It's the Dukester again at Falls Lake!

      Before Hurricane Michael showed up in early October, Leesville BASSMasters was scheduled to fish Jordan Lake on October 20.  But with Jordan over 10 feet high a week before derby day and other lakes similarly swollen from Michael, we decided to change location to Falls Lake which was only 3 feet high.  Fast forward one week later, and we made the right move:  Jordan was still 6+ feet high, but Falls was only about 1 foot above normal pool.
      When we arrived at the ramp, temps were around 60 and would only rise a few degrees more by the end of the day.  Spotty clouds in the morning would give way to rain around lunchtime (heavy at times!), which settled in and finally dissipated when we got back to the ramp.  Water temps were in the low 70s.
      After calling the fish to the scales, Duke Bevard (4 fish, 5.45#) eeked out his second win of the year at Falls, edging out Craig Koefler (3 fish, 5.36#) by less than a tenth of a pound.  Craig did, however, take big fish for the day with 2.80#.  Sheldon Godfrey (4 fish, 4.89#) took third place.
      With our final tournament at Kerr Lake in two weeks, the last derby looks to be a barn burner on a number of fronts.  Mark Cannon still leads the pack by 14 points.  Duke could still mathematically take 1st if Mark doesn't weigh any fish at Kerr AND Duke finishes in at least 4th place, but Mark can seal it up by catching just one fish.  Current third place holder Wes House won't be fishing Kerr, which means Michael Lee could potentially vault past Wes into third place with a fourth place or better finish at Kerr.  Lastly, the final positions for the money tournament are also still in play with Tom, Sheldon and Craig in contention for the final two slots.  Stay tuned!  It looks like the end of our 2018 season could be a photo finish!