After the day two weigh-in Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, at the 14th Annual Black Bass World Championship on Lake Cuchillo near China, Mexico, Team USA was awarded the Gold Medal in the competition with a total weight of 61,400 grams (135.36 pounds) for two days and a total of 49.5 penalties.
There were 15 countries represented in the world bass fishing championship. Each country could have 3 teams of two anglers fish. Each team is assigned a group and penalties are assigned based on performance. If you finish first for the day you get 1 penalty point. If you finish 10th you get 10 penalty points.
On day two, the team of Terry Bolton and David Dudley led the charge with a 5 bass limit that weighed 11,525 grams (25.41 pounds). Bolton was subbed in by team captain Scott Martin for David Fritts on day two after Fritts had boat issues on day one. Scott Martin and Scott Canterbury followed up their amazing day one catch of 34 pounds with another limit weighing 10,716 grams (23.63 pounds). James Watson and Fred Roumbanis fell off their 30-pound-bag pace from day one with a day-two catch of 3 bass that weighed 4.6 pounds.
On day two, the USA teams finished 2nd (Bolton and Dudley), 3rd (Martin and Canterbury) and 32nd (Watson and Roumbanis). And the USA teams finished the event in 1st (Martin and Canterbury), 3rd (Dudley and Bolton/Fritts) and 8th (Roumbanis and Watson).
The combined team effort was enough to win the event by 34.5 penalties and nearly 40 pounds (18,045 grams) over the teams from Mexico who had a strong second day (finishing 1st, 13th and 29th on the day) and a grand total of 84 penalties and 43,355 grams (95.58 pounds) for the event.
Team USA won the gold medal with a strategy that included a combination of flipping trees in 8 to 12 feet of water and fishing out deep with crankbaits and worms offshore. In this format you want to make sure all your teams finish high in the standings so strategy has to be planned around all teams catching fish.
Scott Martin flipped a Googan Baits Trench Hog and Slim Shake Worm and cranked a little with a deep crankbait while Canterbury flipped a Dirty Jigs Canterbury Flipping Jig in 5/8 ounce. His big 7 pounder the first day came on a 3/4 ounce Canterbury Flipping Jig.
Fritts caught his fish the first day on Berkley Dredger 14.5, 20.5 and 25.5 crankbaits. Bolton hopped a Redbug Zoom Ol Monster and cranked Rasta-colored Rapala DT14 and DT16 while Dudley threw a Berkley Dredger 25.5 to catch the big bag on day two.
Fred Roumbanis cranked a couple different deep crankbaits including an IMA Beast Hunter while Watson cranked and caught them today on a Luck-e-Strike Ring Worm and a Jewel football jig.
Top 5 standings
Team – Penalties – Total Weight
United States – 49.5 – 61,400 (135.36 pounds)
Mexico – 84 – 43,355 (95.58 pounds)
Italy – 89 – 34,360 (75.75 pounds)
South Africa – 93 – 38,915 (85.79 pounds)
Canada – 114 – 29,365 (64.73 pounds)
