Following the announcement Thursday evening that the 2020 Championship would be held on Trout Lake in Coleraine, our twenty-four Championship qualifying anglers were excited about getting to fish a new lake that very few of them had ever been on.
Friday morning was a beautiful morning with a slight breeze, sunshine and a cool fall feeling in the air. This however made the bass in Trout a little tight lipped as fish catches during the first half were sporadic, with none of the anglers cracking the double-digit fish count mark.
Taking the first half lead was veteran Champions Tour angler and previous winner, Shane Raveling. Raveling focused his efforts on a main lake rock bar and was catching smallmouth bass using a Minnesota legal Alabama rig. Raveling’s first half efforts amounted to seven bass for a total weight of 22 lb 7 oz.
Right behind Raveling was former Champions Tour winner and veteran Tour angler, Tadd Johnson. Johnson caught nine Trout Lake bass, with only one of them being a smallmouth. His first half weight was 21 lb 5 oz.
Right on Johnson’s heals was former Champions Tour Boat Official and second year pro, Jacob Novak. Novak also targeting smallmouth, caught eight in the first half for a weight of 21 lb 2 oz.
Following the mid-day lunch and break, the anglers headed out in reverse order to start the second half of the day of the 2020 Championship on Trout Lake hosted by Visit Grand Rapids. Unlike the regular season Champions Tour events, in the Championship, there was NO lake split. This means the anglers were able to return to the same fishing locations they relied on during the first half of the day.
Picking up where he left off at the end of the half, Tadd Johnson continued to flip shallow water grass to pluck Trout Lake largemouth to take the lead for about half of the afternoon session, but the largemouth pattern died off very quickly and Tadd finished with a total of 13 bass for a total weight of 30 lb 11 oz for 4th place.
The 2020 Mississippi River event winner, Matt Peters battled the uptick in the afternoon breeze to fish offshore smallmouth and made a hard charge at the top spot, including four smallmouths in the last thirty minutes. Peters caught a total of 16 Trout Lake bass for a total weight of 44 lb 11 oz. and to take home his second win of the 2020 Champions Tour season and a brand-new Skeeter ZX200 Boat and Yamaha 200 horse outboard package.
First half leader Shane Raveling went fishless for a good chunk of the afternoon, but sticking to his Minnesota Rig and hunkered down on his main lake rock ridge, Raveling caught a total of 12 bass for a total weight of 36 lb 7 oz, to finish in in the runner up spot behind Peters.
The YETI Big Bass award winner was Chase Hull with a 4 lb 13 oz smallmouth and the winner of the Wenzel’s Major Mover award was Matt Peters who increased his weight by 10 lb 5 oz.
The full results from the 2020 Champions Tour Championship hosted by Visit Grand Rapids can be seen here. https://scoringapp.classicbass.com/LeaderBoard/657
We thank you for following the 2020 Champions Tour presented by Skeeter Boats and look forward to sharing with you the details of the 2021 Champions Tour as we finalized them. Please stay tuned to ClassicBass.com and our social media channels over the coming months as we finalize details.
