LAKEPORT — As predicted, the Bassmaster Elite Series Golden State Shootout held at Clear Lake this past weekend set a number of national tournament records. The winner, Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala., established a new Bassmaster record for a four-day tournament by weighing in 122 pounds, 14 ounces.
Kennedy”s weight eclipsed the previous Bassmaster record of 115 pounds, 15 ounces set last year by Preston Clark of Florida at Santee Cooper Reservoir in South Carolina. Kennedy took home a paycheck of $110,000.
Skeet Reese of Auburn, a fisherman who has competed at Clear Lake many times in the past, finished second and also beat Clark”s old Bassmaster record. He weighed in 117 pounds, 6 ounces to win $30,000.
In third place was the first-, second and third-round leader, Greg Gutierrez of Red Bluff, with 108 pounds, 1 ounce. He slipped two places in the standings on Sunday when he brought only 16 pounds, 3 ounces to the scales. He still won $27,000.
The top seven fishermen in the pro division weighed in more than 100 pounds during the tournament to set another Bassmaster record.
The winning co-angler, Jim White of West Lake Village with 72 pounds, 9 ounces, pocketed $50,000.
The co-angler runner-up was Ron Tyson of Marietta, Ga., with 66 pounds, 2 ounces. Local fisherman Bob Myskey of Nice came in third with 63 pounds, 5 ounces and won $5,000.
The tournament opened on Thursday with 108 professional and 108 co-anglers. The field in the pro division was cut to the top 50 after the second round and to the top 12 after the third round.
A total of 2,609 fish weighing 9,545 pounds were weighed in, an average of 3.66 pounds per fish.
The top lure was the swimbait, a soft plastic lure resembling a large minnow. The favorite pattern on Clear Lake is the hitch, which is a small native fish and one of the primary forage fish for the largemouth bass.
Kennedy addressed the crowd at the weigh-in on Sunday and said he had spent more than $3,000 on swimbait lures at a local tackle shop just prior to the tournament.
The County of Lake, City of Lakeport and the Greater Lakeport Chamber of Commerce served as tournament hosts. The weigh-in at Library Park in Lakeport drew huge crowds both Saturday and Sunday. Officials estimated that more than 1,000 people attended the weigh-in Saturday and approximately 1,500 were present on Sunday. The weigh-ins also were aired live worldwide on the ESPN Outdoors Web site.
The tournament will be aired on ESPN2 television on Saturday morning beginning at 6 a.m.
