Cast For Kids - Youth Scholarship and Benefit Tournament

Take a kid fishing. If you’ve spent any amount of time hanging out in the local tackle shops, online forums, or perusing through your favorite angling magazines and newsletters, no doubt you have heard this slogan. For some, this particular slogan means much more. In Delaware, the number of publicly open youth fishing clubs is on the rise. Starting from zero just a few years ago, both the Delaware B.A.S.S. Federation Nation and the Delaware Bass Federation (TBF/FLW) have seen a dramatic increase in membership numbers.

Delaware B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Youth Director Robert Moody, also Executive Director of the Reel Expectations organization (http://www.reelexpectations.org/), throughout his career as a high school resource officer and state police trooper has seen his share of disadvantaged children wandering aimlessly through life. Mr. Moody, through his involvement with Reel Expectations and the Delaware bass fishing community, has organized a tremendous opportunity for adults and youth alike. That opportunity is the Cast for Kids tournament, a.k.a. the Mel Seichepine Memorial Youth Scholarship tournament.

The CFK tournament pairs adult anglers and their youth counterparts in a fun-filled day of tournament fishing that benefit the scholarship fund in honor of the late Melvin “Big Daddy” Seichepine, former Vice President of the Delaware Bass Federation and Delaware youth fishing pioneer. The Reel Expectations organization has conducted the tournament for the past seven years, leading up to this year’s event on May 22nd on the Nanticoke River in Seaford, Delaware.
Since 2003, the CFK tournament has fielded over 200 teams of anglers young and old, given away over 150 rod/reel combinations to the younger participants, and raised over $8,000 for the scholarship fund. The $40 entry fee has remained unchanged since the inception, which makes the tournament affordable, and at that price, really tough to beat for a day on the water with a child, or teen.

Each year, the Delaware Bass Federation selects students from the Delmarva area as recipients of the scholarship fund. Many of those young people participated in the event as youth anglers. In addition to other professions, Mr. Moody expressed “we are blessed to have nurses, teachers and law enforcement officers that were beneficiaries of the Mel Seichepine scholarship fund.”

As this year’s event concluded, I am happy to report that numbers of youth anglers, as they were coming off the water and made their way to the weigh-in stage, were obviously thrilled by the day’s activities. Their day on the water with either a parent or a volunteer boater made for one very special day that I am sure they will not soon forget.

Personally, I was taken back after it was all said and done by my young partner. He is 14 years old and spends most of his fishing days in a local storm water retention pond in his community, fine tuning his skills and catching glorious numbers and sizes of largemouth bass. At 14 his largest fish to date is a 6 ½ pound largemouth bass, at age 39…mine is 7 pounds.

For the record, my youthful energetic partner caught our team’s lunker on a tomato colored senko, and I swear I’ve never seen a kid smile so wide for so long! As he tired half way through the day, I enjoyed just peering out the corner of my eye, watching as he would lift the livewell lid to admire the fish, and sit down on the rear deck, but still keep on casting. Moments in my fishing career that I know I will never forget! Thanks Matt!

Director of Pro Staff for Explosive Tackle Company

I am pleased to announce that Ryan Abey, owner of Explosive Tackle Company, based out of the Millington, MD area on the Upper Eastern Shore, has provided me the opportunity to assume the position of Director of Pro Staff. I am grateful to Ryan for this opportunity and i will tackle it as one major challenge during these tougher economic times.

Ryan has once again provided a positive outlook for his bait company in 2010, and I hope that we are able to expand upon the successes we had as a company in 2009! Here's to moving forward in a competitive industry!

On the forefront of the company's 2010 spring kick-off, Explosive Tackle will be holding their annual Early Bird Cabin Fever Sale, beginning Friday February 19th, running through Sunday February 21st.

Stop by the site, and check out the sale prices for all of Explosive Tackle's hottest selling line of jigs and wiggle blades.

My New Rig for 2010...

Finally, after years and years of debating and waiting, the time has come to upgrade the tournament rig. I've negotiated a deal for a 2009 Skeeter 20i Class bass boat with a 225hp Yamaha Vmax Series 2 motor, complete with Humminbird electronics, and the new Minn Kota 101lb. Fortrex trolling motor. The boat is in cherry condition and a proven winner as attested by a Mr. Dave Mansue, the 2009 BASS Northern Open winner on the Chesapeake Bay last year. As you all know I fished the Open last year with a respectful 29th place finish. Little did I know that as I watched Mr. Mansue take the victory photo shoot out of his new Skeeter, that boat would one day be mine.

