Zeb Ates nabs Majestic’s biggest bass

14 year old Zeb Ates takes the overall Big Bass lead and wins the 2:00 AM Majestic weigh-in with this 7.94 lb bass

How’s this for an exciting weekend on D’Arbonne? A big field and lots of big bass, and the youngest winner ever of the Majestic Bass Tournament. I could tell you about it, but it wouldn’t be as good as letting veteran tournament director Dale Taylor — who deserves a crown for being the King of tournaments-done-right:

“Well after finally getting a little rest I have been sitting here on my front porch watching a summer rain shower and contemplating the past 48 hours spent preparing for and conducting the 24th annual D’Arbonne MAJESTIC Big Bass Classic.

I must say it was one of the most memorable events of all which rivals the MAJESTIC that Curt Sumach of Mississippi, caught the record bass for this event, a mammoth 11.21 pound bass, in the last 30 minutes of the 4th annual Classic.

The fish had been really biting good for a couple of weeks and the talk was that this would be a slugfest, but as all of the upstream water from recent heavy rains finally made it’s way through the lake a steady drop occurred this week because of the broken gates at the dam. Anglers found the many shallow flats up the arms were becoming so shallow that not only was it difficult to get around but the fish were becoming displaced, scattered and constantly on the move!

But as Saturday dawned cool and calm with scattered clouds it didn’t take long for Jess Smith to set the mark with his 6.14 pound bass. That fish won the first of 12 weigh-in’s and held the top spot in the Big Bass catagory until the 2:00AM weigh-in when Zeb Ates flopped a 7.96 pound beauty on the scales. Zeb, fishing with Jake Ormond, is 14 years old and an avid outdoors person. Zeb is a great deer Hunter as evidenced by his success in the Union Parish Big Buck contest and is an up and coming member of the D‘Arbonne Woods high school fishing team.

Zeb as a quiet well mannered young man that lives and breathes the outdoor life. Zeb became the youngest ever to win one of the two MAJESTIC top prizes, The Overall Big Bass.

On the other end of the spectrum we have a man who has entered 22 of the 24 MAJESTIC’S and has only placed a few times in the hourly big bass category and has never been a contender in the heavy stringer category, that is until last night! Sean Brown’s largest 5 bass weighed-in totaled 20.80 pounds and gave him the win over the largest group of anglers that had a legitimate shot at winning the heavy stringer prize.

Congratulations to both of these guy’s and to all who fished this grueling event. A special thanks to Mitch Ludwig, Gary Callaway and all of the Ludwig Marine crew who host this event every year, without them and the use of their shop for the weigh-in it would be very difficult for us to do this tournament!

From myself Gayle, Daniel, and Dakota we say thanks to all who support this event.”

AND THANK YOU, DALE TAYLOR!

You can see more pictures and hourly winners on Dale’s Facebook Page.