Columnist Barb Henderson: Nation’s top anglers take aim at $450,000 in Lake Mead event

Barb Henderson

Friday, Sept. 12, 2003 | 9:28 a.m.

Barb Henderson is an outdoors enthusiast, freelance writer and producer/host of outdoors radio television programming. Her column appears Friday in the Sun.

Professional bass anglers tried their luck catching a portion of the more than $450,000 in cash and prizes awarded this week at Lake Mead during the WON BASS Miller High Life U.S. Open.

The Open was on Lake Mead on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The participating bass anglers launched from Callville Bay Resort each day, making their way across the blue waters of Lake Mead.

Catch and release is practiced by professional anglers during these bass tournaments and by most avid largemouth bass anglers.

Hooking on a largemouth bass, with the low water level and recent winds would take both experience and luck, fishing with a variety of patterns.

"It's been an interesting tournament," said Mike Kennedy, WON Bass Tournament director. "The winds the first two days have kept some of the anglers from getting to the spots they wanted to fish. The final day start saw very light winds that had some anglers excited about being able to fish areas that they had not gotten to."

The Open featured a top pro prize of more than $100,000, including $50,000 cash plus a Ford truck and fully-equipped Ranger bass boat with a Mercury outboard, Lowrance electronics, MotorGuide trolling motor and Trojan batteries.

The AAA winner received $10,000. Each day the largest stringer was worth $2,500 to the Pro/AAA pairing, and $2,000 was awarded each day for the five largest bass.

Clifford Pirch of Payson, Ariz., had the lead in the Pro Division on the first day with a total of 9.51 pounds. He kept his lead for the second day, with only a 1.03-pound margin over John Kerr, a big bass specialist from Ramona, Calif.

"The top anglers after two days were newcomers to the top of the standings at the Open," added Kennedy.

Wednesday's final found the top five pro bass anglers to be; John Kerr of Ramona, Calif., Gary Dobyns of Yuba City, Calif.; Byron Velvick of Boulder City; Kota Kiriyama of New Milford, N.J., and Clifford Pirch of Payson, Ariz.

The top AAA winners were: Edward Gavin II of St. George, Utah; Jun Yada of San Diego; Andreas of Las Vegas; Randy Estrada Corona, Calif., and Jack Kirts of Anthem, Ariz.

For all of the updates and final listings of both the pro and AAA participants for the WON BASS Miller High Life U.S. Open click on the Internet at: www.wonbass.com.