THE TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

 LONG LAKE

On a gorgeous day at Long Lake the UNBC anglers got after it for their year end championship, the bite proved to be very tough as expected but as always we had a winner & it happened to be the 2023 Anglers of the Year Joe Wilcox & Eric Hermansen who brought 14.25 lbs. of smallies to the scales, Joe also won big bass for the day a 4.30 lb. hawg which he said was the only fish they weighed that wasn't caught using live scope. This was Joe's first TOC title & Eric's second (he won in 2007 w/Dave Hansch on the Minong Flowage). Second place was Larson/Warren w/14.13 & third was Constant/Anderson w/13.13 while Newhouse/Anselmo rounded out the money winners for a fourth place finish w/12.96 lbs. The underdogs seemed to fair okay in this one as the winners were sixth in the AOY standings, second was ninth, third was seventh & fourth took fourth. A big thank you goes out to the Pioneer Bar for letting us host the weigh-in there. 

Check out the 2024 recap link.

Grindstone

The UNBC had encountered a lot of terrible weather days in the past on the fabled Grindstone Lake but this past Saturday surely wasn't one of them, as the anglers were greeted with a calm mostly sunny day. When it was all said & done Gene Henck & dad Larry walked away with the first place hardware, they weighed in a very impressive limit of smallies for 18.25 lbs. Coming up just a liitle short of the title was the second place team of Newhouse/Anselmo who had 18.15. Third place went to Gibson/Peterson with 16.54 & fourth was Constant/Richert w/16.22 Steve got big bass a 4.28 lb. stud. Rounding out the money winners was the rookie team of Hermansen/Hermansen who had 15.09 lbs of largemouth. As expected the live scopers did dominate the tournament as the top 3 teams were fully invested in the technique. Of the 91 fish weighed in 27 were largemouth. The win for Team Henck gave Gene his 4th Angler of the Year title & Larry his 3rd it also got them their 4th Head to Head Tournament Championship. The top 12 teams going in all made it to the TOC with no real treats from outside the top 12.

Bone Lake

A very cloudy breezy morning turned into a hot windy day when the UNBC anglers decended upon Bone Lake, despite a muskie tournament going on & numerous pleasure boaters on the lake it still took 18+ lbs. to take the win & thats exactly what Donn Schlapper & Joel Blazer had to claim victory. Second place went to Gibson/Peterson who finessed their way to a 16.45 lb. bag. Coming in at third was Chad & Cruz Constantineau w/16.23 lbs thanks to Chad's big bass winner a 4.57 lb. mutt. Gene & Larry Henck took 4th(nothing unusual there) w/13.72 lbs/ & coming in at 5th was Todd Bottolfson & Brody Larson w/13.31 lbs. So who were the big movers & losers at Bone, Bottolfson/Larson went from 11th in the standings to 6th place making their chance for a TOC qualification look pretty good while Constant/Anderson fell from 3rd to 9th & Larson/Warren went from 6th to 11th. Pretty much looks like the AOY race is down to Schlapper/Blazer & Team Henck who are only 2 points back, both teams have placed in all 3 derby's this year. Schlapper/Blazer are looking for their 5th AOY title & Henck's their 4th. The Head to Head Tournament finals will feature Team Henck vs Team Hermansen, the rookie Hermansen team came in at 16th place at Bone but lucky for them they went up against the team that took 20th. The Henck boys are in their 8th championship finals out of the past 13 years & looking for their 4th title.

NELSON LAKE

The weatherman was wrong again as the all day rain that was predicted turned into some brief light rain & a very nice day for a bass tournament. Donn Schlapper & Joel Blazer weighed the biggest bag for the day at 17.94 lbs. earning them the title for stop number two of the Up North Bass Circuit's season. Placing second was Gene & Larry Henck w/17.55 lbs. At third was Steve Constant & Doug Richert at 16.70 lbs. with the help of Doug's big bass for the tourney a 5.11 lb. post spawn fish which is very respectfull for this time of year. Coming in at fourth was Todd Larson & Steve Warren w/15.06 lbs. & rounding out the money winners was Jamie Gibson & Doug Peterson w/15.05 lbs. A handful of the anglers have definitely figured out some off shore hotspots as this makes several tourneys in a row where the bigger weights are coming from.

The points race for TOC qaulification & the AOY is really heating up. Team Henck is in the lead & headed to one of their home lakes next, their ahead of Schlapper/Blazer by one point followed by Constant/Anderson who is six points back, Gibson/Peterson & Brantner/Harmon are tied in fourth eight points behind the leaders. The winners  in the Head to Head tourney at Nelson & match ups for the semi-finals are Henck/Henck vs Constant/Richert (taking on the Hencks is like going against KING KONG on that pond) & Larson/Warren vs Hermansen/Hermansen.

Congrats to Cruz & Chad Constantineau who won the Hayward Bass Club's open tournament Sunday at Round Lake against a pretty stout field.

SHELL LAKE

For the first time in 27 years the iconic team of Morey Leverty & Leo Durand were not at the circuit's opening tournament due to Morey's recent passing & Leo out because of medical issues, these hammers were a dominating team & will be greatly missed.

Despite a cloudy very windy day making the sight fishing conditions as tough as it gets. Some records still fell at Shell, the spawn was in full swing & as always the sight fishing specialist put a hurtin on the big smallies. After the last bag was weighed the very young rookie team of Hunter Hermansen & cousin Kody Hermansen came away with a very impressive win. Their bag tipped the scales at 21.10 lbs. a new record for a all smallmouth bag & 2nd all time heaviest for either species. Kody also caught the Untamed Tackle Big Bass for the Tourney a 5.13 pound bruiser of a smallie. Placing second was the new team of Gary Constant & Stacy Anderson w/20.43 lbs. Third was Gene & Larry Henck w/19.87 lbs. Taking fourth was last years AOY winners Joe Wilcox & Eric Hermansen weighing in 19.84 lbs. At fifth on their home lake was Donn Schlapper & Joel Blazer w/19.52. Back in May 22, 2021 Shell Lake held the record for the most weight (291.48 lbs.) & the largest average weight per fish weighed at 3.20 lbs. Those records were beat this past Saturday with 312.42 lbs. (& one team didn't show) for an average of 3.28 lbs. per fish. Despite one of the most impressive weigh-ins in UNBC history some feel the lake wasn't left in as good of shape as it was before the tournament due to the timing of the spawn.

Qaurterfinal match ups in the next round of the Head to Head tourney features Joe/Eric vs Gene/Larry & Gary/Stacy vs Steve/Doug & Frank/Brian vs Todd/Steve & Hunter/Kody vs Mark.