COLUMBUS – The searing heat didn’t stop the good times from rolling for the 40-plus anglers who competed in the Columbus Qualifier of the Mississippi B.A.S.S Nation circuit Saturday, but it did add a little bit more adversity for the fisherman as they battled for a top-15 finish in their last chance to qualify for the MBN state championship.
The boats sailed off into the muddy water of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway around 5:20 a.m. and they started cruising back in at 3 p.m. for the final weigh-in of the regular season.
In the boater category, John D. Anderson of Bay Springs took home first-place honors with a five-fish haul of 14.65 pounds, just beating out Clayton Ellis’ catch of 14.54 pounds. Along with a trophy, Anderson took home a check for $1,500.
Michael Aycock grabbed third place with an even weight of 14 pounds, Blake Koenigesberger of Leland earned fourth place with 12.10 pounds and Hunter Davidson rounded out the top five with 11.52 pounds. David Wesley Duper of Columbus finished in ninth place with a total of 11.10 pounds and also landed the biggest fish of the day at 4.98 pounds.
“It was a very hot day,” said Gary Little, the treasurer of MBN. “It was kind of tolerable until about 10 (a.m.) and then after that it really just piled on the heat. The bite was slow for a few, then obviously as always somebody is going to get on them and bring them onto the scales.”
In the non-boater division, Will Martin – an 11th grader from Jackson – captured first place with a three-fish weight of 8.02. Martin earned the trip to the state championship and a check for $500 by a decent margin, clearing second-place finisher Cole Smith’s total of 6.66 by 1.36 pounds.
Martin also hauled in the largest fish in the category with a 4.10-pound bass. Blake Ballard finished in third place 6.56 pounds.
Little estimated that about a fourth of the field locked down South and fished near Aliceville while around six or seven anglers headed North toward Abderdeen. The waters outside of the Columbus pool were a little bit clearer, which led to some better bites and more action, but Little, who also competed on Saturday with a 26th-place, 5.55-pound finish, took a different approach.
“I was going to fish mostly the Columbus pool area to get more fishing time in and just try to get bites,” he said. “That was my strategy and I ended up with two quality fish, and on the third one I broke my reel out of the reel seat and that fish got away. Obviously (it was) about four pounds but with that fish I could have got into the top 15, but the big one got away.”
Saturday marked the last appearance in Columbus for MBN this year for the regular season, but there is still a chance the Friendly City could welcome the anglers back in one last time. With all the qualifying done and the field set for the state championship tournament, on Wednesday the participating anglers will all vote on whether to fish at the Ross Barnett Reservoir, the Pascagoula River or the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Columbus for the state title with the winning location drawn at random. If Columbus nets the championship tournament it will mark the fourth time this year its waters has hosted a MBN event.
“We had a lot of guys who were excited about the format that we’re under,” Little said. “This is our first year to kind of spread it around to where the South, the central and the semi-north (parts of the state) all had a fair representation with fair, equal chances to fish on their home waters. This is our first year to kind of divide it up in that way.”
Little said the state championship will take place in the fall.
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