I originally saw the boat posted on Bass Coat Central back in July. As December approached, I registered for The Bass University in which I knew Dave Mansue was presenting (his experience on winning the Upper Bay Open and tactics) and thought I would see if the boat was 1.) still available...and 2.) get the low down on it.

What a great guy he is to talk to. Very personable and truly a friendly fisherman. We spoke for a while on the boat and the discussion transitioned into his qualifying for the Elite Series, and the poor timing he was dealt with to pull together the money to fish it. But that's another story.

It wasn't until the 1st of January when I thought it was time to get serious about the boat upgrade. The financing came through quite easily. Next step was negotiating with Dave for the purchase and now the wheels are in motion.

So with the deal very nearly done, our plan is to pick the boat up from Dave at the Bassmaster Classic (sheesh, ok I'll go!). He agreed to trailer it from his "new" home state of Texas to Alabama where I would meet him and pick it up, and take in the Classic experience of course.

My experience with the boat purchase has been an easy one. Even selling the old Tracker has been relatively easy. Accepted an offer just yesterday, and should move it out in the next few weeks, once the weather breaks. I will miss her for sure, but will gladly make room for the new Skeeter...after all..."Eat. Sleep. Fish." What else is there? (besides my wonderful family of course!)

Great Season Upended During the SQT

A great season was upended and brought to a grinding halt as I failed to not only make the 2010 Delaware BASS State Team, but I never managed a single limit in two days of fishing.

Two days of pre-fishing practice on the Nanticoke River the week prior led me to believe i had enough locations and concentrations of fish to at least grind a out two solid limits, maybe a kicker fish or two. With my recent success on the river I felt the low tide bite was no problem and focused my efforts on finding fish on the high tide in shallow water, which i did during practice. My day 1 partner felt he was on good enough fish in the Marshy Hope Creek he convinced me to let him go as a boater and take the low tide bite, and i would just put us on fish during the high tide.

As the day (day 1) unfolded, we both managed just a few fish early during the low tide phase. When the water started coming in, we jettisoned out to my high water spots. I was convinced I had enough fish located and pinned down I could fill my limit with a quick 3 fish during the toughest part of the day. We arrive to the 1st spot. A pad field with tons of laydowns in shallow water behind the pads. The fish are there in spots but not stacked up. I can't find the bites now, and my partner sticks a 1 1/2 pounder off my one spot...after my three tries. Frustrating!

We blast out to my 2nd spot, again, can't find the bites today in these specific locations, and my partner again, sticks another 1-2 pound fish. My 3rd spot which has been loaded with keeper fish for a good week, yields zero this day and its time to give the boat back during the last 2 hours of the day.

We spend the rest of the day up Marshy Hope Creek and my partner gets a few more good fish which allows him to cull a few pounds. Running and gunning for remainder we find ourselves out of time and decide to head back to the ramp for weigh-in. Long story short his motor blows down near sharpetown with about 15 minutes to spare, and we were unable to get to the weigh-in in time. Our catch was DQ'd.

So on Day 2, being down one day's catch had me thinking to fish big to even stand a chance at making the team. Hit some quality fish spots here there with no real success. Around 10 we head up to one of my more favorite spots, and lay into the keepers pretty good. My partner this day was out-fishing me 3 to 1 with a brush hog. i was tossing the jig trying to get a bigger bite. We caught probably 15 or fish here, and to no avail, I only boated 3 keepers all day for 3.50 pounds, kept me well out of contention, and brought to close a very frustrating 2 days of fishing.

Angler of the Year title all but wrapped up...

With the season winding down, and the tight race for 1st place in the Eastern Shore Bassmasters club 2009 Angler of the Year race coming down the final stretch, i find myself just ahead of my buddy Josh by near ounces.

We start on the Nanticoke River. Always a fun tournament anymore, or so it seems. Only this time its meaning a little more...a total of 8.04 points or pretty much a half pound of fish over the course of the 2009 season seperates Josh and I heading in.

I've been on the Nanny a few times just recently and found some pretty good patterns holding up. As most of you should know by reading my blog, my more favorite summer pattern of cranking pad ledges in summer is still smoking. I started the day cranking a few choice spots and earning a solid 1 1/2 pound per fish average limit which would put me in a good position at the end of the day to make a good run with a kicker fish. It wasn't until after I discovered slowing down with the crankbait and tossing a particular style worm in the same areas I was catching these fish and starting to upgrade.

