call of the tournament threw a wrench into many strategies as the offshore fishery consistently had produced good catches during prefishing and teams that were ready, willing, and able made the run some in excess of 30 miles. Those teams had to let everything hang out and take the abusive, and I don't think anyone would say abusive was an overstatement, run back in seas that had wave sets in the 10' neighborhood - perhaps more in cases. As with any strategy sometimes it works out and some times it doesn't as you'll see some negative weights as penalties of 10 points (pounds) per minute were assesed for late arrivals. The Pro Division crowned a new champ - Living the Dream - who beat it in from the offshore waters they had fished the entire week bringing an 11 fish box that weighed 94 lbs. resulting in a score of 234 points to secure first place. Second place was taken by 2007 champ Best Chance Too with a total of 206.05 points, and Manistee Mama in an extremely close third with 205.15 points. The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results) 1. Living the Dream 2. Best Chance Too 3. Mansitee Mama 4. Hunter 5. Blue Fairways
Nine professional teams took points in the Huntington GL2S.CPS Championship Point Series for this event reshuffling the leaderboard landing Blue Fairways in the lead. (Click Here - Big Jon Sports Scoreboard). The Amateur division was split into 2 divisions for the first time with the traditional Am and the 24' and Under division. Spend A Buck did the toughest thing in tournament fishing by delivering a back to back win bringing the overall tournament wide highest score of 278.1 points and earning the travelling trophy as well as the champions trophy. Giv-n-In took second with Coho's Aim in a distant third. The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results ) 1. Spend A Buck 2. Giv-n-In 3. Coho's Aim 4. Bonaventure 5. Therapy The Under 24' Division's innagural champion was 1/2 Time all the way from Traverse City with a score of 145.8 pts followed by Lucky Five and Rocking Robin. |