KELSEYVILLE — Mark Crutcher and Greg McCosker of Lakeport set a new Clear Lake record while winning the inaugural America”s Vanity Cup Team Bass Tournament last weekend on Clear Lake.
Crutcher and McCosker brought a two-day weight of 74.2 pounds to the scales for 10 fish, which is a record for a professional team bass tournament. The old record was 60 pounds set in 1998.
On Saturday, Crutcher and McCosker caught five fish weighing a combined 34.19 pounds, with a big fish of 12.96 pounds, which ended up being the big fish of the tournament. On Sunday, they did even better, bringing 40.01 pounds to the scales. Their first-place check was $20,450.
According to Crutcher, he and McCosker caught approximately 40 bass on Saturday and more than 50 on Sunday. Their Sunday weight included three bass weighing more than 8 pounds each.
“I have competed in bass tournaments for more than 10 years and I have never had a tournament like this one,” Crutcher said. “It just proves that Clear Lake is the No. 1 bass lake in the West and possibly the entire country.”
Jerkbaits and swimbaits fished in the north end of the lake proved to be the hot lures, according to Crutcher.
Second place went to the team of Wayne Breazeale of Kelseyville and Bernie
Giordano of Sacramento with 63.14 pounds. They won a 2007 Chrysler automobile.
Many of the fishermen competing in the tournament credited the unseasonably warm weather with the high number of large fish caught. The daytime temperatures shot up into the high 70s and the warming water had the fish moving into the shallows.
Big fish were commonplace in the tournament. Fifteen bass weighing more than 8 pounds each were brought to the scales on Sunday alone.
The two-day tourney drew 73 teams and the weigh-ins took place at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa.