This worm, not a popular choice by me since I was at least 15 years old fishing out of the jon boat with my dad and brother, found its way in my box after fishing the Delaware B.A.S.S. Federation Nation open on the Sassafras River with my good friend Ryan. So after giving the worm a fair shake, literally, i was beginning to upgrade my fish and thought better to go exploring new areas, after the bite on the crankbait was fizzling.

I struck gold! I pulled up on a deep point with lots of moving water and deep cover in about 10 feet and began casting the worm, probing the cover looking for a bite. Lo and behold my 1st fish here is a good one. I set the hook and can feel teh weight of her pulling. I get her to the boat after a nice fight and plenty of prayers, and land a beautiful 3 1/2 pounder. Sweet! A few casts later a 2 pounder shows his face and its game on!

I run a distant stretch of a larger tributary off the Nanticoke, figuring I should find some new areas I've not fished before that appeal as my recent success has...deeep moving water and submerged cover. I pull up on an overhanging tree in ripping current and to my surprise, sort of, stick a pig on the worm. I fight the fish all the way to the boat and realize i have to lip the monster. As I watch him fight and leap and bound, it wasn't long before he spit the hook and was gone! This guy pushing 4 pounds easily.

I stay on the pattern and with time running out in the day work my way back to the 1st point with deep water and stick yet another 3 pounder on the worm. At this point I really felt I had this tourney won, but was expecting Josh to get on fish good too, as he talked about running up to the Marshy Hope Creek. When I saw him idling through the creek we had a chance to talk and assured me he had only two small keepers, but of course i didn't believe him until he pulled the little guys out of the livewell. So of course i had to show him mine best two and the lokk was priceless. Nothing like watching the color drop from his face and the half grin.

So on the day, I managed a decent limit cranking pad edges until I found a good bite and then probed the area with a worm in a little deeper water, to find a better bite. After the cranking bite slowed, I kept on the worm pattern in deeper moving water and filled a very nice limit, with 2, almost 3 kicker fish that put in 1st p[lace with 10.22 pounds, and even better 183 points.

With the Lums Pond tourney coming up, the last of the year, i knew it was going to take a great day on the pond for Josh to steal this one away...considering we both have putting up similar numbers all year out there.

Jig Bite Cashes the Check on the Lake...

This Spring is going by really fast! It’s the end of May already and the fishing is picking up once again. Our club has been running these every other Friday tournaments with some really great success. It seems to have caught on with another club here in the area. This time, I was just a participant.

We got together with a few guys from a local pond club who put together this cash-only winner takes all tourney Saturday morning. My partner for the day was my good friend and fellow club member Don Murray. Both Don and myself were feeling pretty good about the day. As we loaded up the boat and prepared for the morning, the air temps were about mid-60’s and the water temps hovering in the low 70’s. I thought a good top water bite for sure once we embarked.

We hit up a pad field early in the back of the lake, tossing the Spro Bronzeye Popping Frog and Lobino topwater Rico. I had a lot of luck in the back of the lake here in early April when the fish were gearing up for the spawn, which in fact was when I was last on the lake. Most of that pre-spawn activity has dwindled and the fish were not cooperating at this point. We worked our way to the very back of the lake where the feeder creek narrows, and only had one short fish on the frog, and Don was getting harassed mostly, by some very aggressive bluegill.

After about an hour and a half of working topwater lures in the pads for any bites, we decided to head down lake and try some open water flipping and pitching to submerged cover. Here we began getting bit by a few nice keeper fish in the area. Don was fishing a 3/8 Black/Brown jig with trailer, and I was tossing a 3/8 oz. Terminator Pro Secret jig in olive/blue tipped with a Zoom big salty chunk. We managed some short fish and keepers, and in no time Don had two keepers to my one in the box, and we were on our way.

We tried a few other similar spots but quickly realized that it wasn’t the cover we were fishing but the positioning of the sun on that cover. By 9:00AM the sun got high enough into the sky and positioned these fish in the hard cover around the lake. Knowing this I quickly switched to my ½ oz. Explosive Tackle football jig in “easternshore”. It wasn’t long after I had a solid 3 pounder on a laydown tree, under direct sunlight. I felt what I thought was a real soft, subtle bite, and sure enough, stuck a beauty in the timber, but she somehow managed to shake me off within seconds. Disappointing yes, but encouraging too, because I knew we were on something.

