Bass big news at Lake Camelot

Though the crowd was plenty big Saturday at Lake Camelot, the fishing was fairly slow.

Despite warm temperatures and a crowd of 424 adults and 30 youth anglers, fishing for panfish was fairly slow at today’s 29th annual Lake Camelot Ice Fishing Tournament. Bluegill totals were very low, with the winning weight for three fish going just 1.41 pounds. Many anglers who didn’t bother weighing in fish might have regretted that decision.

But the surprise of the day was how well the bass bit. No question this is the best haul of largemouth I’ve seen since I started sipping wine at this event 11 years ago. The best bass of all went to Frank Bury of West Peoria, who caught the 2.79-pounder pictured below. This was the second fish he pulled through his first hole.

Early was also good for Brent Fagerburg of Peoria Heights, pictured below, who won for big crappie with this 15-inch, 1.62-pound slab. He also caught his fish early.

We’ll have a full story on the tournament Monday evening. Here are final results from today.

Bass

1. 2.79 pounds—Frank Bury, West Peoria
2. 2.53—Dan Thomas, Canton
3. 2.29—James McCord, Mapleton
4. 2.28—Alex Cufaude, Pekin
5. 2.25—Nic Johnson, Armington

Crappie

1. 1.62—Brent Fagerburg, Peoria Heights
2. 1.21—Reed Cooling, East Peoria
3. 1.20—Ron Cooling, Lowpoint
4. 1.03—Mark Miller, Peoria
5. 0.64—Kevin Reed, Canton

Bluegill (three best)

1. 1.41—Mark Foster, Mapleton
2. 1.31—Gary Kiser, Pekin
3. 1.21—Don Whitecotton, Danvers
4. 1.18—Anastasia Almasi, Mapleton
5. 1.15—Marty Olsen, Washington and Kurt Mueller, Glasford

Kids

1. 1.11—Caden McGee, Mapleton
2. 1.05—Joe Juergens, Lewistown
3. 0.55—Ben Meinders