This past weekend, Lake Mead welcomed 47 qualifying boats for the Wild West Bass Trail’s (WWBT) Southwest Team Championship presented by the City of Henderson.
At the end of the two-day event, the father-son team of James Salazar and James Salazar Jr., both of Vegas topped the leaderboard with a tournament total of 37.38.
Except for a Zara Spook, James Jr. credited their fish to different lures each day. The Salazar’s started the event with a limit using the Spook and handmade, 10-inch plastic worms that James Sr. poured. “The worms are like an old school Mann’s Jelly Worm,” said James Jr. “My dad poured them in all white.”
The second day, they again employed the Spook and filled out their limit with a 3/8-oz, white buzzbait and ½-oz, brown/purple jigs. “
We started in the same place on the second day, but the Carp had moved in and tore up the water, so we couldn’t get the same fish out of our spots again,” said James Jr. “We moved to some other spots, pretty much in shallower water. Grass mats and rock were good for us. The fish seemed to hold tighter to the bigger rocks. I don’t know why. It was really different on Day 2 from Day 1.”
The team powered through the tougher day, weighing only ounces less than their first day’s leading limit of 19.03, holding on to the lead and capturing the Mead victory.
Although the Salazar fam are longtime fun fishermen, this is their first full season of competitive angling and only their second two-day event. They plan to parlay their winnings into more tournaments.
This victory earned a Ranger Boat RT 188 prize package that included an Evinrude E-Tec 115HP. They also collected contingency dollars for Yamamoto $250, P-Line $250 and Ranger Cup $500.
2nd – Au/Shull
Trailing the leaders by less than two-pounds were a team of Arizona anglers. General Tire pro Tai Au from Glendale and partner Jacob Shull of Wilcox weighed in for the second seat on Day One with just under 19-lbs. Their full limit included a 3.92 big fish. The second day they weighed in with another full limit of 16.91, bringing their total weight to 35.68.
For their Mead efforts, Au and Shull banked $4,000 in winnings plus additional contingency dollars of $500 Evinrude, $500 Run and Win with Lucas Oil and $250 Lowrance.
3rd – Mackey/Bozarth
Nevada anglers John Mackey of Boulder City and Chris Bozarth from Henderson teamed up to take the third place in the event. They made a nice come-up on Day Two, putting together nearly 20-lbs, after weighing just short of 15-lbs on the first day of competition.
The Mackey/Bozarth team had full seven-fish limits each day for a two-day total of 34.62.
The finish put $2,000 in their pocket.
WWBT 2016 SOUTHWEST AOY – Foreman and Billetdeaux
Nathan Foreman and Nathan Billetdeaux, both of Queen Creek, Ariz. combined forces as fun fisherman in 2015, just recently transitioning into the tournament scene.
“We joined one of our local clubs in last July and fished our first team tournament together then,” said Billetdeaux. “This is our first full year fishing tournaments, for both of us.”
Looking at the WWBT schedule, the Nathans saw the first stop was on their home lake and threw their hat in the ring for Roosevelt, finishing 25th.
“We were pretty proud of that and decided to fish the rest of them,” said Billetdeaux. They finished the regular season, improving at every stop – Mohave (20th), Pleasant (16th), Havasu (3rd). They qualified for the Mead Championship and ended in 14th place.
“We were going to do it just for the experience of fishing with 75 boats and big name guys; but we had no idea that this is how our year would end up,” added Billetdeaux. “We were pretty proud.”
Even after their impressive results through the regular season, Billetdeaux was intimidated thinking ahead to the year-end championship. “Mead is a huge lake, you can pull away from the boat ramp and go 100-miles one direction or 20-miles the other,” he stated. “That is just huge when your home lake is only 25-miles long in total.”
Sharing the lessons that the partners learned in their rookie season, the team's plans for next year include an open mind and employing a different strategy for catching and keeping track of seven fish limits as opposed to five in their club tournaments.
The team is anxious for their chance to defend their AOY title in 2017, “The best part of that is that we won our entry fees for next year, said Billetdeaux. “It was an honor to be in the same room as those guys, much less end up as AOY. It is just awesome!”
Full Results for Wild West Bass Trail’s (WWBT) Southwest Team Championship HERE:
The following contingency payouts were also awarded:
$500 Yamamoto Toad of the Day to Lawrence/Miller (6th)
$300 Evinrude to Hawk/White (10th)
$200 Evinrude to Patti
The WWBT Lucas Oil Western Class Pro/Am Championship will meet for a year-end, qualifying event at Lake Mead on Sept. 30 – Oct 2.
The WWBT debuted in 2016 with 17 events that include two Pro/Am and two Teams circuits – one based in California and the other in Arizona. Each Pro/Am circuit consists of three tournaments and a combined, year-end qualifying championship event. The Teams circuit includes four tournaments and a year-end championship.
A special thanks to all of the WWBT sponsors – Lucas Oil, Ranger Boats, Evinrude, Lowrance Electronics, Dobyns Rods, General Tire, Add-A-Wrap, Protect the Harvest, Gator Guards, P-Line, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Power-Pole, Industrial Decals, Hydro Force Marine, Super Clean and E3 Spark Plugs.
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