July 28, 2012 Dewey Mullins Tribute Bass Tourney

If I had been a betting man when all 21 of us motored away from the dock this morning in our 14 boats, I would have bet you anything that we were going to get another dousing today from Mother Nature, much like the one we all received just two weeks ago. The dark clouds were overhead, and the local weather predictions called for thunderstorms, but as it turned out, not a single one of us saw a single drop of rain fall during our eight hours on the water. Please don't interpret those statements to mean that I was disappointed--quite the opposite. I really wasn't looking forward to waiting another week for my boat to dry out again.

Claiming the first-place prize in today's 11th contest of the 2012 season was the team of Chris and Al Napier, with five fish weighing 14.89 lbs. Second place went to the team of Paul Celentano and Ken Testorff, with five fish weighing 12.15 lbs. Third place went to Jimmy Bauer, with five fish weighing 11.93 lbs.

(L-r) The team of Chris and Al Napier - 1st place, the team of Ken Testorff and Paul Celentano - 2nd place, and Jimmy Bauer - 3rd place.

The other contestants finished as follows: John Matyiko, five fish weighing 10.22 lbs.; Skip Schaible, five fish weighing 10.00 lbs.; Mark London, five fish weighing 9.30 lbs.; Tom Acree, five fish weighing 9.12 lbs.; the team of Jeremy Gatewood and Charlie Reed, five fish weighing 8.29 lbs.; the team of Bob Glass and Randy Conkle, five fish weighing 8.21 lbs.; the team of Steve Bailey and Jason Fittro, five fish weighing 8.20 lbs.; Gary Coderre, five fish weighing 7.11 lbs.; the team of Wayne Hayes and Chris Sims, three fish weighing 6.19 lbs.; and Bobby Moore, four fish weighing 4.86 lbs. The team of Duane and Donny Kessel didn't weigh any fish.

Big fish honors today went to Skip Schaible (left), who caught a bass that tipped the scales at 3.81 lbs. Other participants who weighed big fish were as follows: the team of Chris and Al Napier, 3.67-lb. bass; the team of Paul Celentano and Ken Testorff, 3.39-lb. bass; Jimmy Bauer, 3.18-lb. bass; John Matyiko, 3.16-lb. bass; the team of Wayne Hayes and Chris Sims, 2.40-lb. bass; Tom Acree, 2.30-lb. bass; Mark London, 2.29-lb. bass; the team of Steve Bailey and Jason Fittro, 2.09-lb. bass; the team of Jeremy Gatewood and Charlie Reed, 2.03-lb. bass; the team of Bob Glass and Randy Conkle, 1.85-lb. bass; Gary Coderre, 1.70-lb. bass; and Bobby Moore, 1.40-lb. bass. As noted earlier, the team of Duane and Donny Kessel didn't weigh any fish.

Those 19 anglers who participated in the weigh-in accounted for a total of 62 bass weighing a combined total of 120.47 lbs., for an average of 1.9 lbs. per fish. Adding these numbers to our yearly totals, we end up with a grand total of 478 bass weighing a grand combined total of 885.86 lbs., which leaves our grand yearly average at 1.8 lbs. per fish through 11 events.

Two more anglers today were added to the list of those qualified to fish our season-ending two-day Classic. They include Jeremy Gatewood and Tom Acree. With these additions, we now have 20 anglers who have fished the required four tournaments.

With a front-row seat at today's weigh-in were our West Neck friends (l-r) Jim Rose and Bill Rhodes.

For planning purposes, our next tourney is scheduled for next Saturday, Aug. 4. Start time will be safe light (or approximately 0600). Weigh-in will be at 1400.

For those who weren't around this afternoon when Dewey passed out the money, you missed his lecture about our miserable parking today. He noted that, if we had exercised correct parking habits, he would have been able to fit five more rigs in his limited space. In the future, he asks that the first person to launch on tourney morning make sure to angle (don't pull in straight, then corkscrew at the last moment) their rig as close as possible to the end nearest the ramp. Some folks today got to parking at weird angles, which reduced the amount of overall space available to other patrons. Let's all try to do a better job starting next Saturday. I don't know if he meant it, but Dewey said if he finds the same kind of mess next Saturday, he's going to take his tractor down to the parking lot and rearrange as necessary to make more room. I don't think any of us would be happy if he were to do that.

Granted, Dewey doesn't have white lines chalked on the
ground as you see in this photo, but the alignment here is an
example of what he wants from us.

On a personal note: I'm hoping Paul Celentano and I finally have put our "close but no cigar" habits to a rest with today's 2nd-place finish. Our teamwork was more in sync today than it has been for a very long time. I was nailing keeper fish with various crankbaits, and he was culling them throughout the day with bigger fish on a rubber worm. Our bite basically quit about noon today, and if we hadn't made a last-minute move to a series of finger coves in Albright's, where we spent our entire day, we likely wouldn't have finished in 2nd place. Paul's a great fisherman, and I'm here to tell you I've never seen a fella skip worms up under tight cover any better than he  does. His rod-handling is second to none in my books. I always consider it a privilege to have him in my boat.