LogoSportsmen Bassmasters

Sportsmen Awards

Bent Prop

Awarded for the biggest, most expensive, or most spectacular damage to boat, motor, or tow vehicle for the year
1997 Dale Richardson
Backing his boat/trailer over a dropoff on a hill which took two 4-wheel drive trucks nearly a hour to pull out.
1998 Brad Eller
Hitting a rock and taking out his dad's lower unit and prop at Divisionals.
1999 Kevin Siefering
Breakdowns of his old Tracker (power head etc.).
2000 Dale Richardson
Hitting two different rocks in the same day (Green Lake) and took out a piston on the first and the lower unit on the second.
2001 Kevin Siefering
Throwing a blade off of his prop during prefishing for the State Tournament at Gull Lake. Thought for a while that he had blown a powerhead because it was shaking and vibrating so much.
2002 Brad Longerbone
Driving his boat in the trees on the Illinois River during Divisionals requiring several guys to push it back into the water.
2003 Robin Olson
Hitting a rock on O'Dowd
2004 Mike Breuer
Spun prop while prefishing Gull for a Fishers of Men tournament and had to spend $300 for a new prop for the tourney the next day.
2005 Paul Becka
Hitting a rock on O'Dowd and then hitting rocks on Waconia pre-fishing.
2006 Mike Daloia
Taking out his lower unit ($6000) on the Horseshoe Chain while fishing a tournament with Bill.
2007  
2008 Ron Grav
Island Reservoir
2009 Mike Breuer
Sheared off lower unit in Mississippi River Pool 2 (Grey Cloud)
2010 Jeff Hoberg
Bent prop by running into "alleged" stump on Lake Vermilion
2011 Mike Breuer
2012 Mike Daloia
2013  
2014 Mickey Goetting
2015 Mike Daloia
2016 Paul Becka
2017 Dan Bonneson
2018 Kevin Watson

Big Bass

Awarded to the angler for the largest bass caught in a Sportsmen tournament for the year
1995 Dale Richardson 4.87 pounds
1996 Brad Eller 4.63 pounds
1997 Don Knutson 4.69 pounds
1998 Brad Eller 5.56 pounds
1999 Mike Daloia/Kevin Siefering 4.38 pounds
2000 Carey Nordling 5.21 pounds
2001 Jim Haynes 5.05 pounds
2002 Brad Longerbone 4.70 pounds
2003 Jeff Smith 6.26 pounds
2004 Paul Nord 5.26 pounds
2005 Mike Daloia 6.00 pounds
2006 Mike Daloia 6.20 pounds
2007 Brent Schwab 5.22 pounds
2008 Chris Glaze 5.40 pounds
2009 Brent Schwab 4.70 pounds
2010 Mike Daloia 5.64 pounds
2011 Terry Aten 5.80 pounds
2012 Mike Daloia 5.80 pounds
2013 Mike Daloia 5.75 pounds
2014 Craig Belbeck 4.56 pounds
2015 Mike Daloia 4.64 pounds
2016 Dan Bonneson 4.86 pounds
2017 Paul Becka 4.45 pounds
2018 Tim Berg 5.20 pounds
2019 Kevin Watson 4.84 pounds
2020 Shaun Fowler 5.00 pounds
2021 Bill Young 5.04 pounds
2022 Paul Becka 5.14 pounds
2023 Bill Young 5.15 pounds

Broken Tool

Awarded for the most boat, motor, or tow vehicle breakdowns for the year
2000 Bill Young
Inspired the creation of the award for a full year of problems with his brand new Triton and Mercury Optimax 200. First incident was the motor breaking down at the Classic Bass Invitational in May. Final incident was a blown lower unit at the Sportsmen Hawg Hunt and had to be towed in by Dale and Mike McD. Bad luck continued with Bill's loaner boat for the last club tournament (Tonka) breaking down.
2001 Brad Longerbone
Blowing his powerhead for the second year in a row at Okoboji. The boat was promptly sold and replaced with a new Ranger 518.
2002 Rusty Bisek
Blowing up his Yamaha motor during the Le Homme Dieu tournament.
2003 Rob Amos
"Brain box" on Suzuki dies and had to order a new one directly from Japan.
2004 Dale Richardson
During the spring trip in Stockton, Dale's driving Mike McDonough's Champion and it breaks down and Dale gets towed in by his old Champion by Rob and Mickey.
2005 Mike Breuer
Evinrude motor issues all season. Takes out lower unit on Rush during Frankies Tourney. Motor blows during club's Gull tournament. Motor acts up at Fishers of Men Regional Championship (Table Rock) and visits two marine dealers.
2006 Mary Purdue
2007  
2008 Paul Becka
2009 Mickey Goetting
2010 Jeff Hoberg  
2011 Bill Young  
2012 Mike Breuer  
2013 Tom Revard  
2014    
2015    
2016    
2017 none  

