Independent Bass Fishing Club (Non-profit Corporation) with 100% Payback Tournaments based in Kenton, Ohio
Alum Creek Winners 5/31/26
Logan Barker 1st Place,
Chad Asel 2nd Place and Big Bass,
Virgil Grant 3rd Place
The 7th points tournament of 2026 is in the books and results are available.
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 4 tournaments at that meeting.
The 6th points tournament of 2026 is in the books and results are available.
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 4 tournaments at that meeting.
The Trophy Bassmasters ran into a 2nd tough fishery in a row as the traveled to Grand Lake St. Marys following Buckeye Lake last Sunday. The big waters of St Marys have posed a problem for the club for several years prompting being left off the schedule many times. Noted for developing an ugly algae bloom as soon as the water temps start rising once again held true. One angler described it as green paint covering the surface of the lake. Coupled with a large tournament scheduled at the same time and place had most of the more popular productive spots picked over.
The 11 anglers only managed to bring in 13 keeper bass with nobody netting more than 2. Steve Ganger had the heaviest weight as his 2 largemouth totaled 3.91lbs to earn him the win. Boyd Downey also had 2 bass weighing 3.51lbs for the runner up spot. Virgil Grant continues his top finishes this year as he placed 3rd with 2.71lbs in 2 fish. Don Ratcliff nailed the big bass for the day. Ratcliff’s lunker weighed 2.54lbs. Hopefully the club will see better success at the next event which will be at Lake Erie.
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 4 tournaments at that meeting.
Price McElroy Funeral Home Obituary Page
Another member of our small group passed away on May 10, 2026. Although he had not been actively fishing for several years, he attended our meetings and banquets as his health allowed. Paul fished 5 tournaments in 2005 and 4 tournaments in 2006 when he finished in 20th place.
Paul holds the record for the biggest bass ever caught in a Trophy Bassmasters club tournament. He caught a 6 # 10 oz Largemouth Bass on Lake Logan in 1975. The annual Big Bass Traveling trophy bears his name and is a tribute to his early years of bass fishing.
Funeral services for Paul will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Monday, May 18, 2026, at the Price-McElroy Funeral Home in Kenton with Pastor Mark Bishop officiating. Burial will follow at Grove Cemetery. Friends and family may visit from 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, May 17, 2026, at the funeral home.
Paul’s Memorial Page has been added to our website.
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 4 tournaments at that meeting.
There are a lot of updated reports on the website for AOY, Heavy Hitters, and payments and refunds. Please check them out.
Meeting minutes have been posted on our website.
Club Meeting Minutes 5/6/26 – Trophy Bassmasters
Boat draws for the next 3 tournaments were completed following the meeting.
We now have 21 members entered in our Big Bass pot for 2026. The total pot is $105. Please pay Bert Grubs before the tournament year starts. The membership list has been updated to reflect whether or not you have paid your big bass entry. Mike Johnson is leading the race with a giant 5.90 Smallmouth again this year. It will take another giant smallmouth to win this year.
As of now we have 16 members paid for the Heavy Hitters tournament. 9 members have already qualified with a 3-pound bass or better. Remember the bass are sorted by size to determine your boat number on take-off.
First place will pay $228 if there are no witdrawals.
The location for this tournament will be West Harbor on Lake Erie.
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 4 tournaments at that meeting.
There are a lot of updated reports on the website for AOY, Heavy Hitters, and payments and refunds. Please check them out.
We now have 19 members entered in our Big Bass pot for 2026. The total pot is $95. Please pay Bert Grubs before the tournament year starts. The membership list has been updated to reflect whether or not you have paid your big bass entry. Mike Johnson is leading the race with a giant 5.90 Smallmouth again this year. It will take another giant smallmouth to win this year.
We will draw for 3 tournaments at our next club meeting.
As of now we have 14 members paid for the Heavy Hitters tournament. 9 members have already qualified with a 3-pound bass or better. Remember the bass are sorted by size to determine your boat number on take off.
The location for this tournament will be discussed at our next meeting.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
There are a lot of updated reports on the website for AOY, Heavy Hitters, and payments and refunds. Please check them out.
We now have 19 members entered in our Big Bass pot for 2026. The total pot is $95. Please pay Bert Grubs before the tournament year starts. The membership list has been updated to reflect whether or not you have paid your big bass entry. Mike Johnson is leading the race with a giant 5.90 Smallmouth again this year. It will take another giant smallmouth to win this year.
