Sea Ark boat owners launched on Wheeler Lake out of Decatur, AL for the 2017 Sea Ark Owners Tournament. One hundred and forty-one boats and more than twice that many catfish anglers were vying for cash and prizes with payouts going to the top 20 boats. Anglers had to do combat Mother Nature as well as the other anglers as storms pummeled the area.
At the end of the tournament one lucky team won a new ProCat 200 from a drawing. To be eligible for the ProCat, participating anglers had to check in one legal catfish. The new boat came fully rigged with a brand-new Suzuki engine and B&M trailer. The lucky team was the husband/wife team of Kellie and Richard Morris of Trinity, Texas.
The tournament, now in its 7th year, was held at Ingalls Harbor in Decatur, AL on April 21st and 22nd. The 21st was a mandatory Captain’s Dinner Meeting for participants and Saturday April 22nd was the tournament fishing day.
Participating teams start livewell checks at 4:30 am, before an organized blast off at 6:30 am. The final weigh-in occurred at 3:30 pm at Ingalls Harbor. The top 12 teams weighed in more than 100 pounds.
When the results were in it was Ryan Gnagy (Prime Time Catfishing) and Kevin Parks who weighed in big fish of the tournament, with an 82.49 pounder, and 188.97 pounds to win the day.
“The key factors in our win were fresh bait, confidence in the location, good boat control and patience,” said Gnagy. “Prefishing was tough all week so we knew it would be slow and we had to be persistent. We did not want to lose hope in our #1 spot and start running all over the lake looking for something better. We knew the fish were there and we just had to grind it out, waiting for the bites.”
The remaining top spots went to:
2nd – Jim Loudermilk & Steve Jones – 142.57
3rd – David Shipman & Brooke Willbanks – 139.64
4th – Phil Brown & Kristine Browns – 130.32
5th – Justin Conner & Tabitha Linville – 128.51
6th – Alex Nagy & Seth McCallister – 128.35
7th – Brandon Kennedy & Josh Smith – 128.20
8th – Tim Land & Jason Ruble – 124.25
9th – Kevin Woolfolk & Jason Shaw – 121.52
10th – Brad Elliot & Phillip Carpenter – 115.02
11th – Skyler Robbins, Mark Robbins & Don Robbins – 109.83
12th – Derek Morton & Jacob Morton – 106.15
13th – Travis Hunter & Roger Gerloff – 99.97
14th – Gary Taylor & Rob Stanley – 96.61
15th – Hans Fahnestock & Chad Harris – 94.79
16th – Tony Hunt & Russ Devore – 94.16
17th – Daniel Linton & Jeff Bateman – 92.71
18th – James Goforth, Cad Daly & Chris Parker – 91.86
19th – Earl Torreyson & Scott Sanders – 89.97
20th – Michael Carpenter & Brian Ellison – 89.86
21st – Rob Benningfield & Rick Eiselt – 89.39
For more information on Sea Ark boats visit their website at www.seaarkboats.com or like their Facebook page.
