Keith Lusher Lock #1 was the site of the recent Liar’s and Lunker’s Thursday evening bass tournament. Local angler Morgan Schutte and his father Phil, routinely fish the tournament and Morgan says with the summer heat the turnout for the tournament and the results usually suffer. “It’s tough out there right now with the water temperatures so hot. My screen was reading 94 degrees surface temperature,” he says.
The blast off was at 5:00 p.m. and Morgan and Phil’s first stop was a routine spot. “It’s a favorite tree of mine that I stop at. It’s usually good for a keeper,” he says. After a few cast’s Phil was able to manage the teams first bass. A 1.25 lb. keeper that he attached the first cull tag to. The team had their first keeper even as boats were still passing from the blast off. The evening was starting out good and would get better within the next few minutes. The team moved to their next spot. It was a shoreline lined with lily pads that Morgan was familiar with. Morgan was throwing a buzz bait and casted in an opening in the pads. “3 cranks on the handle and he slurped it under,” Morgan says. At first, the bass angler didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary because of the ferocity of the splash, but then he realized that the fish had some size. “I set the hook and felt the resistance and that’s when I knew that I had a good fish,” he says.
The blast off was at 5:00 p.m. and Morgan and Phil’s first stop was a routine spot. “It’s a favorite tree of mine that I stop at. It’s usually good for a keeper,” he says. After a few cast’s Phil was able to manage the teams first bass. A 1.25 lb. keeper that he attached the first cull tag to. The team had their first keeper even as boats were still passing from the blast off. The evening was starting out good and would get better within the next few minutes. The team moved to their next spot. It was a shoreline lined with lily pads that Morgan was familiar with. Morgan was throwing a buzz bait and casted in an opening in the pads. “3 cranks on the handle and he slurped it under,” Morgan says. At first, the bass angler didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary because of the ferocity of the splash, but then he realized that the fish had some size. “I set the hook and felt the resistance and that’s when I knew that I had a good fish,” he says.
Morgan celebrates after horsing in this lunker Morgan decided to horse him in as his 50 lb. braid sliced through the lily pads. Morgan lowered his rod into the water in an attempt to not let the fish jump and managed to get him 6 ft. away from the boat until it made it’s first jump. “That’s when I realized just how big this fish was,” Morgan says. As the fish neared the boat, Phil grabbed the net and scooped him in. Morgan hooked the fish on his scale and the screen read 8.9 lbs. “The fish barley fit into the live-well. It was bent and It’s tail was sticking out of the water,” Schutte says. Only a few minutes into the tournament the team had a total of 10.27 lbs. with only two fish.
In the Liar’s and Lunker’s Thursday evening tournaments, the stringers are 3 fish as opposed to the Weekend tournaments which call for a 5-fish limit. Morgan and Phil only needed one more fish to catch in order to have their limit. But while they were focused on catching that next fish, they should have been worried about losing one of the fish they already had. “That first fish we tagged jumped out when I opened the live-well to check on the bigger fish, Morgan says. The fish hit the floor and flopped into the water as the Morgan scrambled to grab it. Luckily the cull tag kept it from getting away and Phil steered the boat towards the float bobbing up and down in the water. “The fish kept diving when I tried to grab the float so on the next pass I knew I needed to be faster,” he says. Morgan ran to the front of the boat and went to scoop up the float. As he did he lost his balance and ended up in the water. After grabbing the float and tossing the fish onto the boat his dad helped him back in.
The excitement ceased soon after and the team returned to fishing but struggled the rest of the afternoon and decided to quit while they were ahead. “We decided to just go ahead and weigh in half and hour early,” the drenched fisherman said. In the end Morgan and Phil weighed in 2 fish for a total of 10.27 lbs. and won first place in the event. Morgan says it’s an afternoon he’ll never forget.
In the Liar’s and Lunker’s Thursday evening tournaments, the stringers are 3 fish as opposed to the Weekend tournaments which call for a 5-fish limit. Morgan and Phil only needed one more fish to catch in order to have their limit. But while they were focused on catching that next fish, they should have been worried about losing one of the fish they already had. “That first fish we tagged jumped out when I opened the live-well to check on the bigger fish, Morgan says. The fish hit the floor and flopped into the water as the Morgan scrambled to grab it. Luckily the cull tag kept it from getting away and Phil steered the boat towards the float bobbing up and down in the water. “The fish kept diving when I tried to grab the float so on the next pass I knew I needed to be faster,” he says. Morgan ran to the front of the boat and went to scoop up the float. As he did he lost his balance and ended up in the water. After grabbing the float and tossing the fish onto the boat his dad helped him back in.
The excitement ceased soon after and the team returned to fishing but struggled the rest of the afternoon and decided to quit while they were ahead. “We decided to just go ahead and weigh in half and hour early,” the drenched fisherman said. In the end Morgan and Phil weighed in 2 fish for a total of 10.27 lbs. and won first place in the event. Morgan says it’s an afternoon he’ll never forget.
