King of Sharbot Lake

Jun 20, 2018

Kirk Chabot did not know what to expect when he decided to put on a fishing derby for the opening day of bass season on Sharbot Lake.

“If we get ten teams and they share a few hundred dollars in prize money that won’t be the end of the world,” he said a month ago when he was first getting the word out. “But, from what I hear, people want to come out for a derby, so I think we will have more then ten teams.”

He was right about that. There were 39 teams registered by the time the derby got underway last Saturday morning, one under the capacity for the event. And when it was all over, the team of John Davis and Tim Riley, with 8 bass weighing in at 18.625 pounds, took home $1,000. The second prize, $500, was won by the grandfather/father/son team of Bill Bowick, Scott Bullen, and Braden Bullen with 17 pounds, 6.875 ounces of live bass in their 8 fish catch, and the third prize, $250 went to Scott Mconal and Adam Massey, 16 pounds, 8.75ounces. The heaviest single fish was caught by Dave and Scott Lockridge, 4 pounds, 11 ounces.

“It was quite a day,” said Chabot, “we thought people would weigh in parts of their catch as they went along, but we waited through the morning until mid afternoon and nothing much happened. Then at 2.30 they all came in. I weighed in about 200 fish in an a hour and a half. It was a lot.

Chabot is already thinking about next year, when the King of Sharbot Lake bass derby will return.

“People are already talking about coming back and bringing more friends, he said, “but some things will change. We won’t have a BBQ because fishers bring their own food, and I’ll weigh the fish as a group if they come in with their entire catch at once,” he said, pointing to his cut and swollen thumb, which was in that condition from picking up the bass one at a time and returning them to the lake.