DAY ONE LIMIT & DAY TWO LIMIT GIVES WATKINS AND ODOM THE CLASSIC WIN

The Federation of Christian Anglers and Sportsmen (F.O.C.A.S.) held their 2005 Classic on Lake Barkley, KY with a 52 boat field registering from those that qualified. This would be the first two day Classic F.O.C.A.S. has offered. The Classic site for the pre-tournament and weigh in was at Eddyville Fun Park. Pre-tournament meeting provided the anglers with the rules and the draw for boat position. The launch was to be at 6:30 a.m. the next morning from Kuttawa boat ramp.

Day One, September 30, 2005:

The scheduled launch time was delayed an hour due to a heavy fog. With safety in mind the boats were finally released to start the Classic. The boats returned and after checking in they all trailered to the Eddyville Fun Park for the weigh in. B.A.S.S. pro angler and 1992 Bassmaster Classic winner Robert Hamilton was present to officiate the weigh in.

Day one had 32 teams weighing in at the scales. With only one team bringing in a limit they took the lead for day one. First day standings of top three teams:

Watkins and Odom 5 fish 12.82 pounds
Dahm and Ellison 4 fish 10.87 pounds
Farley and Adair 4 fish 10.58 pounds

Big Bass Day One - Barker

Day one Big Bass was caught by father/son team of Monty and Phillip Barker, Highland, IL. Monty gave his son the credit for the catch which was caught on a crank bait around 2:30 p.m. Other anglers said they “heard” him catch it. Weighing in at 4.90 pounds it earned Phillip a check for $520.00.

Day two, October 1, 2005

The second morning arrived with a few clouds, which cleared off and the day remained mostly sunny the rest of the tournament.

Again at 3:00 the anglers returned to the ramp and trailered to the weigh site. Second day brought 28 teams to the scales and with the prior day’s weights close everyone was anxious to see how the standings would end. With a total pay out for the Classic at $10,250.00 and Big Bass at
$1, 040.00 this brought the grand total for this event at
$11, 290.00. Classic pay out is 100% added to the Classic fund which had been building all season.

FIRST PLACE
At the end of the weigh in the announcement was made that the first day’s winners had taken day two with another limit weighing 10.04 pounds which together totaled 22.86 pounds giving Jack Watkins, Belleville, IL and Steve Odom, Granite City, IL the Classic win. They reported that on day one, they caught their first keeper on a buzz bait. They them went to Kentucky Lake where they caught another keeper and some short fish on the buzz bait at the mouth of a weedy cove. Switching to jigs they caught their last keeper right before time to return for the weigh in.

On day two they returned to the cove and caught three keepers right off. Returning to the bay where they had launched they caught number four and with 10 minutes left in the tournament they pulled in fish 5.
This day paid them $5,000.00. Jack Watkins is sponsored by MidAmerica Outdoors.com, Scenic River Boats and Motors, Bonne Terre, MO, B & R Outlaw Rods (also a F.O.C.A.S sponsor), Castrol Oil, Hartog Distributing, St Louis, MO, Wynss Petroleum Products, Delta Distributing, Grover, MO, Flying Fisherman Sunglasses, Islamorada, FL and Oliver C. Joseph, Inc. Belleville.

SECOND PLACE
The team of Chris Dahm, Belleville, IL and Sean Ellison, St Charles, MO held onto their second place position from day one by bringing in 8.22 pounds to total a weight of 19.09. They caught their keepers the south part of Lake Barkley using 12 inch worms.



They also took Day Two Big Bass honors with a 3.67 pounder that they caught in the morning. Second place check for $2,250.00 plus $520.00 for Big Bass made their days pay $2,770.00 They are sponsored by Personal Attention Lawn Care of St. Charles, MO.

THIRD PLACE
Classic win went to Mike Kirkey, Collinsville, IL and Jay Fields, Breese, IL who fished crank baits on the ledges on Barkey Lake within 10 miles of the boat ramp on both days. With a total weight of 17.36 they earned a check for $1,200.00. They are sponsored by Belleville Sports Sales, Belleville ( also a F.O.C.A.S. sponsor), Clinton Seamless Guttering, Breese, IL and Jerry’s Landscaping, Breese, IL.

Other positions paid out:

Fourth place
James Felts and Harold Holmes 16.22 pounds $1,000.00

Fifth place
Alan Spenner and Jennifer Spenner
(Father/daughter) 16.08 pounds $500.00
Starting off the season with his son, Jared, Alan finished with daughter Jennifer after Jared left to serve his country. We are proud of Jared and wish him well.
Also, way to go Jennifer!

Sixth place JJ Zmudzinski and Gerald Zmudzinski (Father/son) 15.87 pounds $300.00

Check out our web site, www.focasoutdoormagazine.org for more pics and information about our 2006 season. Thanks to all our sponsors for the 2005 season. We truly appreciate your support. We still are “Fishin’ With A Mission” and looking forward to next year.