7 • LAKECASTER • MAY 2011
 Lane Kidder (Big Bass Winner of the
Tournament with a 10.52 pound
bass) shows off beautiful ring
furnished by Cherokee Services &
 Sarah Brunette accepts check for St. Jude Childrens Hospital Integricert
 Big Bass winners
on 1st day - Jeremy
Waltrip & Dan Landry
w/9.52-pound lunker  Mike Alexander and wife from Hemphill, Texas were big winners of a fully rigged Skeeter bass boat.
The day ended with a great fried catfish meal sponsored by Select Energy Services, a raffle
drawing where a beautiful Skeeter fishing rig donated by Cajun Outboards was given to Stacy
Turner of Conroe, Texas, and then ended with a gorgeous sunset over beautiful Toledo Bend
Lake.
Starting time for day two was 6:30am and I am sure that every fisherman had a specific
plan to take home the big bucks. In many areas fog moved in and lasted until mid-morning,
but after that another beautiful day greeted the anglers. In fact it was super beautiful.
As in all bass tournaments there are many stories about things that went wrong, big bass
that were lost, boats that had problems and things that should have been done differently.
However, all the anglers I visited with had nothing but praise to say about the bass fishing on
Toledo Bend Lake, the great weather and the fact that they were proud to help such a worthy
cause as the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Prior to the awards ceremony, all of the participants were treated to a fine meal of Pork
Jambalaya sponsored by Blue Marlin Services. It was great and many anglers went back for
seconds!
Music filtered out over the Cypress Bend Park pavilion area as hundreds of folks gathered
together to see the final presentations. I don’t know how many rod and reels were given away
to lucky anglers in the drawings – but there were many. There were many highlights during
this year’s event and a few I would like to mention are -
• Toledo Bend Lake Association receiving a $1500 donation to continue their great effort
in providing bass fingerlings (20,000 last year) that are released into the lake, and for
providing the lights on the bridges and navigation buoys that are so helpful to fishermen
motoring on the lake.
• Gary Rispone and his cameraman Gary Crouch filming both days for the Paradise Louisi-
ana television program. It should be a great show.
• The Louisiana Law Enforcement group that for two days assisted in getting all of these
folks in and out of the pavilion area and safely on their way home.
• Team # 272 (Todd Childress and Chance Moton) for weighing in the smallest black bass
(1.38 pounds) and receiving a plaque and lot’s of cheers from the crowd, but they also
wound up receiving a free entry for next years event. Not a bad deal.
 2nd Place Winners - Christopher
and Michael Ortego (39.26 pounds)
• And a whopping check for $75,000 to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for contin-
ued help in their wonderful work. Ms. Sarah Burnette accepted the check for the St. Jude
organization.
We finally reached the climax of the event by presenting cash and awards to all of the hard
working winning anglers. Big Bass winner of day two and winner of the Big Bass of the Tour-
nament and $1000 was Lane Kidder with a lunker that weighed 10.52 pounds. What a bass!
So what was the pattern that made the team of Patin and Picard the winners? Well first of
all let me say that the team also won the Texas Oilman’s Bass Invitational (TOBI) held March
18-19 on Toledo Bend Lake, so they are definitely no strangers to the winners circle. They have
fished together about eight years and know their way around the lake for sure. The team fished
“way north” and did quite a bit of marking spawning bed areas in their pre-fishing. On the
first day they were able to use a Senko in 2- to 3-feet of water to land most of their bass. On
day two they noticed a definite drop in the lake level and relied on a mixture of baits to catch
their fish, but their No. 1 “go to bait” was still the Senko. Grass was not a factor in their fishing
location. Congratulations to Patin and Picard for a great tournament!
But the event was not over yet. All of the anglers held their breath as the drawing took place
for a fully rigged Skeeter bass boat donated by Cajun Outboards. The lucky name that came
out of the hopper was Mike Alexander of Hemphill, Texas. Mike and his wife were overwhelmed
and I am sure that it took a day or two for them to fully realize that the beautiful bass boat
was really theirs.
What a great tournament. Even if an angler didn’t weigh in a fish at this event they were
still winners because of the support they provided to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
At the end of the evening I am sure that a good feeling was experienced by all because helping
these children is truly what this event is all about.
A tip of the fishing cap to the following for their outstanding efforts:
Select Energy Services, Blue Marlin, L & L Oil, Gulf Offshore Logistics, Fab-Con, Abe’s Boat
Rentals, Inc., Cetco, Wolverine Services, International Paint Company/Applied Coatings, Chero-
kee Services, Integricert, Wet Tech Energy, Total Safety, Superior Energy, Sandy’s Place, Daiwa,
Linear Controls, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Blue Stream Services, American Rodsmith,
Robert Scherer, iMOD, Inc., Parma-Safe, Mike Roper- HB Rentals, Multi-Shot Directional Ser-