The Trophy Bassmasters staged their 7th club tournament of the 2025 season at Knox Lake near Fredericktown, Ohio on June 8th. This was one day earlier than last year’s event. The anglers were treated to a steady rain for the first few hours of the tournament starting at 6:00 am with “weigh-in” at 3:00 pm. Most of the fish were measured and any fish over 12 inches was converted to pounds. Ohio fishing regulations have established an 18 inch limit on largemouth bass. Last year 11 participants caught 28 fish for a total of 52.45 lbs. This year 48 bass were landed by 10 fishermen for a total of 97.38 lbs. The average weight was up, 2.03 lbs vs 1.87 lbs last year. Knox Lake appears to be very healthy at this time after recovering from an extreme draw down a few years ago to repair the dam. We can look forward to our trip to Knox Lake next year.
There were 5 bass over 18 inches weighed with big bass belonging to Don Ratcliff that weighed 5.48 lbs (missing the Big Bass of the year by only 3 ounces). Don left no doubt with total weight that was a whopping 17.55 lbs., to almost double the nearest competitor. Steve Ganger finished 2nd by virtue of a penalty assessed against 3rd place finisher Boyd Downey. The penalty cost Boyd second place and was self-imposed. There is no rule against dead fish that are measured. John Massara caught the only smallmouth bass in recent memory on Knox Lake.
Trophy Bassmasters 