February 2019 Results

Lake Wylie – February 2nd, 2019

The Southeastern Catfish Club hosted its 6th tournament of the 2018-2019 season on Lake Wylie Saturday, February 2nd, and it was another RECORD BREAKING turnout! It was our 3rd time back to Lake Wylie this year, and we smashed the previous record with a total of 66 teams and 156 anglers eager to compete for their share of the $6,730 purse!

As like many parts of the country, our region faced a week of frigid temps. Forecasts for Saturday called for a cold morning start, but it would give way to sunny skies and beautiful weather with temparatures reaching the low 60s. Teams that were able to prefish throughout the week reported a sporadiac bite with fishing being scattered throughout the lake. In the end, lots of quality fish were brought to the scales, but tournament vets Evan Martin and Larry Godwin of Team Let Em Pull  brought home the win with a 74.46lb stringer and collected a massive payday of $3,320! The also won $100 bonus from Jamie K Outdoors for buying bait bringing their grand total to $3,420!

Less than a 2 tenths of a pound away, tournament trail vets Gene Gaston and Jonathan Burnet of Team Rod Down finished in 2nd place with a 74.30 stringer and collected an impressive $1,680 payday. Just a couple pounds behind in 3rd place were Jacob Williams and Lee Cowen of Team Bluehead with a 72.60lb stringer giving them a $560 payday. They also had Big Fish of the tournament with a monster 64.40lb blue and collected another $820 bringing their total earnings to an impressive $1,380. Their big blue put them in the lead in the Big Fish of the year race!

Mac Moneta and Lance Wolfe of Team Lucky Strike had 2nd Big Fish of the Tournament with a bruiser 41.75 blue and collected $340.

Congratulations to Evan Martin and Larry Godwin of Team Let Em Pull  for their 1st win of the season! The Season’s Points Race is getting tight coming down the home stretch, so the last few tournaments are going to get interesting for the teams at top!

The club is certainly growing by the record number of teams coming out to join the fun, but we should feel most proud of the camaraderie that runs deep through our members. A new tradition continued this month where the winners from the previous tournament gave away a portion of their earnings today. Some have chosen to reward the smallest stringer or the 4th place team. Husband-wife duo Ashley and Jennifer Campbell of Team Rip Lipp, who finished 2nd in last month’s tournament, rewarded $60 to the Team Fishing Fanatic for their 2nd to last place finish. We appreciate you guys for keeping the tradition alive!

Finally, we would like to give a special Thank You to our sponsors that continually show their support to our club! They make the tournament experience that much more exciting for our members. Jamie Williams with Jamie K Outdoors gave away a $50 gift certificate to Team Sparky for the random draw award. Jamie chose the 15th team that registered, and Ron Carden was at the right place at the right time. Jamie also gave away another $50 gift card to Team Fishing Fanatic for having the smallest 2-fish stringer. The fellas at Lyt “N” Bugg, in quirky fashion, picked the 20th placed team from the bottom to award $50 cash. Team Buchanan won the honors. It’s getting very interesting on what and how you can win, so be sure to stick around even though your team had a tough day!

As we announced leading up to the tournament, we had two national sponsors come onboard giving teams a chance to win additional bonus money and prizes. SeaArk paid a whopping $500 to the top finishing SeaArk, and Benji Brown and Lindsey Patterson of Team Polekat won the honors with their 39.65lb stringer. Suzuki gave away an maintenance kit to the top finishing team that’s powered by a Suzuki outboard. Father-son duo Gary Morton Jr. and Gary Morton Sr. won the incredible package!

We look forward to seeing everyone next month on Fishing Creek for another day of competive fishing and fellowship!

Tight Lines!

Brian Snipes and Josh Coggins