Howe and Miller Claim $20,000 at BBT TOC

2016 Best Bass Tournaments Awards Over $50K on the California Delta

Ron Howe (left) and Bob Miller (right) earn BBT grand prize on the California Delta/BBT

 

Best Bass Tournaments (BBT) hosted their season-ending Tournament of Champions (TOC) on Sunday, October 9. At the close of scales, the NorCal team of Ron Howe and Bob Miller stood victorious over the 192 team field.

Launching out of Russo’s Marina, the two-day BBT qualifier took place on the California Delta and gave away over $51,000. Howe and Miller carved out the grand prize of $20,000 for their tournament total of 43.08, bolstered by an 8.85 big bass that was the heaviest of the tournament. (Ron Howe with 8.85 pictured to the right/Ron Howe)

The team was very consistent on both days of the event weighing 21.80 and 21.28 for each day’s five-fish limit.

Howe was thrilled with the accomplishment as it was a goal of his for many years. “Anytime you can win a large prize it feels pretty good,” he said. “I’ve worked hard for this. This is the biggest that I’ve won since the Snag Proof. It’s good to get that monkey off my back.”

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PLAN OF ATTACK
Howe credited history as a key factor in their win and recalled how paying attention to the top guys in previous year’s TOCs helped put the pieces of their game plan together.

“We know that when guys are fishing these type of tournaments, it’s one of the few times that they’re going to talk about how they caught ‘em – it’s championship time; seasons done, so guys talk,” he said. “We stayed around the last couple of years to hear the winning guys talk about how they did it and it’s been about punchin’, punchin’, punchin’. From that we pretty much knew that heavy flippin’ would be a big part of the game. We knew it may not be all of it; but we knew it would be big.”

With punchin’ and flippin’ the primary technique on their mind, Howe and Miller spent much time seeking out cover that they felt would hold the quality of fish to win the event.

“I’ve been out there punchin’ for the last couple of months in different events and I’ve been catching 14- to 16-lbs every tournament,” he explained. “I’ve been holding on to that 3-lb average; but haven’t been getting the big bites that I usually get out there. It was nice when I finally started getting some of the bigger bites and could figure out what we were looking for.”

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BBT TOC DELTA DAY ONE

The day started out tougher than Howe expected; but teamwork pulled them through. “I had no fish in the boat by 10:00 a.m., he said. “My partner caught three punchin’ to try and get the momentum going.”

Battling the conditions, had Howe and Miller working through a mix of bass temperaments.

“It is summer mode going into fall mode and because of that and the recent cooling then warming, there have been different fish in different areas, acting differently,” said Howe. “There were some in the deep trough channels that are moving up to the mats and then there were the fish in the bays – Mandeville, Mildred, Franks – they were biting on the high tide, switch out.

“We were following the tide. When the tide got about half way in, those big fish in the mats started eating. That high switch out and the middle of the tide was a trigger to bigger bites. In fact, for about 15 minutes on that switch there would be an incredible flurry. The first day flurry we had was crazy. I caught about nine fish in 15 minutes. As soon as the tide would switch, they would just come out of the mats and eat.”

Recollecting the most exciting moment of the day, Howe revealed the quick-thinking move that put their only Senko fish in the boat.

“Right when the tide switched out, the flurry started and I flipped a four pounder,” he said. “As I was getting that one, I looked over and saw a six-pounder swim away and another four-pounder come out just after it. I reached over picked up a Senko, threw in and BOOM, he ate it! I set the hook and the fish jumped five-feet. It was flyin’ out of the water like a dolphin. It was the last bite we had on the first day.”

For the first day, Howe reported landing approximately 15 keepers, including their 8.85 big bass. The punch fish were located under a mix of periwinkle and hyacinth mats. The team also found five topwater frog bites; but only one made the bag.

Their Senko was bluegill patterned and wacky-rigged and the threw a green frog. The team’s flip/punch rigs consisted of 1-ounce River2Sea Trash Bomb combined with various craw baits, including a Berkley PowerBait Thief.

“They were eating the craw in any color with red flake, like watermelon/red flake or green pumpkin/red flake,” said Howe. ”I fished it with 65-lb SpiderWire on an Abu Garcia heavy-action, 7’11” Villain with a Revo Rocket 9.0:1, high-speed reel.”

BBT TOC DELTA DAY TWO

The team’s final day kicked off in Frank’s – on the hunt for a topwater bite. They targeted their surface fish with a frog and a buzzbait; but didn’t get a single bass to go.

“Even though the tide was only one hour behind the first day, the water volume was several feet less; so it was a bad tide on the second day,” Howe stated. “After our first stop, we didn’t have anything. We went back to an area we found in practice and saw the water was much lower; but because of that we were able to see there was a hard grass line that we hadn’t seen on the higher tide. I picked up flippin’ stick and on my second flip, I had a four-pounder in the boat. Two flips later, I got a six.”

With two quality fish in the box, Howe felt the momentum start to build; however as quick as it turned on, it turned off.

“We had to move and went over to flip the same little grass patch that we got a seven out of in practice,” Howe continued. “I got a 5.75 out of there for our third fish and because the tide had come up a little, we went back over to where we got the first two fish and punched another one close to five-pounds. This gave us four solid fish in the boat by 10 a.m. and our weigh-in wasn’t until 4:40 p.m. I was feeling really confident.”

Still needing one more to fill their limit, the team bounced around with no bites for two hours.

“Around the time it got back to the middle of the tide, we punched three real quick,” Howe added. Nothing big; but we had our limit. I felt like we needed one more big bite. I punched the entire rest of the day and never got another bite.”

Although they had over 20-lbs in the boat, Howe wasn’t certain it was enough to win.

“Someone always catches ‘em and I figured somebody could have 25-lbs and catch us,” said Howe. “But, we were able to hold them off.”

Footage of Howe and Miller’s Day Two can be seen in this BBT TOC video.

“To keep in the new century of modern technology, we have installed recording technology on the leader’s boats for the final day and others in the top-10 – Ron and Bob were one of the boats that were being recorded,” said Randy Pringle Owner of the BBT. “We’re not trying to reveal angler’s spots – we are recording to be a part of the winning day and to keep honest people honest.”

Howe and Miller plan to reinvest much of their $20,000 in winnings back into their fishing fund. They have been fishing together since 1996. Howe is known for his work in the industry and with anglers as the RB Bass group. He is sponsored by RBBass, MonsterFishingTackle, ChristophersConstruction, GreaterBayProtectiveServices, ImaLures, OptimumBaits, PersuaderBaits, River2Sea, TtiBlakemore, Daiichi, AbuGarcia, Berkley, Trilene, RodGlove and GBGalaxieGraphics.

He has fished circuits directed by Pringle dating back to the 100 % Bass days and is happy to be a part of BBT as a platform to create camaraderie among anglers with events like this TOC. (RB Bass Group camp at BBT TOC pictured to the left/Ron Howe)

“The BBT tournaments are well-run and fun and they’re also bringing back the camping, hanging out, BBQing and fire pits,” he said. “And, their doing a better job with social media and YouTube for exposure for the anglers.”

The BBT will return in 2017 with 6 Regions, 36 Events and 3 Open Tournaments. A new TOC qualifying matrix has been established for 2017. Please review Rule #34 at the BBT website for further information.

Full 2016 TOC Results Here.

1 43.08 Howe/Miller

2 40.02 Yang/Yang

3 39.48 Fleming/Rhyme

4 35.86 Roach/Roach

5 35.42 Hutton/Mcnabb