Cowboy Church Bass Club

2026 Northern Division Tournament Recap 

Palestine

February 28, 2026

Joe Crouch and Kenneth Mahone secured first place with a just two‑fish, 1 fish shy of a limit. They began the morning fishing boathouses across the lake from Flat Creek Marina, an area that had produced well in the past, particularly on one point. After failing to put any fish in the livewell, they made a strategic move at 12:00 pm to move to the back of Flat Creek near where the cattails are.

It was about 1:00 pm when Kenneth hooked the first big bass. Joe was a little slow getting the net and the fish was becoming tangled at the back of the boat in the motor and the power poles. After a struggle, they finally got the hawg in the boat. It weighed 6.65-lb. Kenneth caught the second big bass soon after the first, it was about 30-yards from the first big one. They had the net ready this time. It weighed 4.97-lb. A third big bass was hooked up but came unbuttoned.

All the fish were caught on green pumpkin Yamamoto Cowboy baits. After Kenneth caught a couple of fish, Joe decided to tie a cowboy bait on and right off noticed the legs were fastened to the body, so he unhooked the legs. They ended up catching a lot of undersized bass in that area and at the end of the day, Joe realized that Kenneth had been catching the big bass with the legs fastened to the body. It is strange how little variations of the same bait produce different results.

Kenneth’s 2 fish weighed 11.62-lb and were good for $831.00. First place paid $665 and Kenneth also caught the big bass of the tournament. It paid $166.

Team	#of fish	Big bass	Team Weight	Points	Winnings	Place	Winning baits
Joe Crouch Kenneth Mahone	2	6.65	11.62	200	$830.00	1st + 1BB	Green pumpkin Yamamoto Cowboy baits with the legs fastened to the body
Matt Gaines Carol Gaines	3	5.06	11.52	199	$386.00	2nd	Glitter bomb chatter bait
Jim Howard Mitch Howard	3		11.51	198	$232.00	3rd	Senkos TX rigged and wacky rigged & Cal craw black and red flake
Reggie Stewart Teri Stewart	3	5.22	11.04	197	$154.00	4^th	June bug Tx rigged
Merle Halcom Walter Besst	3	5.34	10.85	196	$163.00	5^th + 2BB	TX rigged boat docks blue flake worms.

· 34 teams fished

· 3 zeros

· 1 DOA

· 27 teams had limits (3 fish).

· Average weight was 2.69-lbs

· 87 bass weighed in

· $1,765 total payout

· Times – safe light to to 3:00 pm

Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Qyv5UU9K9kWregHe7

Full results (see the Palestine tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet)

http://www.cowboychurchbassclub.org/ccpoints26NorthDiv.htm

LAKE CONDITIONS

The lake level was full. The water clarity was mostly murky. The air temp was 58-82. The water temp was in the 60-70s. Winds 0-10 mph.

We launched at Flat Creek. Grass: Authorities had been spraying Diquat herbicide on the aquatic vegetation in the Kickapoo and Old Folks areas of the lake, so grass was hard to find if any.

SCATTER SHOOTING

We might as well start off with the dock swim. Someone in the crowd said “that’s going to make the write-up” so here it is: Al Kohutek was walking on the floating dock next to the seawall where parts of the dock were missing. He went into the water. The dock was black and there was no light. See the pictures of the dock. Luckly it was not cold and Al had a change of clothes...…We had 34 teams and several new faces. Thanks to Reggie for getting his club signed up to fish with us this year…….Many teams reported catching undersized bass and some teams reported that the practice days were producing better fish……..One team had boat problems.………Les Smith received his Sportsman plaque and several teams that missed the banquet picked up their plaques too….…….Some teams trailered to Kickapoo and Old Folks…...We launched at Flat Creek Marina. John Yohner did all the coordination between the club and marina. https://www.flatcreekmarina.com/ What a great place to hold a tournament. Plenty of parking, great docking area and weigh-in area, nice cabins, 2 lane boat ramp, and friendly service. They went out of their way to make the event great…..Thanks also to Big Rip's Delicious BBQ by Roy Hightower https://www.facebook.com/Bigripsdeliciousbbq/# They served us BBQ at the weigh-in. ……..If you lost your earbuds, Flat Creek Marina has them in the office..….Next tournament will be on Richland Chambers.

LAKESIDE DEVO – Charley David gave the DEVO on “Your perception is your reality”

Audio: http://www.cowboychurchbassclub.org/devo/DevoCharley20260228.m4a

Transcript:

Everybody wanna come in close?