Our next tournament is on Sunday, May 3rd at Buckeye Lake. We are leaving from the Liebs Island State Marina on the west side of the lake. There is a link posted on our tournament schedule with directions to the ramp. Times are the same as last week from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm.
As of now we have 14 members paid for the Heavy Hitters tournament. 9 members have already qualified with a 3-pound bass or better. Remember the bass are sorted by size to determine your boat number on take off.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 3 tournaments during May at this meeting. Please be present or send your money to Bert Grubs.
Trophy Bassmaster’s second tournament of the year was held on Sunday, April 19, 2026 at West Harbor on Lake Erie. The weather cooled off considerably from last week and small craft advisories were issued for the tournament day.
The statistics are interesting. The strong cold front reduced the average weights per fish as well as average total weights. Temperatures started around 40 and went to 52 by weigh-in. Also there were only 13 anglers present compared to 16 last week. More than half the field trailered to Portage River, Wild Wings, and Sandusky Bay. Portage River seemed to produce more fish of the smaller class, but Wild Wings was pretty strong on the size chart.
Don Ratcliff returned to his winning ways. After winning the AOY honors last year, he is on track to repeat this year. Don won this tournament with a very impressive limit of 5 largemouth bass for 18.56 pounds with a 5.76 pound big bass kicker. Virgil Grant returned to the winner’s circle with 13.96 pound 5 bass limit. Kelly Dearwester followed up with his own 5 largemouth limit, a close third place with 13.77 pounds and a 5.19 largemouth kicker.
The AOY race is on with Virgil Grant leading by 2 points over Don Ratcliff. Kelly Dearwester is close behind in third place. It is really early so everyone is in the race.
There are a lot of updated reports on the website for AOY, Heavy Hitters, and payments and refunds. Please check them out.
We only have 12 members entered in our Big Bass pot for 2026. It is $5.00 due now. Please pay Bert Grubs before the tournament year starts. The membership list has been updated to reflect whether or not you have paid your big bass entry.
Our next tournament is on Sunday, April 26 at Indian Lake. We are leaving from the Chippewa Marina on the North side of the lake. Times are different than the first 2 weeks. Please note we are fishing from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm.
As of now we only have 11 members paid for the Heavy Hitters tournament. Seven members have already qualified with a 3-pound bass or better. Remember the bass are sorted by size to determine your boat number.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 3 tournaments during May at this meeting. Please be present or send your money to Bert Grubs.
Trophy Bassmasters kicked off the 2026 fishing season at Lake Erie last weekend.
Spring jumped into summer for the day greeted the anglers with calm seas in the morning. The catch rates reflected the good weather day as the 16 anglers brought in 64 keeper bass of at least 14”. Total weight was 180.563 lbs.
All were released alive. The big winner again this year Mike Johnson as he both won the tournament and had the big bass for the day. Johnson’s 5 bass limit of smallmouth weighed 19.30 lbs. with the lunker at 5.90lbs. With a very close 2nd place, Chad Thrush weighed in a 5 bass limit of smallmouth. Chad caught a respectable 19 lbs. Virgil Grand had 5 largemouth bass that weighed 17.51 lbs to claim the final spot on the podium.
We only have 12 members entered in our Big Bass pot for 2026. It is $5.00 due now. Please pay Bert Grubs before the tournament year starts.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 3 tournaments during May at this meeting. Please be present or send your money to Bert Grubs.
The boat draw for the first 4 tournaments of the season we completed last night at our regular April meeting. Please see details on our HOME page.
We have 10 members signed up for the Heavy Hitters Tournament. Please see our website for details on how to qualify. Here is the LINK.
We will pick the location for the tournament at our May 6th meeting.
If you pay your entry fee of $20 and qualify, you may still withdraw and receive a refund before the tournament starts.
We now have 31 members in our club after 2 new members joined last night.
Please join us in welcoming Stan Crawford and Peyton Schafer to our club.
We only have 12 members entered in our Big Bass pot for 2026. It is $5.00 due now. Please pay Bert Grubs before the tournament year starts.
A major change was made to our website last year to protect our personal and financial information. All pages with sensitive information, such as names, addresses, phone numbers and financial information, will be “Protected” and will require you to enter a password to proceed.
Most browsers and phones allow you to save your passwords so you should only have to enter this password the first time you try to access these pages.
Please do not share this password with anyone. Only members will be able to access all pages, however, friends and family can still see the tournament results.
This update is not protected; however, future updates may be depending on content.
If you need the password please contact me.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026. 7pm
Masonic Temple
We will draw for 3 tournaments during May at this meeting. Please be present or send your money to Bert Grubs.
Trophy Bassmasters 