DIENER AND BUNKER BAG 38-PLUS FOR THE 2019 WWBT CA TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP WIN ON CLEAR LAKE PRESENTED BY RANGER BOATS AND MERCURY MARINE

 

Lakeport, Calif. – Luke Diener and Jeb Bunker capped off their first season as teammates with a Clear Lake victory at the 2019 Wild West Bass Trail (WWBT) California Teams championship presented by Ranger Boats and Mercury Marine.

They earned the “W” on the famed big bass fishery with a seven fish limit that went 38.43, anchored by a 6.47 big bass, racking up a first-place prize package of $25,500 that included a Ranger Boat RT 188 powered by 115 OptiMax Mercury Motor.

“Even a couple of blind squirrels find a nut every once in a while,” Bunker humbly remarked as he talked about their event. 

FULL FINAL RESULTS AND PAYOUT

PRE-PRACTICE PLAN

Bunker recalled pre-practice trips several times over the past three months and revealed the winning location was one that produced a personal best for his partner just a couple of weeks ago.

“I had a caught an eight-pounder there and then Luke caught his PB about two weeks ago on the same spot; so, we knew it was good,” said Bunker. “But, the one thing about it was we had never caught a fish there before 10:30 a.m., so we figured we would try something else for the morning and head over there a bit later.”

The team was so confident in their area, they didn’t even try it out in the event’s official practice days.

GAME DAY

As Day One of their year-end championship blasted off, the pair hit a few locations and sacked up about half their limit before they made it to their aptly named “eight-pound spot”.

“We had no electronics on our boat, so we were just going about it with knowledge of what I had for fishing the lake over the past 30 years,” said Bunker. “We got to our area and within about 20-feet of where Luke caught his eight a few weeks ago, I got a 6 ½. We locked it down from there, catching about 20 fish all close to five-pounds.”

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WINNING DEETS

All of the team’s weigh fish came from Windflower Point and the majority bit between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

“It was a shoal that dropped from 8- to 16-feet,” he said. “We were bit all through there, but mostly in the middle. The keys were a combination of rock (boulders), bait and birds. There were these small fuzzy birds that we found –this was really lake throughout – but, the fish seemed to be underneath the places that we would see these birds, pushing the shad up.”

He noted that in their area the water was stained and 63-degrees.

Their fish all fell to a lipless crank.

“It was a shad-colored LV,” revealed Bunker. “I was fishing it on a longer rod and Luke was fishing it on a shorter rod, which made it kind of different. One of us would let it go closer to the bottom than the other. Sometimes, they would be hitting mine and sometimes it was his. It would kind of change off, back and forth. Like maybe there were two schools that wanted it differently or maybe the same fish just kept wanting it to change.”

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THE WIND

As it often is, the wind was a factor in this event and an advisory with expected gusts of 40 to 60 mph, resulted in the second day of competition being cancelled. Cutting the event short, left the Day One standings in play and resulted in the top-spot claiming the championship with only one day of fishing. Although Diener and Bunker were very happy to win, it wasn’t how they wanted it to happen.

“First of all, it is a dream come true, just to have made it here to compete with guys like PJ and Bailey and Wayne and Alex and all of them; but to be up in the ranks with them is just awesome,” began Bunker. “But, being said, it isn’t the way any of us want to win in this sport. I want to beat Wayne, but I want to do it on his best day. I want to beat all of them and they all want to beat each other. They want to beat us – Luke and I, but they want to do it on our best day. No one wants to win because of a technicality.  

“That is something that is really amazing about our sport. We go out there in the morning and want the other guy to do his best, so we can beat the best. This weekend, they all said ‘go get ‘em’ or “you’ll crush ‘em’ or some kind of wishes. Not that they wanted to lose, but they wanted me to do my best, so they could beat me at my best. That’s not something you hear in many other sports. You don’t hear LeBron telling Curry to go out and score 103 points. It is just one of those things that we get as fisherman and a part we all love about it.

"We just don’t want to win because of a technicality; but now, I feel like I’ve won with an asterick next to my name. I guess I will just have to go out there and do it again next year."

THE CASH

The team plans to use their winnings for 2020 entries and gear.

“We just got a trolling motor put on the boat, the motor needs to be repowered and we don’t have any fish finders, so we will use the money for that,” said Bunker. “And we will come back next year ready to go again.”

CA TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP REST OF THE BEST

2nd 37.96 Remmers/Niapas $4,750

3rd 33.94 Frederick/Dibble $3,400

4th 32.23 German/Nourot $2,400

5th 32.09 Gosselaar/Lucich $1,800

6th 31.39 Tremont/Wayman $1,500

7th 31.33 Homen/Johnson $1,200

8th 31.33 Fournier/VanClef $1,000

9th 31.25 Pierson/Pierson $800

10th 30.56 Sweeney/Contos $800

Payout dollars includes Big Bass and contingency money from the following sponsors – Dobyns Rods, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, P-Line and SuperClean.

The 2020 WWBT California Teams Championship kicks off in January at Lake Shasta

The WWBT debuted in 2016. The trail includes a Pro/Am circuit and two Teams circuits – one based in California and the other in Arizona.

A special thanks to all the WWBT sponsors – Ben Green Insurance, Dobyns Rods, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, General Tire, Genesis Graphics, Lowrance Electronics, Lucas Oil, P-Line, Power-Pole, Protect the Harvest, Ranger Boats, Super Clean, Top This Premier Accessory Outfitters, Vets 4 Hunting and Fishing.

For more information visit WildWestBassTrail.com and follow WWBT at FacebookYouTubeTwitterInstagram.