Figured out why the good Lord gave me this voice. Uh... I'll think about John the Baptist, you know? You think that boy didn't have a voice? Didn't have no loudspeakers back in. Spoke. Okay, so, uh, we talked about some this morning your perception. Is your reality? But it can keep you from the truth, right? I mean, people can talk in their mind. They can develop thoughts, but it can also put you in a position where you're not willing to are ready to receive the truth.

You know, my pastor did a deal, um, a few years back. Brother Gary, would you recognize Jesus? So, I'm gonna ask you, John, who in this crowd looks most like Jesus?

I don't know. I ain't got no pictures of you, dude. No? No? And the ones we got, who knows how close they are. Well, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you this. What did Jesus send to live in us, living our hearts? Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. We all got Jesus living in us, boys. Girls, Jesus lives in all of us. You gotta be prepared to get this third look for it. The Pharisees, what were the Pharisees looking for? They were looking for a general. They were looking for a king. They were looking for a strong, you know, somebody like David, right? Gonna conquer the lion, conquer Goliath. So, uh, Isaiah 714. This is 700 years before Jesus came around. All right, then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look, the virgin will conceive a child. She will give birth to a son and we'll call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us. So the question is, is Jesus the lion or the lamb, right? The Jews thought he was gonna be a lion. But what's the word say for the child is born to us, the son is given to us, the government will rest on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. That's not like a warrior? Does it sound like a general? Strong. Come, come, take back what's his. He did come back. He did take work back for it, to see it? With love, and kindness, and healing, and sacrifice. He didn't do it the way we think. He didn't do it the way we eat, had in our mind, you know, that's why, why do you think the people that received Jesus the most were the people who knew the least about the Bible? The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the guys that were educated. They didn't get it, most of them. I mean, there are a few of them did. Most of them didn't get it. They had this thought, and they're mine.

You know, we were talking this morning. I see all these freedoms, freedom hats. Charlie Kirk, the guy that killed Charlie Kirk in his mind, that was his, he believed he was doing the right thing. He believed he was helping the world. Taking this guy out? Because he spoke against what he believed.

We got little kids. in schools. Believing their cats? Dog? Girls thinking the boys, boys thinking they're girls? I mean, my little girl thought she was gonna be a dog. How'd that work, baby girl? She didn't want living the kennel. She didn't want to eat that. You know what? Her reality came back. You know what I mean? Oh. I think more people do that. Set their kids up for success. Set 'em up. Hey, reality is reality. I'm a human being. I'm a little girl. That's where God made me to be.

Anyway, I mean, I'm in the construction business, and in the last 10 years, I will say my, uh... dynamic of what I do has changed 180 degrees and a lot of it is because people keep telling me. You're perception. perception is their reality. But what about the church? Where does the truth come into that? Where does the truth come into your reality? Dude, I'll be number one. Oh, it's like... Brent said this morning, if it crash is your reality, if you're in Christ, then fast is your reality. It wouldn't Christ believe in. The Bible, the book. He said. These are my words right here. It's as many people, this is John 1242. Many people did believe in him. However, including some of the Jewish leaders, but they wouldn't admit it, for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. Whoo! One, one, one, uh, it says, for their riches, they didn't want to lose their wealth. How many know the story about the rich ruler? Man, he's ready to give it all. He ready to do it all, except to give up his wealth. He didn't want to sell everything. Come follow Jesus. He was pretty. own. Yes, sir. Getting fanned by the... palm trees, you know? You didn't want to live that reality. You want to live his reality. And the gosp was dead, right? There's two choices. According to the book, there's two choices there's ever the everlasting life, and there's everlasting death. Choose you this day, which one you're gonna follow. you know? Thank you. Joshua says, as for me in my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. Amen. And I hope you're serving the Lord, too. Because this is a little bitty blitz. In eternity. Probably immeasurable. You know, 10,000 years from today, if you're a Christian, you're still gonna be hanging out with Jesus. 10 years, 10,000 years from today, if you're not, you're still gonna be living death. I don't know what that is. A lot of thoughts on that? A lot of theologists that have opinions, but I can tell you what it ain't. It ain't... it ain't paradise. It ain't live with Jesus. But whatever we're doing, that's where I want to go hang out. So what I'm saying to all you guys is make sure your reality fits biblical reality. Make sure it fits the truth. Because that's what's gonna get you eternal life. All this other stuff, the world, no matter how popular you think it is, no matter how much money it puts in your pocket. It's gonna be worthless. 50 years from now, most of you are gonna be where I'm at. And everything you buy and everything you acquired and everything that you got is gonna be worthless. You know, I always wonder, why did you, why did God pay those... streets of hair with doubles? Because he wanted you to know what it was worth. What do we pay streets with? Concrete and asphalt. Okay? Don't don't mean nothing, it ain't worth nothing up there. What's worth something is our soul. We got to make sure we're taking care of that. Like my little girl, she puts on my wife. She runs through with my kids every morning, they run through, putting on their armor. You know? Preparing for the day. You know? That's the kind of stuff we need to be teaching our kids. That's the kind of stuff we need to be. That needs to be their reality. Doesn't affect your own. That's right.

