by Ron Presley
Catfish anglers from nineteen states travel to compete.
The SeaArk Boats Owner’s Invitational Catfish Tournament is one of the most anticipated tournaments of the year. Most participating anglers make their plans a year in advance with many taking vacation time to fish the tournament. It consistently draws as many boats as any major tournament anywhere in the country.
In previous years the tournament had traveled around to different locations. Now, given the excellent facilities at Decatur, and the obvious desire for anglers to fish Wheeler Lake it has become the favored destination. Wheeler is truly a bucket list destination.
“In the beginning, we had planned to move the tournament around to different locations every two years,” reported SeaArk president, Steve Henderson. “We started in Alton, then to Owensboro, and on to Wheeler. We have had five tournaments on Wheeler, two at Rogersville, and three at Decatur. Although we continue to research other possibilities, we have yet to find a place that offers trophy cats, parking, ramp access, and a meeting facility equal to Decatur and Ingalls Harbor.”
Why do they come? It is really hard to determine if just seeing friends and making new ones, winning the tournament, or winning the give-a-way boat is the main reason for coming. Ask any participant and it will likely be one of those reasons. And, the beauty of it is that they are all pretty good reasons.
When weighmaster, Jason Masingale was asked if he would rather win the tournament or win the boat he replied “the tournament.” The boat would carry the largest monetary value, but the tournament win carries the most prestige.
“With the level of competition in the field a win would mean more to me than winning the boat,” said Jason. “For me the memory winning would be much more meaningful knowing that we were lucky enough to come out on top of an almost 200 boat field of some of the best fishing teams in the nation.”
From the time that registration opened early in the year to the final registration at the Captains Meeting 200 boats had officially registered for the ninth annual event. It was the best year ever. On tournament day 191 boats hit the water at Ingalls Harbor, Decatur, AL to compete.
First Place
At the end of the day, it was the B’n’M team of David Shipman and Brett Nash that took the win. They brought 176.72 pounds to the scales to claim the top spot. Their bag included the Big Cat of the tourney at 73.12 pounds and pushed their total earnings to more than $10,000.
“We just fished our usual way down by the nuclear plant,” reported Shipman. “We had seen just a few fish so we just hung in there. We got one fish within 10 minutes and then it was close to two hours before the next bite!”
The team had fresh bait which they credited for part of their success. Shipman indicated that they cut the bait so it would bleed a lot.
“We suspended two rods, had one thrown out on the bottom, and I kinda’ bumped around with one,” continued Shipman. “We caught a fish or two each way but nothing consistent.”
Shipman and Nash had only a 4-pound fish for number five until sometime after 2:00 o’clock. That was when Nash caught a 12-pounder for the final one.
“Each fish we caught seemed to be the one we needed every time,” said Shipman. “It was a lot of luck for sure. We had a few bites that they just wouldn’t take it but not many. As I get older, I just don’t want to run all over the lake anymore. So, we just fought it really hard in the same area. History has shown the area to be consistent, but not always good. When it is good it works out like it did today.
Shipman said he had fished the area lots of times and not done much good. But there are a couple of brush piles that he thinks draws a few fish in at some point during the day. It keeps him coming back to give it a try.
“This is one of the best tournaments to fish,” concluded Shipman. “It is a great honor to be able to say we won a SeaArk Invitational. Brett and I are really blessed to have been the winning team. The SeaArk crew always does an outstanding job.”
Second Place
The second-place team of Benji Brown and Lindsey T. Patterson said their tournament weekend definitely had its ups and downs. Nevertheless, they had a tournament weight of 146.88 pounds to claim the runner-up spot and put their names in the SeaArk Invitational record book.
“Between thunderstorms and sitting at the veterinary hospital, we were only able to get one day of practice,” reported Brown.
The team’s dog, Hooker, had jumped from Brown’s lap to the concrete and broke her tibia. So, Brown and Patterson their first morning in Decatur at the veterinary hospital thinking it would have to get better from there.