Dirty Sock

Awarded to the Sportsmen who pulled the biggest bonehead or embarrassing stunt for the year
1997 Bill Young
Trying for several hours to cut a hook out of his hand, rather than let his partner use the widely known and highly successful technique of looping a piece of line around the hook and popping it out.
1998 Jeff Smith
For not securing his jacket on the boat during State Tournament at Whitefish. Jacket blew overboard (including keys). With no spare, he had to call a locksmith.
1999 Dale Richardson/Mike McDonough
Caught by the DNR for using the wrong type of bait and techniques while fishing for "sunnies" the day before bass season opened.
2000 Brad Longerbone
While culling a bass during a club tournament, accidentally throwing the culled fish and the bigger fish both back in the lake, thus having four bass in the livewell.
2001 Joel Smith
While shopping Bass Pro Shops (Springfield, Missouri), running around an aisle corner and straight into Ray Scott, founder of B.A.S.S. and Earl Benz, Triton boats, knocking both of them on their butts.
2002 Bill Young
Purchasing a ticket to fly in from Washington DC to attend a Sportsmen meeting to win Mr. Bass award. Only to fly back to DC the next morning and leave his ticket at home requiring his wife to bring his to the airport.
2003 Jeff Smith
Hooks himself in the face with a Pop-R.
2004 Mike Breuer
- drives to Gull lake but has to drive back home to return his purse to his wife
- when unhooking boat it rolls back and new prop meets Days Inn pillar at Quincy, Illinois for Fishers of Men Regionals
- while prefishing N/S Center, he and Matt McConnell cannot find the rear butt seat...another boater tells them a seat is floating in North Center
- gets boat stuck on sandbar in Clearwater
- hooks a nice bass on Tonka while fishing with Mike Daloia and thinks he is caught in the buoy...ends up being a 5-pound bass
2005 Paul Becka
- some Illinois boy takes Paul's boat slip during a rain storm and gets his power cords dumped to the bottom of Pomme De Terre
- leaves Jim Battin's truck lights on and causes a dead battery
- pulls drain plug during Horseshoe tourney but forgets to tell his partner, Paul Nord, to get his fish out
2006 Mike Breuer
Sticking his tongue to a flagpole during February's CastingKids event.
2007 Todd Martin
Running out of gas at end of Chisago tournament with President Paul Becka and being towed back by Dave Saterbak.
2008 Mike Burcusa
Getting Bill Rineveld's boat and truck stuck at the Pelican Lake boat ramp.
2009 Paul Becka
2010 Bill Young
2011 Mike Daloia
2012 Mike Breuer  
2013 Dave Huttner  
2014 Craig Belbeck  
2015 Bill Rineveld  
2016    
2017 Paul Becka  

Mr. Bass

Awarded to the Sportsmen with the most overall points (including participation points) for the year
1996 Brad Eller 146.63 points
1997 Dale Richardson 161.00 points
1998 Dale Richardson 167.41 points
1999 Bill Young 172.99 points
2000 Kevin Siefering 208.33 points
2001 Dale Richardson 179.40 points
2002 Bill Young 170.34 points
2003 Brad Longerbone 204.54 points
2004 Cal McCracken 192.97 points
2005 Dale Richardson 197.71 points
2006 Cal McCracken 213.50 points
2007 Pat Bisek 190.69 points
2008 Craig Belbeck 163.39 points
2009 Bill Young 174.80 points
2010 Bill Young 199.38 points
2011 Mike Daloia 195.06 points
2012 Mike Daloia 226.08 points
2013 Mike Daloia 199.07
2014 Paul Becka 164.91
2015 Bill Young 196.33
2016 Bill Young 129.16
2017 Bill Young 200.89
2018 Tim Berg 161.53
2019 Craig Belbeck 164.16
2020 Shaun Fowler 186.94
2021 Bill Young 207.91
2022 Dan Bonneson 193.12
2023 Mike Desplenter 195.60

Sportsmen of the Year

Our most coveted award--awarded to the Sportsmen who best exhibits the qualities of Sportsmen Bassmasters
1996 Dale Richardson
1997 Brad Eller
1998 Dale Richardson
1999 Mike Daloia
2000 Mike McDonough
2001 Brad Longerbone
2002 Dale Richardson
2003 Paul Becka
2004 Cal McCracken
2005 Dale Richardson
2006 Mickey Goetting
2007 Paul Becka
2008 Bill Young
2009 Dale Richardson
2010 Phil Burton
2011 Mike Daloia
2012 Jim Battin
2013 Mickey Goetting
2014 Bill Young
2015 Dan Bonneson
2016  
2017 Bill Young
2018 Tim Berg
2019 Craig Belbeck
2020 Dan Bonneson
2021 Bill Young
2022 Dan Bonneson

Top Hook

Awarded to the top angler (tournament points) for the year
1996 Brad Eller 40.63 pounds
1997 Dale Richardson 39.15 pounds
1998 Dale Richardson 44.78 pounds
1999 Mike Daloia 59.18 pounds
2000 Kevin Siefering 86 points
2001 Bill Young 95 points
2002 Rob Amos 130 points
2003 Brad Longerbone 130 points
2004 Brad Longerbone 129 points
2005 Clay Hulegaard 96 points
2006 Cal McCracken 105.5 points
2007 Dan Bonneson 114 points
2008 Dale Richardson 84.5 points
2009 Dan Bonneson 98.5 points
2010 Phil Burton 122 points
2011 Mike Daloia 108 points
2012 Mike Daloia 89.5 points
2013 Mike Daloia 88 points
2014 Bill Young 94 points
2015 Dan Bonneson 59 points
2016 Bill Young 60 points
2017 Bill Young 74 points
2018 Tim Berg 66 points
2019 Bill Young 74 points
2020 Dan Bonneson 78 points
2021 Bill Young 83 points
2022 Dan Bonneson 77 points
2023 Bill Young 143 points*

* place points: minimum 30 points for 1st place