Fishers of Men teammates Flannagan Fife and Royce Davis made B.A.S.S. history Thursday by becoming the first winners of the inaugural Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship at DeGray Lake in their home state of Arkansas. They prevailed with a 2-day weight of 26-08.
Fife and Davis topped a field of 155 two-man teams from a host of B.A.S.S.-sanctioned team trails across the country to earn the championship title along with the grand prize of a Nitro Z7 bass boat/Mercury Optimax 150 Pro XS outboard rig and the Livingston Lures Leader Award of $500. The national champions also received a traveling trophy to take back to their Fishers of Men team trail.
Thursday’s action concluded the team competition of the 4-day tournament. On Friday the six anglers from the Top 3 teams will fish individually for the final two days of competition. The individual Bassmaster Team Trail champion qualifies for the final 2015 Bassmaster Classic berth and receives a Skeeter FX20/Yamaha 250 outboard rig to run in the event.
Fife and Davis spent both days cranking the shallows to earn the nine bass they caught Thrursday. Although the weather changed from sunshine yesterday to clouds today, Fife thought their pattern stayed about the same.
“We had a lot of lulls when we weren’t getting bites, and we would try to make adjustments. But we still wouldn’t get bit, so we went right back to cranking,” he said.
Brandon Gladish and Aaric Correll moved into 2nd place with 23-13 and will also fish in the bracket round starting Friday. Day-1 leaders Brandon Gray and Todd Massey stumbled on day 2 and caught only four keepers weighing 8-14, but made the bracket cut by finishing in 3 place with 23-00.
