The tournament began very quickly on the first official day when our 2007 Rough Fish winner, Bret, went on a White Bass rampage. He caught seven whites and jumped out to a large and quick 35-point lead. Bret had mentioned that he would not have much time for the Panfish tournament because he does not fish often for them. Majority of us never took his word, but in the end, it was true because this catch was all he would enter in July.

White Bass were abundant on day-1 of the tournament.

As for the rest of the entrants, there were three other anglers who made an effort to catch Panfish. Mike Colegrove of Pennsylvania made a valiant effort but came well-short. The other, more dominating and serious anglers were Kenny Lookingbill of Western Illinois, and Andrew Ragas of Chicago's western suburbs.

Both Kenny and Andrew fought out in the tournament until the very end. Their catches consisted of Crappies and Bluegills. Kenny's fish came from the farm ponds of Western Illinois. His largest Crappies came in at 10-inches, and his largest Bluegills were at just under 10-inches.

Meanwhile, Andrew's submitted fish were dominantly Black Crappies which were worth the most points, at 10-points apiece. His catches came from the lakes in Northern Wisconsin, and at his local river in Northern Illinois.

The lake Crappies were found suspended in 6 to 10feet of water, and were taken while swimming Berkley's Realistix Minnow Grubs slowly through the depths. The river Crappies also came on jig & grub presentations as well and were relating to deeper and calmer slack-water pools which featured some shade.

In addition to Black Crappies, Andrew was able to find a few keeper bluegills as well. These fish were relating with the suspended Crappies up at the lakes in Wisconsin.

The top presentations during this tournament were live-bait offerings, and plastics worked on light tackle. The live-baits consisted of crickets, worms, and leeches. The plastics consisted of small grubs, 2 and 3-inch twisters, nymph and invertibrate imitators, all worked under light jigs.

Although not as serious nor intense of a tournament as the Rough Fish Tournament, this turned out to be a rather competitive duel for Panfish between two anglers, Kenny Lookingbill and Andrew Ragas.

Hopefully better catches, more catches, and more interested anglers can be present in our next Panfish Tournament, taking place in 2008!