As the morning went on, we found ourselves hitting one prime target after another and scoring big time. I was getting good quality bites on the jig and by 10:00AM we were culling fish. With my knowledge of the lake I know there are areas that hold good fish, and others that don’t do as well. We spent our time running to each of these prime spots and picking them apart. We actually hit one particular laydown and caught two beautiful bass, both at 3 pounds or greater, and each at a different time. Found the sweet spot, that’s all.

One of our last spots held a nice looking laydown, again in the direct sunlight. Two strokes of the jig and I felt yet another very subtle bite, this time with a little pressure. I set the hook and fought a beautiful 3 ¾ pounder all the way to the boat and at this time, both don and I knew we had this one wrapped up. We knew it, but also thought that if we do get beat out here, our competitors earned it because we had a sack of fish! Our best estimate was 17 pounds. What a day.

We get back to weigh-in at 12:00PM, and check in with everyone else. They all pretty much caught some fish, and others some good fish. When it was all said and done, our 5 fish limit weighed in at 16 ½ pounds, and took 1st place…not a bad day at all. The team that took 2nd place only had 12 ½ pounds, and I believe 3rd place was some where around 8 pounds.

I pretty much believe we were on fish all day, but had to wait for the quality fish to move in from the open water and get under that cover. And boy when they did…

Starting Fresh in Delaware

If you notice the bass fishing getting better on Delaware's Griffith Lake, you can thank the Eastern Shore Bassmasters (ESB). They're the ones who partnered with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and their GO FISH program to improve the habitat on the popular lake near Milford.

GO FISH stands for "Go Fill In Structural Habitat." Catherine Martin is a Division of Fish & Wildlife Fisheries Biologist with the State of Delaware as well as the GO FISH program administrator. She describes it like this: "Fishing clubs provide donated materials and the manpower to deploy the structures. Following placement of habitat units, the Division posts a sign at the access area designating the angling club as a cooperator." The Division also provides technical assistance on structural designs, appropriate sites and supplemental materials.

Hearns Pond, Killens Pond and Griffith Lake have benefited from the GO FISH program.Griffith Lake lost its entire bass population in 2006 after the dam was breached and the lake had to be drained in order to make repairs. Most of the fish in the lake were captured through electrofishing and transplanted to nearby Blair's Pond. When the Griffith repairs were completed, the fish were returned.

Structurally, Griffith Lake has little to offer anglers. "Most of the lake bottom consists of a silty mud, and prior to our project it had a featureless benthic texture," according to Delaware BFN Conservation Director Bob Wallace. "By placing submerged structures in the lake, it provides a place for invertebrates to colonize and young-of-year fish to congregate. This perpetuates the cycle that predatory fish need to be supported on. Our project was aimed to kick start the fishery by providing the bare essentials that a fishery needs to be sustainable on its own."

In addition to the habitat work, the club also stocked Griffith with 600 advanced fingerling bass.
To date, two other fisheries have been enhanced through the Go FISH Program: Hearns Pond in 2002 and Killens Pond in 2008.

For more information on GO FISH contact Martin at mailto:catherine.martin@state.de.us.

this article courtesy of www.bassmaster.com

2009 Northern Open - Day 3

Day Three! Thirty Anglers and thirty co-anglers...all getting a check! I was pumped. My inexperience in fishing these really big tournies had me thinking i was good (in a good place). No matter what happens today I am cashing a check in a B.A.S.S. Open tourney. I draw a local Maryland Pro Aaron Hastings. Aaron won the 2007 Walmart FLW tour event on Lake Travis in 2007 beating the home-town favorite Clark Wendlandt of Texas.

I meet up with Aaron early Saturday morning and we discuss our plans over coffee on a relatively cold-brisk morning. Aaron was currently 19th overall in the boater standings after 2 days. He described the pattern he stumbled on during the 2nd day which helped propel him into the top 20 after a 3-fish, 24th place day-1 finish. The fish were staging on grassy spawning flats and coming up to feed on their favorite local forage, the bluegill.

We spent a short while in the area of furnace bay on the grassy flats there tossing any bluegill imitation baits. Aaron was sticking a few shorts and no other real luck from the back of the boat. After about and hour and a half, we head over to Cara Cove where we camp out for the rest of the day. It then dawns on me, Aaron is the guy we saw "putting on the clinic" on day 2.

