TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS ON SISSABAGAMA

On a beautiful September day on Sawyer County's Sissabagama Lake the UNBC held it's annual Tournament of Champions for the 12 teams that qualified. The lake is known to be a very tough bass fishery & that proved to be the case for most of the anglers but Rob Newhouse & Mike Anselmo figured em out in a big way as they not only won their fourth TOC w/16.49 lbs. they crushed the competition, at second place almost four pounds behind were Joe Wilcox & Eric Hermansen who had 12.77 lbs. Placing third was the Anglers of the Year Gene Henck & Larry Henck w/12.32 lbs. & after 3 straight fifth place finishes Scott Cran & Chad Edwards came in fourth w/11.28 lbs. Former FLW pro Rob Newhouse caught the big bass for the day a 4.70 lb. tank smallmouth. 

Click on the 2025 Recap link for a full sumary of the 2025 season

Yellow Lake

The cold front that blew in on Saturday didn't seem to effect Burnett County's Yellow Lake because it really showed out at weigh-in time. The huge crowd waited anxiously to see if Team Henck (who weighed last) could repeat as Anglers of the Year & they didn't disappoint, when they dumped their five largemouth in the weigh tub & the digital readout read 18.52 lbs. they had way more than enough to secure the AOY title AND win the tournament as well. Placing second with a huge bag (18.18 lbs.) as well were Joe Wilcox & Eric Hermansen who also were runners up in the AOY standings. Coming in at third was Team Newhouse/Anselmo w/16.60 & fourth was Constant/Richert w/16.34. Placing fifth for the tournament for the 3rd straight time was Team Cran/Edwards w/16.25. Young gun Kody Hermansen had the big bass for the day a 4.64 lb. mutt. The lake allways seems to have a good quality of bass but this particular tournament was exceptional in that category the 2.96 lb. average size of all fish weighed in is fourth high all time high & two of the better ones were Shell Lake smallie bed slugfest so this tournament was pretty awesome. The incoming & outgoing Yellow River generally plays a big role in the tournaments held there but that wasn't the case this time around probably due to the high muddy water. Team Constant/Richert defeated Team Constant/Anderson to win the 2025 Head to Head Tournament.  

Chippewa Flowage  

The day started out as a very cloudy morning which proved to be very helpfull for the Big Chip champs Steve Constant & Doug Richert who landed on the right area at just the right time & Untamed Tackle jigged their way to victory before that sun got high with 15.08 lbs. Placing second with 13.30 lbs. were Pete Lukasik & fill in partner Chad Landt, Pete also caught the big bass for the tourney weighing in at 3.93 lbs. Placing third were young guns Hunter & Kody Hermansen w/12.97 lbs. & at fourth w/11.61 was Chad Constantineau & his 8 year old son Miles who was filling in for his brother. Coming in at fifth for the second consecutive tournament was Scott Cran & Chad Edwards w/11.49 lbs. This tough bass fishery really threw a mix up into the standings but the one thing hasn't changed is team Henck is still on top & their 6 point lead for Anglers of the Year maybe to much to overcome for the four teams who are tied in second place. Teams Wilcox/Hermansen & Constant/Richert have a pretty good track recond placing 1 & 2 the last time at the next venue & Team Henck placed 10th, but them Henck boys would have to stumble some again & that very rarely happens like it did at the Big Chip. There were a couple of streaks that came to a end at the Chip Team Newhouse/Ansemo's consecutive 5 fish limit catch at 22 is over but their 22nd at LCO was enough to take the record away from Team Henck, Team Constantineau & Team Andrea have a current steak of 18 going at the time. Also Team Henck's 6 match H2H winning streak ended, they've won the tournament 4 times & have compiled a very impressive 35 & 10 record since the beginning of it. The Head to Head championship will feature a father against son team as Team Constant/Richert will go up against Team Constant/Anderson for the title. As far as the TOC qualification battle goes Team Andrea sits on the bubble in 12th place while Grinnell/Andersen are one point back Bottolfson/Larson 3 back Schlapper/Blazer 4 back & Robarge is 5 back.

LAC COURTE ORIELLES

What proved to be a tough smallmouth bite on LCO for most of the field turned out not to be so tough for a few teams, like Gary Constant & Stacy Anderson who figured out that top water was the deal which led them to a first place finish with 14.81 lbs. A mere 4 hundredths of a pound behind was Gene & Larry Henck who came in second with 14.77. Third place went to Pete Lukasik & Doug Bierman who had 13.31. Fourth was Joe Wilcox & Eric Hermansen who's bag tipped the scales at 12.91 lbs & at fifth was Scott Cran & Chad Edwards with 12.76 lbs. Chad Constantineau's big bass a 5.18 largemouth was the biggest bass caught since Larry Henck's smallmouth on Round Lake way back in 2019. A little indication on how tough the smallie bite was on this fabeled smallmouth fishery there was 44 largemouth & 42 smallies weighed in which is unheard of for that lake. Last year's AOY champs Gene & Larry Henck have a 5 pt. lead over Wilcox/Hermansen & 6 over Newhouse/Anselmo at the halfway point. The Head to Head tournament will feature Henck/Henck vs Constant/Richert & Constant/Anderson vs Larson/Warren at the July clash. 

RED CEDAR

On a rainy cool & windy day on Barron County's Red Cedar Lake the anglers that utilized their electronics & floggers to catch the bedding smallmouth bass dominated the tournament & nobody did it better than Gene & Larry Henck. Last year's AOY winners are off to a good start to the 2025 season their bag a big old brown girls tipped the scale at a very impressive 17.48 lbs. Coming in second were Jamie Gibson & Doug Peterson w/16.87 lbs. At a close third place was Rob Newhouse & Mike Anselmo w/16.47 lbs. Their 5 fish limit moves them into a tie all time for 21 consecutive 5 fish limits with Gene & Larry & a crack to break it at LCO. Taking 4th was Joe Wilcox & Eric Hermansen w/16.45 lbs. Rounding out the money winners at fifth place were Donn Schlapper & Joel Blazer who had 14.62 lbs. A big congratulations to Donn & his family as his son & a former UNBC angler Pat won the Bassmaster Elite Series event held on the Sabine River in Texas on Sunday & somehow Donn & Jill made it down there in time to see Pat hoist that very coveted blue trophy. Randy Grinnell caught the big bass for the tournament a 4.14 lb. smallie, moving him into a tie with Larry Henck for the all time most big bass awards with 5.