How Many Ways Can You Say, "B-R-R! It Was a Cold One"?

When the 15 anglers in 10 boats moved out of the boat basin at West Neck Marina this morning at about 7 o'clock, the temperature was a "cool" 28 degrees. The only good thing about it was the fact the winds were light and variable. It's not often you see frost on the hulls and decks of our boats, but there was plenty to go around this morning, as we launched the inaugural event in our 2013 series.

The first-place prize winner today was Steve Bailey (right), who weighed in the only 5-fish bag of the day. It tipped the scales at 9.34 lbs. He also claimed big-fish honors with a bass that weighed 3.37 lbs.

To be honest, I'm not surprised Steve was the big money-winner today--for a couple of reasons. I saw him on the water Wednesday when he had boated 15 nice fish for his efforts. He said then that he hoped the pattern he'd discovered would hold together for today, and it's evident it did. In fact, I heard him say that he caught a total of 20 bass today, which far surpassed anyone else's best.

The other reason I wasn't surprised at Steve's showing today is the fact he finished at the top of the leaderboard in our first two tourneys last year, as well. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that he's a good cold-water basser.

Here are the other participants in today's contest who walked away with a payday:

(From left) Kevin Mills and Josh Clark claimed 2nd place with 3 fish weighing 5.5 lbs.

Chris Carmell finished in 3rd place with 3 fish weighing 3.90 lbs.

(From left) Jon Malbon and Kevin Leeber ended up in 4th place with 2 fish weighing 3.15 lbs.








The only other anglers in today's field who weighed fish were Chris Fretard and Mike Miller, who fished as a team. They boated 1 bass weighing 3.01 lbs.

Those contestants who "blanked" today were the team of Gary Coderre and Jean Blanchard, the team of Al Lemieux and Noah Alford, and individuals Jim Bauer, John Goodman, and Ken Testorff.

The grand totals from today are as follows: 14 bass weighed in at a combined total weight of 24.95 lbs. Those figures translate into a 1.7-lb. average weight.

For planning purposes, our next tourney is scheduled for Saturday, April 6, from safe light (approximately 6:30 a.m.) to 2:30 p.m.

Anyone with questions can email Ken Testorff at kenneth34@cox.net.

I must apologize for leaving out a couple pieces of important information about yesterday's tourney. First of all, I need to thank the marina owners, David and Teresa Winfree, for their generous incentive contribution of an additional $325 in prize money, which they plan to repeat for our next event, as well. Thanks to that money, we were able to pay two extra places and to sweeten the big-fish pot, too. Second, I need to thank the new marina manager, Steve Winfree, and Kim for making sure all of us anglers had access to all the hot biscuits and coffee we could handle yesterday morning in those 28-degree temperatures. None of your efforts went unnoticed--that I promise.