Dawsons Capture Day the top bag including Big Bass Honors. Walks Away with Win on Sandusky Bay.
Shawn Hamrick - September 21
(Sandusky, Ohio) Fishers of Men National Tournament Trail held their District 10 Regional Championship on Lake Erie launching from the Shelby Street Ramp in Sandusky Bay, September 20th and 21st. Twenty-nine teams took part in the two-day event. The Ohio division has the most representation at 10 teams with Indiana South having 8 teams, Indiana North with 6. For the weeknight series 4 teams representing Ohio, 3 from the South and 1 from the Alum Creek Lake Series.
New Life Church hosted the Friday night dinner and meeting and message with Pastor Scott Miller from Harvest Baptist in Wapakoneta sharing with the group out of Genesis 13 and 14. Pastor Scott spoke on the covenant between Abraham and Lot. He also shared how God made the covenant with man by sending Jesus Christ as the sacrifice. He also challenged the group of over sixty in attendance on what they committed to in our lives.
On Friday at the launch winds were out of the south at 3 mph and temperatures were 61°F. The wind was variable throughout the day reaching 6 mph out of the West South West and temps at 84°F
As the teams came in for weigh-in, mix of bags were carried to the scales. Some of the bags were all green fish with largemouth, some all brown smallmouth and a few came in a mix of both. As the weights were tallied up, three teams brought in bags weighing over the 20 pounds mark. In third place as the team of Mark Scobie and John DeVries from Indiana North at 20.06 pounds with 5 fish. In second place from the Ohio Team Division, Gary Hammaker and Justen Fain with 20.19 pounds and 5 fish. In first place, the husband and wife team of Cherie Dawson and John Dawson breaking the 22 pound mark at 22.40 pounds in 5 smallmouth. Cherie led the day and weekend with the big bass on Day 1 with an impressive 6.91 pounds.
On day two, the take-off order was flipped with the father and son duo of Jerad Schwedler and Eric Schwedler being the second boat out. The Schwedler’s fishing on day two became a formality for advancing to the National Championship on Lake Murray next spring as they were the only Adult and Junior team to fish the Division 10 event. They finished the weekend with 5 fish and 12.08 pounds. Young Eric, age 9, was all smiles coming into the scales saying he had an exciting day fishing out on the main lake around bass island! This is the first regional the father and son duo have fished. They are a one of the six teams out of the Indiana North Division that competed.
Weather on Saturday stayed steady with Friday wind and temps and teams came into the scales just as the winds picked up to near 18mph. The second day weights increased slightly but only two teams broke the 20 pound mark. Tournament officials thought they would see total weights for the two-day event around the 50 to 52-pound mark.
The day one leaders, Cherie and John Dawson (OH Div), made an early exit from tournament waters not wanting to risk losing any fish they caught on the day. John stated the bite was tough early losing a quality fish and only picking up about six more bites on the day. One bite missed had John on his heels as he worked using live scope to locate the fish lost and work for the next 15-minutes throw about everything he had to get it in the boat. He finally was able to land their fifth off of larger rocks. They loaded it into the boat and off to the scales they went.
The near hour and a half wait for the rest of the field to come into the scales was nerving for the husband and wife duo as they waited to see if their second day bag of 25.62 would hold. John put an impressive 5.89 kicker in the boat hoping to match wife Cherie with big bass honors on day two.
The 5.89 kicker would be out done by John DeVries with a 6.60 lunker to anchor the bag John and his partner Mark Scobie brought in. DeVries and Scobie (IN-N) worked as an area they didn’t pre-fish but DeVries said it was worth the risk, DeVries stated, “We got there and we didn’t know if the area would be holding fish. We took a chance and they were there!” DeVries of Indiana and Scobie of Michigan used previous experience of fishing the north shore to secure a 24.81-pound bag and 2nd place overall 44.87 pounds for the tournament.
The 3rd place team of Gary Hammaker and Justen Fain of Ohio brought in a two-day total of 37.91 pounds and picked up the Mercury Motor contingency spot.
Additional teams qualifying in the top 20% for a national birth taking 4th Troy Zaerr and Robert Senger (OH) with 37.13 pounds, 5th place went to Jeffery Jordan and Zac Mumford (OH) at 35.41 pounds, Bryce Lower and Chandler Jennings of Indiana South took 6th with 32.36 l pounds bs, John Santos and Matthew McClanahan (IN-S) in 7th with 31.44 pounds. The final spot also going to Indiana South, father and son team of Rusty and Caleb Low with 29.32 pounds.
