| This report comes from the Madison Courier News paper published for June 30th 2008 Monday.It was wrote by David Hill Courier Staff writer Water conditions on the Ohio river and creeks along the way weren't near as favorable as last year and the fish weren't biting nearly as much for the fourth annual Catfish Masters of America Madiana,Indiana Classic,held Saturday and Sunday. Only 28 boats participated in this year's event and the fish poundage was down considerably from last year's 3,526-pound catch by 58 boats.This year's total was 845.3 pounds for 133 fish weighed in- an average of 6.36 pounds per fish and 30.19 pounds per team. The team of Marlin Langes and Chris DeBow did three times better than the average and that was good enough to win the event by 6.6 pounds over the two days. Langes,of Madison and DeBow of Medora, Ohio, weighed in a 10 cat limit to tip the scales a combined 92.8 pounds to edge runner-up Don Elder's 86.2 pounds total. The eventual winners were in secnd place with 52.8 pounds after Saturday's first round of the Classic to trail midway point leaders Scott Cyrus and Rob Dew,both of Madison,by 4.7 pounds. However Land and DeBow brought in 40 lbs Sunday to claim the championship and bump Cyrus and Dew to third with 66.0 lbs. Elder, who had caught just 4 fish for 22.4 lbs on Saturday weighed in 5 nice cats for a whooping 63.8 lbs the second day to capture second place."We fished below Carrollton Ky Debow said of the tourney winning effort."We fished out of the wind in a two or three mile area catching about 35 fish before setteling on a top ten." While the winning total was well off the classic record set by Jeremy Leach and Beecher Woolf last year with 10 cats for a total of 246.2 total lbs, it was solid enough given the tough water conditions on Saturday and Sunday. With the water temperature less than ideal, thunderstorms impacting water levels and wind gusts whipping the Ohio River into a sea of whitecaps, the fishing was tough. Steve Shipman, tournament director, said several things conspired to keep the catch totals down. "The flatheads were pretty torn up so it looks like they must have just come off the spawn. There weren't many blues taken so they still must be spawning," Shipman said, noting that fish feed less and are hard to catch during their spawning cycles. For winning the event, Lang and DeBow share the grand prize of $2000.00; Elder, of Bardstown Kentucky took home $1200.00 for second; Cyrus and Dew won $900.00 for third. The fourth place team of Derek Allen and Jason Earls won $700.00 for seven fish weighing 58.6 lbs; and Gerald and Justin Hedges placed fifth,winning $600.00 for eight fish weighing 54.9 lbs. Ron Smith and Ken Gatlin didn't weight a fish on Saturday but hauled in a 5 cat limit weighing 54.3 lbs for Sunday for sisth place and $500.00. Steve Douglas landed a ten cat limit weighing 49.5 lbs that put him in the final paying position of seventh for $400.00. Because there were fewer entrants than last year, the prize money payout was down from last year's record $4000.00 payout for first place.The econmy and much higher gas prices are the two biggest factors cited for the fewer entries. The biggest firh of the tourney was caught on Saturday by the third place team of Cyrus and Dew....26.5 lb. Elder came close to eclipsing that mark on Sunday by weighing in a 24.3 lb catfish. Last years winning team of Jeremy Leach and Beecher Woolf had an off day Saturday, bringing in just one firsh, totaling 3.6 lbs. Things went better for the two on Sunday, when they reeled in 27.7 lbs....still not good enough to place, however. Another former winning team...Shafter Bowling and Danny Gross also struggled. After bringing in just one fish weighing 13.7 lbs on Saturday, they came in empty handed Sunday. |
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| Official Site of Catfish Masters of America's 2008 Madison,Indiana Classic |
| CLICK HERE to visit the Sponsor's Page |
2008 Madison,Indiana Classic Results |
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| Ohio River Water Conditions: Temp 77* 2 to 4ft. Waves Number Boats: 28 Number Fish: 133 |
| Payout Total 100% Paid out: $6970.00 |
My View Classic: First thing is,I want to thank Linda Lytle of Madison Area Convention & Visiors Bureau for being such a great supporter of this event.Their sponsorship shows that she would like to see this event grow in size for the City of Madison and the residents. Second thanks to all of are other sponsor for there support,with out them this would be just another tournament.They make it a lot nicer for our out of town angler's. I was a little disapointed in the weather,but you can't control it,so what to do,just go fish.We had some great angler here in our City.And these men and women are the people I really enjoy being around,there a lot of fun.They come from Ohio,Ky,Northern IN. and they seem to enjoy theirselfves while there here.We will do this again next June,already started working on it. I know the price of gas played the biggest part in the number of anglers be down from last year,and while work on next year I hope to make it so the anglers will plan on being here in 2009. I will not be excepting deposites till Jan,1 2009,so keep watching the website 2009 Classic page as it devolpes.All in all I hope you all had a little fun.Thanks alot for making the tournament. Steve Shipman Picture will be coming out as I get them resized for the website UP-DATED July 2nd /2008 |
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| Don Elder 2nd $ 1200.00 |
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| Scott Cyrus & Rob Dew 3rd $900 |