Hey, Charlie. Anybody? Yes, sir. You know what’s sad? You know, y'all may have heard the bombings commencing over in Iran. Yep. And those people over there, their reality is, we're infidels, and this all stems back from biblical days, and they're here to kill us, you know, any chance they get. And so, you know, that that whole thing... I mean, I know, for a fact, there's Christians over there. Oh, I'm sure. And they're, you know, they're meeting secret secretly, and they're they're under the, you know, under the gun, 'cause if they get caught, they're dead. They just kill him. You know?

I don't know if y'all know, you guys see the Christian fish, this little side note. You know how the Christian fish came about?

Yes….that was a sign. Draw it in the sand, and it would tell them that it's never a Christian. Yep. You walked up, and you did this, another Christian would walk up and do the same thing on the other side, and he'd make Christian fish. There was a sign that you were safe to speak with that person. I'm sure them folks over there that are Christian, they've got assigned to, you know? It's a crazy reality of life. I mean, it's, uh, it's biblical. It's unfolding right here before our eyes, and, uh, we need to be paying attention. Making sure that we got our ducks in row, and our kids got our ducks in row, and we're speaking the truth, even if it's not popular, even if it's not the world doesn't like it. Even if the world doesn't want to hear it, we still got to speak it. Charlie Kirk spoke the truth. And people hated him and loved him for it. And somebody's reality allowed him to kill it. Kill him for you. It's a pretty crazy world.

Prayer Request

so... Anyway, anybody got any prayer requests? I know we always forget to talk about that.

Joe….Yes, sir. My wife's having, uh, heart surgery, the 9th of March. Okay. So I appreciate everybody putting her on your prayer list. Pray for Tina. Yes. All right.

Anybody else? I got my mom's diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It's been a big adjustment for everyone. I mean, we've kind of seen her slipping a little bit, but kind of formally now.

Charley….Yeah, I went to a funeral last weekend, my mom, and I was pulled into Arizona, and she said, What are you doing here? And I said, I'm here for Abby's funeral. She said, We just went to church last week, and Emmy died in December 26. I know I know I know your thoughts. I mean, that's it. That's a crazy deal. Um... Phil Hickle? Uh, I know we need to be praying for Phil. He's going through some stuff.

Anybody else? John….I got an uncle that's in the hospital, who's got some bad problems in his back. Got a couple of vertebras. He'd disintegrate and stuff, and, so, he's been in some bad things for about three months, and been tough, so... Yep. Yes, sir.

Anybody else? All right, let's go, Lord. Heavenly Father, we need something to come before you, Lord. Thank you so much for the gift, the gift of you and the Holy Spirit, Lord, to guide and direct us, Lord. We just ask that we just, uh, everybody here, just... ripped the Band Aid off, Lord. Listen, hear, hear the Spirit speak to us. Know the truth and speak it. Lord, we pray that the fair requests that were brought before us, Lord, that you just hold them up, Lord, that, uh, each and every one of them, Lord, that your will be done. Lord, we love Tina's a long time. Part of this club, and just a sweet, sweet lady, done so much for us. Phil, Lord, you know, what he's going through, Lord, just give him comfort, healing. Lord. Just be with all of them, God direct them, Lord. And most of all, make sure they know you, Lord. So they can be home with you when it's all over. Um, I thank you for everything. I thank you for this club. I thank you for every man and woman here. I praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

All right. Let's give away some Money.

Joe Crouch closed us with a prayer, and we were dismissed.

For more information about the Bass Club email cowboychurchbassclub@hotmail.com or contact Charley David at 214-878-3354

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