SAN DIEGO— The long-awaited and much anticipated 2024 Saltwater Bass Series Year-End Championship is now in the books. Fourteen years going, every SBS team wants to make this event. Tons of great products including a new Mercury 115 motor were given away at this tournament.
The tournament format was a 2- day event with Day 1 targeting the outside where only calico and sand bass could be weighed. Day 2 was spotted bay bass only where we doubled the weight to be added to Day 1 for a 2-day total to determine the overall winner.
Overcast skies and a south breeze on both days is what the teams had to deal with while doing their best to come in with their 5-bass limit. With no coastal boundaries, Day 1 saw some great weights with big bass coming to the scales. Leading the event after the first day was the father-son team of Tom and Cash Troop. These guys brought 22.04 pounds of lively bass in to take the lead. Second place on Day 1 was Andy Wright and Matt Kim with 21.53 pounds. Finishing off the top 3 on this day was the husband wife team of Tom and Valerie Handzus who weighed in a nice 20.44 limit.
Day 2 was time for spotties, and weights were doubled to be added to Day 1 weights. Mission Bay as well as San Diego Bay were open to the teams to fish. Finishing up day Two in first place was Aaron Jeffrey. Aaron brought in 9.40 pounds, equaling 18.80 pounds with the doubled weight multiplier. Anything between 9 and 10 pounds is a very respectable weight for these tough little bass. Second on Day 2 was the Day 1 leaders, Tom and Cash Troop, they brought in 17.80 pounds. Third place was another father-son team, Jose and Jeremy Assef who weighed 17.04 pounds,
Final standings were put together while cheeseburgers were served up at the Outboard Boating Club at Shelter Island. Winning the Championship was the team of Tom and Cash Troop with a total of 39.84 pounds. Second overall was Jose and Jeremy Assef who finished up with 34.38 pounds. Rounding out the Top 3 was Aaron Jeffrey weighing 34.15 pounds.
Who won the raffled 115 Mercury Motor? Keith Michaels and Brett Wilson, and Keith will be repowering his boat with the new Mercury. Products from Daiwa, Costa, Lowrance, Owner Hooks and others were also given away this day. With a nice donation from DSP Electrical contractors, the biggest of each species of bass for 2024 each received a nice cash payday. The largest calico of the 2024 tournament season was caught by Garrett Ching and Bobby Martinez, and they won a cool $1,000 for their 7.83-pound fish! The biggest sand bass was caught by Tom and Cash Troop, a beautiful 6.27 pounder that was good for $500. The biggest spotted bay bass was caught by Andy Wright and Matt Kim who caught a giant 4-pound spotty and took home $500.
The 2025 season schedule is in the works so keep an eye out. We hope to add more teams in 2025 as all the current teams say this is the funnest thing going! Any questions or info needed can be found at SaltwaterBassSeries.com.