First Annual Water Street Bar & Grill 4-Man Bass Tournament
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The First Annual Water Street Bar & Grill 4-Man Bass Tournament was held this past Saturday at Evansville. The field consisted of 24 boats that consisted of 12 four man teams. A complimentary breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and fried potatoes was provided by Wally Terry and the Water Street staff. The 6:30 a.m. take-off was delayed until 7 a.m. because of fog. Pastor Mike Fogerson of the Baptist Church in Chester attended the pre-meeting on this morning and offered a prayer for the field to have a safe day of fishing. It was a chilly take-off in the low 50's. The weather did not stop the fish from biting as some teams reported having a limit by 8 a.m. The temperature climbed into the 80's making it a nice day to be on the water. The 24 boats weighed in 9 five fish limits and a total of 74 fish for 127 lbs.
The team of Jason Wolf and Mike Baldwin weighed in the heaviest stringer of the tournament with a weight of 11.14. The other half of this team, Darrin Schmidt/Troy Melliere had a limit that weighed 9.47 lbs for a combined 20.61 lbs. Together with all of the bonuses this team took home $1,920.
The second place team of Kevin Stark/Jim Jenkins and Craig Cowan/Jason Estel weighed in two limits of fish for 16.97 which was just enough to top the third place effort of 16.11 which was caught by the team of Stew Loesche/John Loesche and Dennis Helfrich/Butch Schwartz. The second place team cashed checks totaling $500 including second in the option pot. Third place totaled $180.
Carl Wasem caught Big Bass of the tournament that went 3.83 lbs. and was worth $240. Plaques were donated by Venegoni Dist and were awarded to the top three teams and Big Bass. The top teams reported catching most of their fish on spinner baits. This was a unique tournament that had a number of sponsors. There were 9 local bars that donated $100 to the tournament and they are as follows: Wolf's Bar, Jan's Horseshoe Inn, Just Sue's, Bull Pen, Kaskaskia River Marina, Gabby's, My Dad's Place, Time-Out, and Centerfield. $450 went back to Wolf's Bar for having the highest finishing team that was signed up with a bar.
We also had some great sponsors that donated prizes to give away at the pre-meeting. These sponsors include Venegoni Dist., Taylor Marine Performance Center, Van's Motor Sports, and Belleville Sports Sales. Sure-Life and Buchheits donated some of their products for tournament use. All money received in this tournament was paid out 100%. This was possible because of Water Street owner Wally Terry. Wally donated a lot of time, money, and effort to make this tournament possible.
"I would like to thank the Water Street girls, Ed Cowan, Deb Cowan, Rebecca Cowan, and Missy Estel for all of their hard work setting up the weigh-in. Jason and I owe all of you big thanks. This tournament was a success because of you guys," said Craig Cowan.
"The tournament was a lot of fun. We had a great turnout and nothing but great things was said by all the anglers that fished," said Jason Estel. "We are planning on a 2nd Annual Event to be held next year."