Saturday July 24th saw the OKBT on Sparrow Lake for the second event of the season. With a medium sized lake and a lot of river system in play and with 103 anglers registered this was shaping up to be a good event. The days weather was calling for a mixed bag with overcast skies and possible rain late in the day.
It didn’t take long for the fish to start being caught and the leaderboard to start loading up. The lead changed multiple times throughout the day as it looked like the anglers would find a pattern and load up quickly once on the fish Michael Blumhagen and John Webster jumped into early leads and hung in their for the better part of the morning. As the day moved on Tyler Warner and Mike Hockey started making a move for the top as well. When the leaderboard shut down with an hour left it really was anyone’s event to win. The top 1-15 anglers were closely packed and any good fish would certainly move you up in the standings.
When the results were in it was Mike Hockey that came out on top with a late day push to get the fish he needed. Brian Arnold came on late as well to hold onto the 2nd place spot followed by Tyler Warner, who’s 20″ largemouth secured him third place in a tie breaker. Chris Visser grabbed 4th spot with a 5″ upgrade in the last 15 minutes of the event to move him from 15th to 4th and Rob Baginski rounded out the top 5.
1st – Mike Hockey – 86.25″ – $3089.41
2nd – Brian Arnold – 83.50″ – $1489.54
3rd – Tyler Warner – 81.50″ – $937.86
4th – Chris Visser – 81.50″ – $200.00
5th – Rob Baginski – 80.75″ – $150.00
Big Bass – Tyler Warner – 20.00″ – $515.00
Overall there were 404 fish judged in the event and likely a couple hundred more that were caught and not submitted. It was another great event with a fantastic turnout and followed up by an awards presentation with actual people present. Now on to the next events at Catchacoma on Aug 21st and Stoney Lake on Aug 22nd.
As always, we must give a big shout out and thank you to all our sponsors. They make these events even better for all of us.
Old Town Canoes & Kayaks
Garmin Marine Canada
Fogh Marine
DAIWA Corporation – Canada
Malone Auto Racks
Power-Pole Total Boat Control
Scotty Fishing Products
Angler’s Choice Quality Made Soft Plastics
Dakota Lithium Batteries
Mega Jigs
Mig Sig Outdoors
Streamside
Gagnon Sports
JVM Custom Lures