Led by top finisher Terry Holmes, members of the Mossback Bassmasters Club took second place in last weekend's Missouri Bass Federation State Tournament held at Smithville Lake near Kansas City. Members of the team are, from left to right: front row, Scott Fischer, Chris Bowen, Randy Seabaugh, Joe Reiminger and Tim Green, all of Jackson; and second row, alternate Duane McKernan of Cape Girardeau and Chuck Roberts, Wayne Jones, Terry Holmes, Terry Young and Mark Nagle, all of Jackson.
A Jackson man walked away with the top prize in a state fishing tournament while his fishing club earned the second place team honor.
Terry Holmes of Jackson, a member of the Mossback Bassmasters Club, competed among 288 contestants to take the top place in the Missouri Bass Federation's State Tournament held last weekend at Smithville Lake near Kansas City.
As a team, Holmes and nine other members of the local club took second place in the team competition, being beaten only by a club comprising members from the Smithville Lake area. A total of 35 teams took part in the event.
Having been successful at the state level, Holmes and the 11 other top finishers from across the state will now advance to the divisional tournament scheduled for May at Truman Reservoir.
"Naturally, I felt good about winning," said Holmes, who also competed in divisional competition in 1990 and 1992. "One of the goals of the [local] club is to go to state."
Holmes caught six largemouth bass with a total weight of 21.12 pounds.
During the first day, the Jackson sportsman caught a limit of bass with a total weight of over 16 pounds, essentially winning the competition on the first day. His closest competitor caught a total of 13 pounds of bass during the two-day event.
"I had a limit Saturday but I figured I'd have to have two or three good size keepers to win the tournament," he said, explaining that Sunday's fishing yielded a single bass weighing in at five pounds. However, Holmes' closest competitors failed to catch any bass over Smithville's legal length limit of 15 inches for largemouth bass during Sunday's fishing.
Holmes attributes his success in the tournament, as well as that of the team as a whole, to the close teamwork of the Mossback club.
He said many of the team members traveled to Smithville as much as a week ahead of time to scout the lake throughout the days prior to the tournament's start.
"We fished all week," he said. "Everybody would take a part of the lake and try different spots and different lures and at night, we'd have a team meeting and talk about how we did during the day.
"By Friday night, we had a plan for the tournament."
"Any one of us on the team could have won the tournament," said Holmes. "I just happened to get on a spot that held a lot of fish."
In addition to Holmes, the other Jackson men who made up the Mossback Bassmasters team were Chuck Roberts, Terry Young, Chris Bowen, Joe Reiminger, Mark Nagle, Wayne Jones, Tim Green, Scott Fischer and Randy Seabaugh. The alternate for the event was Duane McKernan, of Cape Girardeau.
The local tournament team consisted of the Mossback club's top tournament finishers in local and regional tournaments over the course of the past year.
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