Marlan & Debbie Brown were the Bass Cat contingency winners and will be joining the field April 3-5, 2025
on Lake Murray.
2024 District 10 Championship on Sandusky Bay-Day 2 - 09/21/24
DIVISION YEAR TO DATE STANDINGS: | 2024 | 2023 |
| View Multiday Day Results | Day 1 | Day 2 |
| Place | Team | Members | # Fish | Big Fish | Gross | Penalty | Net Wt | Points | |
| 1 | 23375 |
Cherie Dawson John Dawson | 5 | 5.89 | 25.62 | 0 | 25.62 | 0 | |
| 2 | 32232 |
Mark Scobie John DeVries | 5 | 6.6 | 24.81 | 0 | 24.81 | 0 | |
| 3 | 22894 |
Troy Zaerr Robert Senger | 5 | 0 | 19.27 | 0 | 19.27 | 0 | |
| 4 | 28317 |
Jeffery Jordan Zac Mumford | 5 | 0 | 18.49 | 0 | 18.49 | 0 | |
| 5 | 28848 |
Doug Rudasill Brady Rudasill | 5 | 4.53 | 18.45 | 0 | 18.45 | 0 | |
| 6 | 32096 |
Gary Hammaker Justen Fain | 4 | 0 | 17.72 | 0 | 17.72 | 0 | |
| 7 | 32145 |
Bryce Lower Chandler Jennings | 5 | 0 | 17.61 | 0 | 17.61 | 0 | |
| 8 | 25854 |
John Santos Matthew McClanahan | 5 | 0 | 16.82 | 0 | 16.82 | 0 | |
| 9 | 21725 |
Rusty Low Caleb Low | 5 | 0 | 16.5 | 0 | 16.5 | 0 | |
| 10 | 19282 |
Matt McCord William Barnes | 5 | 0 | 14.4 | 0 | 14.4 | 0 | |
| 11 | 30414 |
Michael Zerrien Adam Linkenhoker | 5 | 0 | 13.98 | 0 | 13.98 | 0 | |
| 12 | 32650 |
Gary Higgins Nate Higgins | 5 | 0 | 13.75 | 0 | 13.75 | 0 | |
| 13 | 32109 |
Dakota Ball William Halbig | 5 | 0 | 12.9 | 0 | 12.9 | 0 | |
| 14 | 32596 |
Chris Dyer Joe Ziegler | 5 | 0 | 12.89 | 0 | 12.89 | 0 | |
| 15 | 32772 |
Mikael Robbins Gary Straber | 5 | 0 | 12.78 | 0 | 12.78 | 0 | |
| 16 | 32778 |
Nick Morgan BJ Barnette | 5 | 0 | 12.64 | 0 | 12.64 | 0 | |
| 17 | 32041 |
Marlan Brown Debbie Brown | 5 | 0 | 12.58 | 0 | 12.58 | 0 | |
| 18 | 32168 |
Mike Parrish Brayden Parrish | 5 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | |
| 19 | 32595 |
Leonard Frye Anthony Waugh | 5 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | |
| 20 | 32083 |
Tyler Mosier David Sauer | 3 | 5.78 | 11.38 | 0 | 11.38 | 0 | |
| 21 | 32407 |
Kyle Eyre Jason Hess | 5 | 0 | 11.06 | 0 | 11.06 | 0 | |
| 22 | 31893 |
Chris Whitley Brandon Strait | 5 | 0 | 11.05 | 0 | 11.05 | 0 | |
| 23 | 30542 |
Jerad Schwedler Eric Schwedler | 3 | 4.13 | 8.62 | 0 | 8.62 | 0 | |
| 24 | 30565 |
David Manning Braedan Trogdlon | 2 | 0 | 7.64 | 0 | 7.64 | 0 | |
| 25 | 32784 |
Matt Collins Joe Collins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 26 | 30376 |
David Dale Jeff Light | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 27 | 1783 |
John Duwel Gary Sindelir | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 28 | 31890 |
Carl Davis Sharon Davis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 29 | 30597 |
Don Rice Brandon Howell | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
 1st Place John and Sherie Dawson 48.02#  2nd Place Mark Scobie & John DeVries 44.87#  3rd Place Justin Fain & Gary Hammaker 37.91#  Day 2 Big Bass 6.6# John DeVries  Day 2 Leaders John and Cherie Dawson with 25.62#  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in  Day 2 weigh in |
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