2006 Ultimate Bass Club Shootout

This year the Ultimate Bass Club Shootout, known better as the UBCS, was held at Toledo Bend Reservoir. It was originally set to be held at Lake Fausse Pointe but two hurricanes slammed the Louisiana coast earlier in the year and caused us to change the location of the tournament.

Hurricanes were not the only problem we faced. This year’s tournament was hosted by the Lock Jaw Bass Club and as always the hosting club provides the Saturday night meal. We had planned to have a crawfish boil for the Saturday night supper but as the tournament got closer it wasn’t looking like that was going to be possible. The crawfish season was poor and the low catches were causing prices to stay way up. With a limited budget we were scrambling for a back up plan. At the last minute our cook and crawfish provider, Jacques Joubert, came through with enough crawfish to feed everyone and got them for us at the right price.

Another problem we were faced with was getting cabins. We had already reserved cabins with Fausse Point, which is a Louisisana State Park, so if we cancelled we would lose our deposits on 5 cabins which would have cost us over $300. Luckily South Toledo Bend State Park had 5 available cabins so we were able to switch from Fausse Point to South Toledo Bend State Park.

Once we got the problems ironed out we were good to go and the 2006 UBCS would start as scheduled on March 18th.  As usual everyone was anxious to get there and most people started arriving on Thursday March 16th. It didn’t take long for everyone to get settled in the cabins and then hit the water to do a little prefishing. That night we ate Bar-b-que and had a friendly little card game, and a few guys got together a put up a little side bet on big bass for Friday prefishing.

Friday morning came and everyone was back on the water putting together patterns for the weekend tournament. After a long day of prefishing we retired back to the cabins where Twin Cities Team Club had all kinds of food prepared for all the hungry anglers. The food was great and the company even better.

Saturday morning finally arrived and blasted off at safe light. The wind was a bit strong Saturday morning but most teams were able to find some fish. After weigh in TCTC was leading 37.69lbs to LJBC’s 27.96, and Mark Crosby with TCTC had the big bass with a 7.64 lb lunker. Once again we all headed back to the cabins for another great supper and some good old fashion conversation. After we ate, Bobby Reed with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries gave a presentation on bass biology. I think Mike Cork could have sat with him all night. It was a great addition to the tournament.

Sunday arrived and the LJBC had some catching up to do. The rain hit us on Sunday but thanks to the great people at the State Park we were able to have our weigh in at the convention center on a covered deck. It was nail pulling to the end. The LJBC came back strong but fell just short. The final club weights were TCTC with 64.47 and LJBC with 61.25. Stephen Vincent with the LJBC had the big bass of the day and the event with a beautiful 8.96 lb hawg.

The top ten teams were as follows:

The tournament totals were:

LJBC had more weight over all and TCTC had the better 20 fish and took home the trophy for the third time in a row. Good job guys!

We would all like to thank the great staff at the South Toledo Bend State Park for all their help. They went way above and beyond their jobs to make us comfortable. Also a huge thanks goes to Bobby Reed and his wife for coming down and being our guest speaker. For more information on the Ultimate Bass Club Shootout (UBCS) stay tuned for the latest news right here at Ultimate Bass.

Jared LeBlue (Rattle)