His pattern was catching the fish transitioning from the deeper outer grass edge up to the warmer shallows, but his success relied on two things...water temp and tide. It was amazing to watch this guy work, a technician with the rod and reel. Never seen anyone crank and remove grass and debris from his bait, all without stopping to grab the grass. Imagine a painter flailing the brush like Zorro...an artist, skimming just enough of the bait on the surface of the water to rip the grass from the bait.

When the tide and water got right, I'm telling you no lie...there was a window, right at about 1 o'clock, of about 15 minutes where Aaron wrapped up four quick 3 pounders in a row. I was amazed at the timing of it all myself. These fish appeared to be following a migration route in a cut out channel of weed growth to the nearest dock for shade as the water came up. Textbook!

Needless to say, Aaron didn't leave much. I think I had maybe 4 fish all day, 12-14 inches, no keepers. Nonetheless, I still held on to 29th place and earned a nice little check in my first major tournament as a co-angler. I was pleased. Aaron had propelled himself to 7th overall with his catch.

B.A.S.S. Northern Open - Day 2

Day 2 of the Northern Open gets off to great start. I’m already sitting in 16th position out of almost 200 anglers and I am feeling really good about my chances. My draw partner, is a little out of it, but gets his nose to grind anyway. Paul Molan, is an accomplished angler from Ohio, typically an Erie fishermen. The irony here is that this guy catches smallies on big water, and can make a decent earning in doing so. When he got out here was convinced by the locals to go after the largemouth bite that was going to win it. Sadly he focused on the green fish bite and it was a 22 pound sack of smallies that came in on day 1. Poor guy!

I meet Paul early and we discuss our plan over coffee and the breakfast buffet served up to the competitors all three days at the Naughti Goose restaurant, right there at the marina. He’s been on good fish during practice pitching jigs to docks and working a well known deep drop in Turner’s Creek, on the Sassafras. He struggled a bit during Day 1 but his spots were well known and getting hammered pretty regularly.

We get into Turner’s about 7AM and Chris Price is working the drop pretty hard. He appears to be on to something because we watched him work the drop for a good hour before we pack up and leave, comeback another hour later and he’s still there. Only to find out his engine broke down, and he was forced to stay.

So with nothing going on with us in Turner’s we head out to a few familiar spots on the Sass and again they just weren’t producing like we had hoped. About mid morning we work our way back up to the Northeast and start pitching jigs to docks, then working grassbeds with spinnerbaits and rattle traps.

We pull up on a decent looking dock, it has good water on it, and providing plenty of shade in the sun for the fish to seek shelter. He mentions he caught a 5 pounder here during practice. I fish it well but don’t get too excited, just work methodically. So much can change over the course of a day, especially in a large tournament as this. We strike out here.

We work our way over into Cara Cove. Plenty of boats here and we witness one o the competitors putting on a clinic with short fish (more on this on Day 3). We figure he’s throwing a spinnerbait and try to match the technique. We start getting bit in the grass, but all or short. Very good fish, all pushing the limit at about 14 to 14 ½ inches, but no keepers. We stay on this pattern for much of the remainder of the day.

It was real disappointing thinking that I was so close to really improving my odds of making the cut but with no fish I was sure I would miss the cut. Maybe cash a check but I had my eyes on more.

So we get to the weigh-in. As we were 147th, we were pretty much last to weigh in, or at least show. I get to the board and I am holding at 26th. Hard to believe yes, but I was holding on. I watch the line of co-anglers yet to weigh-in get smaller as I am getting bumped notch by notch. Few make it to the stage with good bags of fish but they pretty much zeroed on Day 1 and Day 2’s weight wasn’t enough. I can’t believe my eyes but I get bumped to 29th, and they wrap up the weigh-in. I made the cut with a place to spare, after not weighing in fish.

I live to fight another day…

B.A.S.S. Northern Division Open - Day 1

I am very very pleased to publish the accounts of my first B.A.S.S. Open division tournament experience. It seems like such a long time coming but they day finally arrived and I found my self right in the thick of things.

The drive out to Perryville, site of the tournament briefing and my hotel, takes roughly about an hour and change from Dover, but the down pour I experienced on the road held me up a bit and I was certain was going to impact the fishing in some way.

