The Tracker Marine Bass Circuit hosted by Backyard Bassin Team Tournament Trails hosted the kickoff event for the 2007 Spring/Summer tournament trail Saturday morning, March 10th. Forty-three teams from all across Oklahoma were greeted at the north ramp by a perfect sunrise over beautiful Lake Murray. With recent warm temperatures and an almost perfect day for tournament bass fishing, the lake was ready to yield several nice limits of fish.

The first team to come to the scales joked that they wanted to be "leaders in the club house". George Coffman from Marlow, Ok and George Taylor of Noble, Ok pulled five nice fish from their tournament sack anchored by a massive 8.35 pound black bass. The scales stopped at 20.31 pounds and yes they were "leaders in the clubhouse". These two anglers fished the mid lake area for fish they had located while pre-fishing. They caught their fish early throwing crank baits, tubes and spinner baits in six to eight feet of water. Their kicker bass was landed on a crank bait. Mr. Coffman stated that the fish only had one hook stuck in her, and that he was glad he had switched to larger hooks. Way to go guys!

The team of Danny Matthews of Norman, Ok. and Mike Winkler from Lexington, Ok. brought their five fish limit to stage weighing 12.90  anchored by a 6.93 big bass to capture second place and also secure second place big bass.

Rounding out the top three places was Dean Bridges from Durant, Ok and John Harms of Bonham, Tx This team presented their five fish limit to the tournament stage and ran the scales to 12.83 pounds with a 5.02 pound kicker fish. Congratulations on a nice tournament men!

There were several different exhibits going on during the weigh in. A few of the high lights were the new Nitro Z-9 on display courtesy of Bass Pro Shops-OKC and the all new Toyota Tundra courtesy of Toyota of Ardmore, Okla.  Mike Hendrix of Hendrix Custom Rods was also on site with several different styles of custom fishing rods.

 Several anglers participated in the flipping contest presented by Backyard Bassin Team Tournament Trails. This event came down to a flip off where Robert Brooks of Ardmore, Ok. just edged out Larry Wood also from Ardmore, Ok. Robert took home a custom made Hendrix Flipping Rod.

One of the favorite stops everyone made was at the "food trailer" . Darren Rudd representing Farmers Insurance Agency and John Davenport with the Ardmore Car Auction once again treated all of the anglers and spectators to a hot lunch and cold beverage during the weigh in and awards presentation. We can not thank these guys enough!

We look forward to seeing everyone April 14th at Lake Sardis!

TOURNAMENT PHOTOS AVAILABLE HERE

Thanks to Frank Ritter and Dennis Thompson for all the great camera work!

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