When Stanley Gunter and his partner set out on DeGray Lake for the second and final day of practice for the Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship they were looking for a “little sweet spot” on the side of a ledge or hump in deep water that might produce some quality bass in the tournament this week.

The inaugural Bassmaster Team Championship will be won deep on DeGray Lake, Gunter said, for one simple reason. There is just not enough shoreline to accommodate all the anglers fishing the tournament.

DeGray, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 13,800-acre lake set in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, is the competition arena for more than 150 teams from 38 independent tournament trails across the country so everybody will be vying for an area to fish..

“It is a small lake with a lot of people on it,” said Gunter who hails from Saluda, S.C., and qualified for the Team Championship through the Carolinas Bass Challenge, which sent 22 teams to the championship.”It’s really crowded. You go into a creek a half a mile long and there will be 20 boats in it. If you are fishing the banks you have to get in line to fish.”

Gunter said he found fish from 2 feet out to 40 feet in practice. There is still a lot of bait shallow, but it’s hard to catch the fish on that bait because the shorelines are so crowded with boats. DeGray yields mainly catches of largemouth and spotted bass with a few smallmouths in the mix.

Adding to the problem, Gunter said, is the fact that anglers are not allowed to keep some really quality largemouth bass.

“I caught a 2 1/4-pound largemouth and had to throw it back. They have a 13-inch to 16-inch slot limit where you can keep anything over 16 inches. It’s kind of tough to throw a fish like that back as tough as the fishing is.”

Gunter and teammate Will Smith of Moncks Corner, S.C., qualified as a team, but Smith had to withdraw because of illness, so Gunter is paired with Gene Parker from North Carolina who had the same issue with his regular teammate.

In the first segment of the unique, four-day tournament, two-angler teams from various B.A.S.S.-sanctioned team trails across the country will vie to become the Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Champions, a title that includes the first-place prize of a Nitro Z7 bass boat/Mercury Optimax 150 Pro XS outboard rig valued at $26,995 as well as the Livingston Leader Award of $500. The team champions will also receive a traveling trophy to take back to the team trail they represented.
Members of the Top 3 finishers in the team competition advance to the final two rounds of the tournament and will fish individually for the final qualifying spot in the 2015 Bassmaster Classic to be held Feb. 20-22 on Lake Hartwell out of Greenville, S.C.
Competitors in the Classic rounds will fish from six identically rigged Skeeter FX20 bass boats powered by Yamaha. In addition to the Classic berth, the winner will receive a Skeeter FX20/Yamaha250 outboard rig valued at $85,360, which he or she will run in the Classic.
Nothing would suit Gunter more than to qualify for the 2015 Bassmaster Classic on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell.

“I fish Hartwell pretty regular,” he said. “I know it pretty well and I”d sure love to make the Classic for that one.”

 

 

 

Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship

Dec 10-13, 2014

DeGray Lake

DeGray Lake Resort State Park

www.bassmaster.com