The registration briefing was pretty cool. The briefing was to begin at 5PM, and around 4 or so, I was seated with Don, Ron, and Don’s friend Scott Sewell, the Maryland B.A.S.S. Conservation Director. As we were getting close to beginning, the Pros started filtering in. Some guys in the briefing room looked a little star struck at seeing the likes of Ike walking around. I was cool, but it was neat to see Marty Stone sit down the next row over. Then Byron Velvick, Ish Monroe, Greg Hackney, Jeremy Starks, Charlie Hartley, and Mike Iaconelli come in and set up in their little clique by the door. Ken Cook, the Bassmaster Classic winner on the Upper Bay back in the early 90’s was there too!

A great scene, and the nerves are setting in just realizing how big of a deal this tourney was. My expectations were a lot greater.

So we draw. I get the 47th boat with a New Jersey boater who was at the very least, there in body! Our discussion outside led me to believe has hasn’t done anything in practice but catch one fish (showed it to me on his camera phone). He just came up Wednesday and fished for a couple of hours prior to the briefing, and then he tells me he’s not in his boat, but a friend’s. Dude was totally unorganized from the gate, and already I had concerns.

So just prior to launch on Day 1 we discuss a few spots my “pro” wanted to fish. With him not being on much of anything I was suggesting a few spots on the Sass that though could be productive low outgoing tide spots, but he was set on his own. We launch 47th and as soon as we hit the end of the no wake zone, he takes a hard right towards the docks along the beach at the condos in the Northeast.

As most, if not all locals know, there is a rather large sand bar that runs across this area before getting to those docks. The tide was low and pulling out and I thought for sure he saw the bar and the riffles coming off of it. We hit it pretty good at about 35 mph, and just sort of bounced up and over it. No big deal. But as he jokingly added later, “it really polished the prop”! That thing was looking clean at the end of the day!

We pretty much fish this junk until all of the boats on the field have left. We then head down to his out of the way honey hole or so we thought. We get down to this point in the Elk River and follow one boat through, another Delaware boater from the federation nation. I thought not a big deal really I’ll fish behind another boat, no problem. Only when we turned the corner there were already 8 other boats stacked up on this tiny hole, including Iaconelli, and a great Maryland local angler, Chris Price.

We spend about an hour flippin and pitchin to dock pilings, and I think I may have caught 2 dinks, both under 10 inches. Don’t see anyone catch anything the whole time we’re there. My pro was tossing (had to be) a ¼ oz drop shot, splashing, hitting seawalls and dock boards, driving me nuts. I pretty much spent my time fishing opposite of him.

We move back to the corner eventually as Chris rolls out of there. A great little set-up, nice corner of a small marina, dock pilings, shade and floating debris. So my boater rolls in this area to take a whiz and I am thinking WTF?!?!

I try casting my green pumpkin senko as far away as possible now. This time 10 feet of the outside face of the pilings in the basin. Its sits, I reel up the slack and the line is shooting off to the right in a big way. I set the hook and it’s a beauty! A nice 4 pounder putting on a show for all the boats in the marina. I quickly unhook her and drop her in the livewell. Everyone’s watching, with admiration and jealously I’m sure! I cast the senko a few more times, again just off the outside pilings without another bite. Here I’m switching to my Explosive Tackle Wiggle Blade in Sexy Shad and after about the 3rd cast, I hook into another good fish. This one going about 2 ½ and a solid fish to say the least. I went for the reaction bite believing there were more fish in the area.

After about an hour fishing this same spot with out another bite, we decide to head out. Long story short…that was my 2 keepers for the day. We pittered around Still Pond area for about an hour, ran up to the Sass for a few spots that didn’t produce. My guy then hands the reigns over to me so we head up to one of my spots. Lo and behold he hangs a 2 ½ pounder on a brown jig that could have easily propelled me into the top 10 for that day had I got him. Nonetheless I was pretty happy for him because I know he must have been steaming when I pulled 6 ½ pounds off of his spot early.

We get back to weigh-in, my two fish go for 6 pounds 4 ounces and I knew I had a pretty good shot at breaking top 75 or so. I wasn’t real sure what everyone else was doing. Out of the first 60 or so boats to weigh-in I hold down 11th. As the day goes by I’m watching co-anglers come up short and I’m still holding pretty high. When it was all said and done, I lock up 16th place on the co-angler side for the 1st day! Not a bad day considering I thought I was going to be in the tank heading into this thing with my boater that hadn’t put much time in. Apparently he did enough…for me!