4th Annual "CHILLER THRILLER"

[bassinman#1]

LaFontaine Motors dealership in Highland, Mi. has climbed aboard in sponsoring our "CHILLER THRILLER" tournament. I will be giving away at the end of the tourney to those who do not cash a check and if their number is drawn, 8 free oil changes, 1 free complete detail on your vehicle, and 1 lucky person will get a remote starter with free installation. Maybe if you give that to your wife she won't mind you coming out next year as well.

[fishon1219]

This is looking like it will be the best chiller thriller yet. Nice job on the sponser donation Benny. I am really looking forward to this event

[bosshawg]

good tournament, tough day (for some), great dogs....I'll let benny post results and stats.
season over. injured spine couldn't take a 2nd day for "last chance" like I was hoping.

[bassinman#1]

I want to 1st of all thank everybody who came out and fished. Its because of all of you that makes this great tournament possible. The day was great for some and bad for others, but all in all it was good for everyone. I think of our troops over in Iraq and how some who love this sport can't do what we did this past Saturday. This is a blessing, that we can go out and compete with no opposition from anything at all. So thank you EVERYONE!!!! It was my pleasure. The weights are as follows: 1st place went to Mark Farver and Steve Kline, (15.13lbs ) 2nd place went to Ron Foley and Chris Wicks, (12.67lbs) and 3rd went to Kevin the " bass assasin " Barrows and Brian the "smallmouth detective" McCarter.(12.64lbs.)The Monster bass of the day went to Mike Stiz (3.88lbs). And thank you Fred Said and his wife for cooking up the best hotdogs in the world, "Koegels".. See you next year!

[McCarter]

tough day for sure.  our two best spots didnt produce a bite at any point in the day.  we had to scramble after deciding that our pattern wasnt going to hold up.  We both knew that the majority of the field would be on the main lake throwing jerkbaits, traps, spinnerbaits looking for schooled up bruisers but we had something a little different going on for us up in the river.  I think it was the cold night that ruined it.  We ended up only catching 9-10 keepers throughout the day and losing 5 other bites either to line breaks or just coming unbuttoned.  We found a group of willing largemouth and filled our limit quickly on jerkabits with one 16" smallmouth mixed in that ate a small chatter bait.  After we had a limit, we went on the pig hunt.  We found a group of nice smallmouth but were only able to hook and land 2 of them.  One about 3.25 lbs and the other went 3.79 on the scale.  Both fish were caught on jerkbaits on back to back casts.  After that we left the spot and hit a few more areas.  We found a nice 2.5 lb largie in the middle of a small cut and another largie that wouldnt help.  We tried a few other areas and lost a couple nice fish ( could have been pike but i like to think they were 5 lb bass ) before heading back to the area we had caught the 2 nice smallies earlier.  Ended up fidning one more, tho not near as big as the other 2, that culled out our smallest largemouth.  A bit later we ventured all the way to the other end up the lake to hit a little sweet spot of ours with some jigs.  I had a pick up right away but swung too late and missed.  Im pretty sure it was another 5lb smallie monster.  Kev set the hook on a nice 2 lber that culled out the 16" smallmouth from earlier.  That was pretty much it. 

I cant help but say i was dissapointed in how the day went.  We have been working hard to crack a solid pattern out there and have been very careful to check it but not wreck it during our tuesday night tournaments.  It has been on fire for the past few weeks and was even on the morning before the tournament.  Seems like this happens to us every year for the Chiller Thriller.  But we cashed a check and I am happy with that.  Maybe next year our stuff will work.  I will be counting down the days.

Thanks to Benny Miller for putting on the best tournament of the year...again!  For anyone who has never fished the Chiller Thriller, i guarantee its something you will never forget. 

Thanks to Terry from Lunch Money Lures for his support this year.

Thanks to Little Bill for the plaques.

Thanks to LaFontaine for the great prizes and the sweet man purses and T shirts.

Thanks to the Said family for cookin the dawgs.

Thanks to everyone who came out and fished.  This is always my favorite tournament of the year and its nice to see that other people feel the same way.

And thanks to my partner KDawg for not being too hard on me for not catching one that weighed .04 more than our smallest.  Lord knows i would have tried harder if i had only known.

And I would also like to say that i dont have the official results in front of me but other than 1st place, it was a very close tournament for most of the field.  Here are the weights that i do remember starting from 4th place and going down until i stop seeing number in my head.

12.58
12.57
12.56
12.52
12.50
12.47

I think that is pretty close anyway.  Lots of bags in the same neighborhood.  the fish were biting but the big ones eluded us all.  Big fish was under 4 lbs.  very uncharacteristic of an 8 hour tournament on Kent lake, especially in October.



McCarter himself