Aug. 4, 2012 Dewey Mullins Tribute Bass Tourney

It's a good day when all tournament contestants catch fish, and that was the case today.

Claiming the 1st-place prize among the 18 anglers in 11 boats was the team of Bobby Moore and J. P. Twohig, who brought five fish to the scales weighing a total of 15.67 lbs., including the day's lunker at 4.89 lbs., caught by J.P. Second-place honors went to the team of Wayne Hayes and Chris Sims, who also had a bag of five fish, with a total weight of 13.58 lbs.

(Left) First-place winners Bobby Moore and J. P. Twohig with
their money and (middle) with their fish. At right is second-
place winners Chris Sims and Wayne Hayes.

Here's how all the other contestants finished today: the team of Paul Donnelly and Bob Clark, 12.44 lbs.; the team of Bob Glass and Randy Conkle, 12.18 lbs.; Tom Acree, 11.22 lbs.; the team of Chris and Al Napier, 11.05 lbs.; Matt Floyd, 7.67 lbs.; Jim Bauer, 7.50 lbs.; Gary Coderre, 7.49 lbs.; the team of Paul Celentano and Ken Testorff, 7.35 lbs.; and the team of Tucker Blalock and Aaron Phillips, 5.21 lbs.

The lineup of big fish behind J.P.'s lunker winner were as follows: the team of Wayne Hayes and Chris Sims, 4.58 lbs.; the team of Paul Donnelly and Bob Clark, 3.94 lbs.; the team of Bob Glass and Randy Conkle, 3.53 lbs.; the team of Chris and Al Napier, 3.20 lbs.; Tom Acree, 3.12 lbs.; the team of Tucker Blalock and Aaron Phillips, 2.53 lbs.; Jim Bauer, 2.27 lbs.; Matt Floyd, 1.90 lbs.; Gary Coderre, 1.59 lbs.; and the team of Paul Celentano and Ken Testorff, 1.30 lbs.

Dewey and Tom take care of today's weigh-in,
as an angler looks on.

Today's weigh-in saw 53 bass cross the scales, with a combined total weight of 111.36 lbs., not the 80.44 lbs. initially reported by Dewey. These numbers translate into an average weight of 2.1 lbs. per fish. In turn, these figures bring the year-to-date (YTD) number of bass to 531, with a YTD total weight of 997.22 lbs. The YTD average through 12 events remains at 1.8 lbs. per fish.

We now have 23 anglers qualified to fish our season-ending two-day Classic on Oct. 13-14 by virtue of having fished four tourneys. Those three new addees today included Tucker Blalock, Aaron Phillips, and Chris Sims. Unfortunately, however, Chris Sims has U.S. Navy orders to Hawaii and will be leaving the area this coming week. I also learned today that it's likely to be a good spell before Joe McDevitt is able to rejoin us, even for the Classic, because he has suffered a back injury. We wish both Chris and Joe nothing but the very best.

For planning purposes, our next tourney is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 18. Start time will be safe light (or approximately 0630), with weigh-in at 1430. Participating anglers are encouraged to take note of these times because they represent a change from the hours we've been fishing for a while now.

On a personal note: Paul and I were lucky enough to weigh another limit today, but the fish lacked the quality of those we brought to the scales last week. My brown-with-orange-belly Bandit Footloose continued to be my strongest bait. In addition to the six bass I boated, I also caught two bluegill and two white perch with it. My outboard problem still was prevalent today, so it appears I'll be getting my carburetors reworked here soon.