The "FINAL FOUR" begin their Elimination!

[BassinColorado]

As always, the temperature and conditions are first to be described in this new posting. The weather is so important on these "late fall-early winter days" out on the lake!

Today, the weather was as described by the forecasters, with air temperatures in the mid 30's, all day long with a continuous drizzle. That kept the water temperature in the low 50's, as it has been for the last couple of weeks. Only difference being, no sun later in the day to warm the water to 56 or 57 degrees. Not the best of conditions, but the water was calm and the fish hadn't been affected by the cooling water temps, as of yet.

The day kicked off with the #5 seed, Bryan Leck, and the #7 seed, John Santos,, (two of the "FINAL FOUR," that agreed to come together this weekend, no matter what, and complete their match-up) flipping a coin to see who got what quarters. Both had high expectations of themselves, even on a day like today!

Bryan "Huddleston" Leck won the toss and chose the 1st and 3rd quarters. He fished his now famous technique of throwing a swimbait for almost the entire 1st quarter. He was getting an occasional hit, but no fish got hooked. He switched to a 3/4oz footballhead jig for about 30 minutes torwards the end of his first quarter control, and caught a "barely short" bass. He missed some other bites, then got it snagged, broke it off, and went directly to the swimbait for the last 4 minutes of his quarter. Some things must be meant to be, because with 2 minutes 30 seconds left in his quarter, Bryan, stuck a Kentucky Spotted bass that measured about 16 inches!

The next two quarters were pretty uneventful, except for the "fish-on" call of Mr. Leck in the 3rd quarter, followed by the "dang-it" call after the fish tore off 2/3rds of the way to the boat!

The 4th quarter was for John! All he needed to do was get one really good fish on and he would have a chance to outweigh Bryan's average keeper fish! He decided his best chance would be with the Jig to finish out the competition. He made a few moves and then hit a ledge where there were numerous fish stacked up on the edge. John missed a few bites and then had a really good chance to hook a taker! After a hard hook set without anybody home, John simply ran out of time. John, realizing he had missed his chance at the title for a second straight time, stepped to the back of the boat, stuck out his hand and congratulated Bryan on a job well done, and vowed to be here again next year! Good job to both gentlemen!

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Bryan "Huddleston" Leck is now in his second straight "Top 2" to fish for the CBA "Angler of the Year" Ferguson Cup! One more step to go and it could be his!


Next weekend will be the match-up of the #6 seed, Sam Heckman, and the #8 seed, Jared Nikirk, to see who will get to meet Bryan in the championship round!