Sullivan wins on Sullivan, Sparks, Eric & Kulik claim AOY, MH3 & Gittner seize the night and much more in this week's HKB Top Performers recap!
What a week! We had the first-ever Night Bowl, 3 anglers crowned AOY, and ton of bigs caught and we're one week closer to Championship season, which is right around the corner. Stick with us as we break down all the action from week 23 of the 2023 Tournament season.
HKB NIGHT BOWL
7 Two-Man Teams competed in the first-ever HKB Night Bowl this past Saturday/Sunday. This wasn't your traditional tournament, not only were anglers challenged with fishing at night (some for the first time) but this event was a marathon. While most tournaments are 8 hours max, this one was 11 hours of fishing and 12+ hours on the water. Anglers made their first cast at 8:00 pm on Saturday and put up their rods a 7:00 am on Sunday morning!
Anglers wasted no time getting to work. The leaderboard was lighting up as anglers took advantage of the last hour of daylight. Samuel (Adam) Murray of The Damn Sams team jumped out ahead early for his team and on the individual leaderboards.
Adam landed the biggest bass of the night, a 20-inch toad at 8:57 PM. This was his second catch of the night and his 3rd and 4th came shortly after.
Adam held onto the lead of the individual leaderboard throughout the night, landing his 5th keeper at 12:13am giving him a 5 fish total of 85.OO inches! Adam took home a some Big Bass cash and for Top Angler, he earned the "Bucket of Lures" packed full of great baits!
Closely behind him in the individual rankings was Wyatt Gard with 84.00 and MH3 who had 81.50.
In the team standings, it was a 4 fish limit and the team of John Gittner & MH3 took home the bragging rights, posting a winning total of 70.75 inches.
Murray/Jones lead for the first couple hours of the night but were knocked of the hot seat when the Lot Lizards (Wyatt/Garcia) made a big upgrade around 11:30.
Carpe Noctem (Gittner/MH3) were one of the few to really get on them in the later part of the night, landing two over 18 inches between 3:00 and 4:00 am.
Going into the final minutes it was Gittner/MH3 on top and Wyatt/Garcia in 2nd, but with a last-minute upgrade, The Damn Sams got a .25 inch upgrade putting them ahead of the Lot Lizards and .25 inches behind the leader, Carpe Noctem.
Regardless of the standings, the guys all deserve a pat on the back for just surviving the night and we wish them all a speedy recovery! - (cause we old and broken..... well some of us.....me)
HKB TURKEY BOWL
The Annual HKB TURKEY BOWL & FOOD DRIVE is just around the corner! Grab your fishing buddies and join us for one last hoo-rah before you put away the kayak for winter and help us support Hoosier families in need during the Holiday Season.
GRBY | CENTRAL TRAIL SERIES #5 EAGLE CREEK RESERVOIR - PRESENTED BY HONEY CREEK TACKLE
Whoa! Did anyone see that coming? I sure didn't. After a lot of talk about how tough Eagle Creek Reservoir was leading up to this event, the results tell a different story. Is Eagle Creek a hidden gem or are these anglers competing in the GRBY central trail series just that good? Possibly a little of both.
Of course, not everyone caught them. There were anglers who struggled to find a limit, but isn't that true for any lake? It's rare that we find a lake that produces limits for everyone. When you start to see multiple anglers hitting the Mid-70s and into 80's though, you have to recognize the potential of this lake.
Based on the results, I'd say this lake has the potential to be a futture stop for GRBY and others! 21 anglers competed in this one with 82 fish submitted, 11 limits caught, 7 limits in the 70's, and two in the 80's.
Jason Kennedy of Danville, IN busted all the "tough fishery" rumors when he posted an 82.25-inch winning bag on Saturday including a 19-inch kicker!
Finishing in second was Michael Kulik, the first angler to break 80, doing so on Thursday with 82 inches even.
Andy Lundy rounded out the Top 3 with a solid 74.75 inches.
Big Bass honors went to Wes Ward with a hefty 19.50-inch Largemouth Bass.
As for the series AOY Title, well that belongs to Michael Kulik!
Michael finished with 386 pts tied with Chip Romanovich, but ties are now broken by total inches. Michael trumped Chip by 22.5 inches. Wes Ward was just 1 point shy of making it a 3-way tie. This series was super competitive all year long and is a testament to the caliber of the anglers who competed.
GRBY | SULLIVAN LAKE #5 PRESENTED BY AMERICAN LEGACY
We're getting a great preview of what's to come in the HKB TURKEY BOWL as GRBY wraped up its Sullivan Lake series with its 5th event. The lake is starting to show off a little as we near the fall transition. 16 anglers competed in the final event and over 60 Bass were submitted. Five anglers broke the 80-inch mark and there was not one, not two, but 3 fish over 21" caught! While the number of fish caught was up slightly, the quality was up significantly and Jason Sullivan was able to capitalize on that.
Jason landed a 5-fish limit of 86.50 inches anchored by a 21.00" stud. As we mentioned before three 21's were caught, but Jason took home Big Bass honors as well with the tiebreaker.
Bryan Sparks finished in 2nd with 83.00- inches. His limit was also anchored by a 21.00 inch tank. This was Bryan's fourth event of the series completing his AOY scorecard and with a total score of 395, Mr. Sparks is your 2023 GRBY Sullivan Lake Series AOY!
Just behind Bryan in this event and in the AOY Race was Wyatt Gard who finished in 3rd with 81.75 inches and 2nd in the AOY standings, falling behind Sparks by just 1 point.
Ryan Reedy, who had led the AOY race going into the final event, stumbled slightly, finishing in 6th and falling to 3rd in the AOY Standings.
GRBY | COLUMBUS MOVING WATER #5 BY HUMBLE JOE'S
The Mysterious Rusty Girard closed out the Columbus Moving Water Series with a blowout performance, putting up the largest limit of the season at 85.00 inches, breaking the previous benchmark of 79.50 set by Alex Deneau in May and then tied by Michael Ford in June.
Rusty's stringer consisted of an 18.00" kicker, a 17.75, and four 16 or better.
Alex Deneau, finished in 2nd with 78.75 inches, and JT Hickman proves he is more than just a content creator but that he is a hammer in his own right. JT landed a 74.50 inch limit on Friday, earning him a spot on the podium in 3rd place!
Zack Piatt of Fairland, IN found himself a true Indiana gem of a smallie. This trophy measured 21.25" earning Zack some Big Bass Cash!
As for AOY, just like the Central Series, this one ended in a tie! Eric Tracy filled out his scorecard with this final event and stormed to the top, tying Troy Riggins with 389 points. Eric wins the tie break though and takes the AOY title in a huge upset. Eric scored a total of 297.25 inches and Troy Riggins finished just shy of that with 292.25 inches.
Eric also leads the GRBY River Overall AOY Race by more than 20 points going into the final two river events of the season.
Congratulations to all our Week 23 Top Performers and recently crowned AOY's.
We have big news coming for all the Top Performers from the 2023 season and for all of you who have landed a lunker this season, so stay tuned to HKB as details will be announced in the coming days.
Week 23 was a blast, but week 24 is going to be just as exciting with USA Bassin back in action on Patoka and three more GRBY series wrapping up AND the GRBY Overall Lake AOY race is coming close to its finale!
Check out what week 24 has in store in the UPNEXT section below.
UPNEXT
GRBY | RACCOON LAKE (8/24-8/28)
GRBY | NYONA (8/24-8/28)
GRBY | WHITE RIVER (8/24-8/28)
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