Connect Fishing League Weekend Bass Challenge - August Recap

ConnectScale user Mike Bailey completed an epic comeback on Sunday to take home the win in the Connect Fishing League Weekend Bass challenge. 

The tournament, which was held on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, was open to anyone to participate. A total of thirteen anglers from across the United States took part in the challenge with seven anglers successfully logging a total of 45 scorable catches. The goal was to have the best total weight for five fish. A bonus was also given for the biggest catch. 

Anglers started out strong on Saturday. 

Dan Lewis started off the tournament with a 1.18-pound largemouth bass, which he caught at 6:39 a.m. He would follow that up with two quick catches in a row, snagging a 1.50 pound largemouth and a 1.80 pound at 11:02 a.m. and 11:38 a.m., respectively. 

Lewis followed up Saturday’s performance with two more catches on Sunday. He caught a 1.80 pound largemouth at 8:21 a.m. and finished his day with a 2.14 pound largemouth at 9:29 a.m. Lewis had a total weight of 8.42 pounds, which landed him in third place. 

Scott Scheldberg had an impressive 16 catches over the weekend and held the lead going into Sunday. He did most of his fishing on Saturday, hauling in 13 catches. He began his day with a 2.36-pound catch at 7:44 a.m. followed by a 1.79-pound catch and a 0.77-pound catch at 8:37 and 8:55 a.m. 

He continued his strong morning with catches of 0.73 pounds, 0.62 pounds, 1.46 pounds, 1.79 pounds, and 0.79 pounds all before noon. When the afternoon rolled around, Scheldberg continued hauling in fish. Afternoon catches were all largemouth bass and weighed 1.08 pounds, 4.30 pounds, 2.31 pounds, 1.19 pounds and 1.57 pounds. 

Scheldberg added three more catches to his total on Sunday. He caught a 2.93-pound bass at 8:35 a.m., added a 2.05-pound bass at 9:35 a.m. and ended his day with a 3.51-pound bass at 10:04 a.m. The total weight of his five best fish added up to 15.41 pounds and earned him a second-place finish. 

Bailey nearly totaled Scheldberg in total catches with 15 allowable catches logged into the system. Nearly half of his catches came on Saturday. Bailey began the morning with a 2.05-pound catch at 7:31 a.m. He would not start reeling in more finish until the afternoon but would haul in seven catches in three hours. 

His strong afternoon would see catches of 1.54 pounds, 4.60 pounds, 1.44 pounds, 2.15 pounds, 2.39 pounds, 1.63 pounds, and he would end his day with a 2.28-pound largemouth bass. 

Entering Sunday, Bailey was behind Scheldberg by half a pound. 

Bailey started off the morning with catches of 1.90 pounds and 2.05 pounds. He added five more catches in the afternoon, including the biggest catch of the weekend. His catches were 3.15 pounds, 4.37 pounds, 4.76 pounds, 2.31 pounds and 3.31 pounds. He ended the tournament with a total weight of 20.19 pounds for his five best catches. 

He also earned the biggest catch of the tournament honors with his 4.76 pound largemouth. 

Congratulations to Mike Bailey and all the participants. We look forward to the next tournament.