October 3 &4, 2015, Grove, OK.- The XFL-Extreme Fishing League presented by Skeeter Boats held it’s 2015 two-day Championship on Grand Lake. 147 teams participated in this event and were greeted with beautiful weather. Morning temps were in the high 40s with daytime highs a very pleasant 70 degrees, cool north winds and clear skies. Despite the great fishing weather the “catching” wasn’t all that great. The bass seemed to be in a major transition pattern from summer to fall that had them scattered. This made fishing pretty tough as evidenced by the lower than average weights. For the two-days only 48 teams managed to bring in a two-day limit of 10 fish.
This event paid out 29 spots with the last in the money weight coming in at only 22.41 lbs. Most teams reported catching quite a few bass each day; however, keeper sized fish were hard to come by. The team of Curt Warren and John Pilcher continued their winning ways on Grand by bringing 10 fish weighing 33.98 lbs to the scales. Curt and John took home $30,000 cash for their efforts. 2nd place went to Kevin Apple and Donnie Crawford with 10 fish weighing 31.06lbs and took home $15,000 cash. This event paid a daily Big Bass of $1000 with Day 1 winners being the husband/wife team of Joe and Tami Copeland. Day 2 Big Bass went to the team of Earl Clinton and Cole Adair. The Skeeter Customer Appreciation Bonus award of $5000 went to the highest finishing team competing out of a qualifying Skeeter boat. This award went to the team of Rick Woods and Robby Guinn. Rick and Robby won the Championship last year on Lake Eufaula. When I interviewed Robby he said they were going to buy a Skeeter because they had missed out on several of the bonus awards in the past. Their decision paid off handsomely in this event.
A total of $44,100 was collected in entry fees for this event and a total of $89,100 was paid out yielding a 204% payout. Since its inception, the XFL has averaged around 150% payout on its regular season events and about 200% payouts at its championships. I truly believe one would be hard pressed to find another team tournament circuit in the country that provides this kind of payouts.
During the weigh-in proceedings I was able to visit with John Pilcher of the winning team and he shared what he and Curt Warren did to win this event.
John indicate that they had 2 structure spots and 1 dock pattern working. They rotated through the 3 spots both days using jigs and spinnerbaits. John said they got “very lucky” on Day 2. They were fishing their docks with Curt throwing the jig and John using the spinnerbait. John had just made a cast when Curt set the hook on a keeper fish. John dropped his rod, grabbed the net, landed Curt’s fish, took it off the hook and put the fish in the livewell. This took several minutes and all the while John’s spinnerbait had sunk to the bottom, or so he thought. John picked up his rod and started to reel in only to discover he had a fish on. That fish turned out to be a 4 pounder which he landed and brought to weigh-in. At the end of the day, they headed towards Echo Bay and had a few minutes of fishing time remaining. So, they decided to fish the popular flat between the mouth of Echo Bay and Terra Miranda. Lady Luck was on their side as they caught another 4 pounder with minutes to spare. This culled out a smaller fish and enabled them to take home the 1st place price. Congratulations to Curt and John on their victory and congratulations to all the teams that took home a check.
Looking back on the 2015 season, it was certainly one of the more interesting seasons I’ve ever experienced. Grand Lake experienced an infestation of Zebra Mussels that make the lake clearer than it has ever been. I’ve been fishing Grand since about 1972 and cannot remember it being as clear as it was this year. Then we had record rains that flooded our lakes forcing cancellations of many tournaments. 2015 was a strange year to say the least.
Looking forward to 2016 the XFL plans to continue its extraordinary payouts and providing the best tournament fishing opportunities. The 2016 schedule is being finalized with some exciting changes in the works for 2016 with more to come on that at a later date.
Lastly, on behalf of the XFL staff I want to thank all the anglers and all our sponsors for making the XFL what it is. Without your support we could not make this happen.
Be safe on the water and we look forward to seeing everyone in 2016.
Capt. Rob