“ Lindsey and I found a location we wanted to fish,” reported Brown. “We decided to anchor on it. We knew a majority of the field would be drifting and wanted to sit down on the targeted area.”
The team expected that if they were to drag the location there would be other boats close by. They would all be trying to drag the same area and risk the chance of not making the perfect pass. Additionally, in the little prefishing they had done their bigger fish had come on the rope.
“Most of the fish that we brought to the scales were caught by 10 am,” noted Brown. “In the first 15 minutes, we had one pull the Warrior Cat Rod down, rip out a few feet of drag, and break me off in some structure. All that after only a few seconds of the fight.”
“I thought we were doomed for the day,” continued Brown. “Then about 45 minutes later when we had our two big fish smash the baits almost simultaneously. We spent the remainder of the day trying to get our solid under fish.”
Brown and Patterson managed to find two 15-pounders and one 14-pounder for almost 45 pounds of under 34-inch fish. They had anchored in only two spots all day long. They were fishing 20- to 45-feet of water using skipjack as the preferred bait.
“We feel extremely blessed,” concluded Brown. “And fortunate to be able to do what we love to do every weekend. Thank you SeaArk Boats for continuing to put on one of the best tournaments of the year for their customers.”
Third Place
Claiming third place was the team of Ty Wolf and Eddie Woods. The Kansas anglers weighed in 134.98 pounds to claim the third spot. They were aided by the second big fish of the tournament which weighed 71.08 pounds, just a couple of pounds under the big fish leader.
“We didn’t have much of a game plan come tournament day,” said Wolf. “We put fish in the boat while prefishing the three days beforehand, but no big fish. Although we did catch a few overs there was just nothing with any size. We did catch some really good unders.
Based on their prefishing experience, Wolf and Woods decided to go catch their under 34 fish first and then go after some big fish.
“We picked a channel ledge to troll that morning,” continued Wolf. “We were using Parks Planer Boards and man did it pay off. Just a few minutes in we both had one pole cast out and almost ready to cast our second poles out. WHAM. My pole was doubled over and the drag was screaming.”
That first fish of the day was 71 pounds. A few minutes later Woods’ caught a 48 pounder. Their first pass produced five fish that weighed 203 pounds. They snapped a few pictures then released the three smaller overs. With the day going just the opposite of how they planned it they moved on the catch some unders.
“We set up on a spot where we caught some really nice unders a few days before,” offered Wolf. “We downsized our baits, cast out and fish on! The fish weighed 58 pounds which knocked our 48-pounder back in the water. We ended up only catching one under the day of the tournament and it was only 5 pounds.”
“The key to our success that day was using Parks Planers,” concluded Wolf. “Every fish we landed was caught on those boards. Parks Planers pull super wide and pull big baits with 2- to 4-ounces of weight, all while trolling up river.”
Final Thoughts
“We do several functions every year,” added Henderson. “But, by far, the owner’s Tournament is my favorite. Spending time with our prostaff and our customers is a blast. It’s not all about selling boats. We truly want our customers to become like family when they choose SeaArk.”
“We want our customer’s input, their critiques, and most of all to share with us their experiences of creating memories in a product that we built. It is amazing how far the catfishing community has come in just a few years and we are proud to be a part of it. The comradery and uniqueness of this group differ from other similar markets out there.”
“The tournament went smoother than ever,” concluded Henderson. “Rachael Roofe does an awesome job organizing the event and with the help of the prostaff it has ran like a ‘well-oiled machine’. We want to continue to improve the tournament so all suggestions are more than welcome.”
Number of paid entries – 200
Number of teams fished – 191
Number of teams weighed – 93
Number of teams checked – 87
Number of states represented – 19
Number of moms fishing – 43
Number of catfish caught – 416
Number of teams zeroed – 11
Pounds of fish weighed – 6,707.90
Total Weigh-in time (3:30 – 5:30) 2 hours
For more information on the Annual SeaArk Owner’s Invitational Catfish Tournament, including a list of all the winners and their weights, visit their Facebook page and website. Registration forms and entry information for the next event will be available on the website at www.seaarkboats.com once registration is opened for 2020.
