All the Usual Ingredients, Plus a Few More

That's how I would describe today's Region 7 tourney held out of Munden Point Park in Virginia Beach. There were the boats--39 in all--and the fishermen--78, to be exact, and, of course, what would a bass tournament be without a little rain, which greeted all the anglers at 0-dark-30 this morning as they were trying to get their boats in the water.

But there also were a couple other items in full view today, neither of which could be classed as "usual" ingredients at a bass tournament. The first item was this nose-in-the-air jet ski that a pleasure boat towed into the Munden Point ramp area while tournament boats were starting to recover today. The story I got was that the jet-ski operator had hit a piece of rope somewhere on the water, causing the craft to flip and fill with water. Supposedly, no one suffered any injuries. Given my own experiences to date with jet-ski operators, I couldn't help wondering if this incident didn't involve someone who was, for lack of a better word, hot dogging.

The other item "slithered" into view during the weigh-in--that's right, I'm talking about a snake, a bright green one. The weighmaster, Wayne Hayes, had turned around to say a few words to a friend during a break in the weigh-in festivities. When he turned back around to resume his duties, there lay the green snake on the platform where he had to stand while weighing fish. Another fella grabbed the snake and returned it to an area a safe distance away from all the participants and onlookers.

Other than that, it pretty much was business as usual for a Region 7 bass tourney.

Here's what things looked like this morning as anglers were dumping their rain-soaked rigs in the water. With the rain coming down steadily, I sat in my vehicle this morning, watching anglers don their rain gear and rig their boats while thinking to myself, "Golly but I'm glad I'm not fishing today."

As you readily can see from this photo, the water level was, as I like to describe it, "sky high." With all the southwest winds we've had in recent days, it was a given that all the anglers would be working with a "full pool" today.

Finally, to everyone's delight, it was time to let the anglers go fishing, a job handled today by Rob Chatham (holding clipboard far right).

With their fishing day done, anglers started making their way back into the basin.

The first 6-pounder to be weighed in today was this fish. Unfortunately, it wouldn't hold up as best of the tourney.

Mark Ingram (third from left, foreground) checks one anglers's fish for alive/dead status, while weighmaster, Wayne Hayes (far right, background), checks another angler's total weight.

With the weigh-in complete, the tourney raffle kicks into high gear.

Concluding the day's events was the presentation of trophies. Here are the 1st place winners, with 23.39 lbs. They also claimed big fish with a 6.39-lb. bass.

These are the 2nd-place winners. They weighed 21.57 lbs.

Rounding out the top winners was this team. Their 3rd-place weight was 19.75 lbs.








My heartiest congratulations go out to all the winners and to everyone who fished today.