The Grudge Match at Bartlett Lake

December 17, 2026

Highlights from Bass Bites

The Grudge Match, held annually at Bartlett Lake on the 3rd Wednesday of December, is unique in Midweek Bass Anglers. It’s the only MWBA tournament that non-members can enter. It’s an opportunity to expand our horizons, and show some other anglers (potential members) how much fun we have.

1st Place: Michael Edgar & Shane Edgar (10.4 lb for $400 plus $240 from the Side Pot). Michael said he enjoyed another “Shane Edgar Good Day.” [Michael: Shane’s success is evidence of good paternal genetics. Gary Martlage says your Team has now won 5 Grudge Matches in a row. That must be right, because Gary is as credible a source as can be found in MWBA. Congrats to the Edgars!]

Team Edgar drew Boat #1, but starting first didn’t matter much because they hadn’t been on the lake for 6 weeks. And because Mr. Bartlett was aboard. They had no luck mid-Lake with Basic Bartlett Tactics: spinners, an A-rig and such. So, they went upriver, where they found boats and lots of shad! They used FFS to find roaming bass, casting at fish 40-60 ft away from the boat, suspended at 1-5 ft in 25-40 ft of water. They cast just beyond targeted fish, jigged a 1/8th oz Frenzy FFS Head with a 3.5" Rapala Mooch Minnow past them, and Fish On! They boated more than 100 bass, mostly in the 1-lb range. They briefly tried downriver, but the bass were even smaller (not unusual for this Lake). So, they went back upriver and pounded those fish again. It was a day of weeding through small ones to find bigger ones that made the difference. One of their keepers was “just under 3 pounds” (that sounds so much bigger than 2+ lbs). Another was just under 2 (again, excellent word choice). The rest were in the 1.5-pound range.

“Highlight” of their tmx day: Their Big Motor broke down on the way to the Weigh-In. Luckily, an un-named Club member took Michael and the fish to the scale. [Hey, Nameless Member: it was cool to help a Team thump you at the Scale!] Jim Everett took Michael back out to tow the boat to the ramp. Kudos, Jim!  

2nd Place: Manny Madrid & Jeremy Griffith (8.5 lb for $350 plus $140 from the Side Pot). No account provided.

3rd Place: Todd Belzner & Bart Bohlen (6.15 lb for $280 plus $100 from the Side Pot). No Account provided.

4th Place: Travis Senft & Andrew Bell (6.8 lb for $230; FOTM for the Side Pot). No Account provided.

5th Place: Gary Martlage & Jim Everett (5.12 lb for $140; nothing from the Side Pot). Gary and Jim “only” caught 9 fish all day, but they weighed a whopping Bartlett Limit of 5 lb 13 oz! With FFS, Jim targeted isolated fish suspended at 10 ft over 40+ ft of water. They mostly fished by the dam, looking for fish moving up on the deeper boulders. A good plan, but it produced no joy! They had fun anyway, catching a Bartlett limit of dinks.

A Grudge Match Overview: Thirty or so boats caught a bunch of Bartlett bass. But the best results were achieved by Teams using FFS to find and cast to fish suspended at depths of 1-10 ft in water 40+ ft deep. FFS-style “minnow” baits on light jigheads were the order of the day. Anglers using more traditional baits (e.g. crankbaits, jerkbaits, topwater baits, dropshots) mostly watched FFS Teams boat fish. But, the Grudge Match isn’t really about catching fish. It’s more about no-pressure fun-fishing among friends, and a great way to end the year. Any year.

Who Made This Event Work? Bob Jolley and Gary Senft organized it. Gary also emceed the Weigh-In. I think Bob Jolley took the Weigh-In videos that he sent to me. They are nice. I’ll try to post them here before long. I think free hot dogs were cooked after the Weigh-In, but I’m not sure because I’m still grounded by a complete casting-shoulder replacement. Kudos to all involved in the Grudge Match.

A Final Word from your Secretary in Training: It would be nice if every Team that wins money in an MWBA Tmx submitted a brief summary for Bass Bites of how they did it. Heck, Donors can do the same thing, because it’s good to know what not to do. It doesn’t take long to write a brief summary. Please do it for every tournament!

The full story is here in BassBites. [No, not yet! I just included this because I don’t want to lose the Link.]

The results are here. [Ditto the notaton above.]

Patience, Grasshoppers. I’m learning how to handle this website as quickly as the average 78-year-old dimwit can. On a 10-Scale, I’m already at 1.5! I might be a solid 2.0 by February, or December.