It All Started With a Big Bang...

To borrow that line from the theme song for the hit TV series Big Bang Theory is a good way to describe the way today's tournament day at West Neck Marina started.

Rob and I were in my boat shed at the marina making preparations to launch my boat at 4 a.m. this morning when, all of a sudden, we heard tires screech loudly out on the roadway, followed by a sickening thud. We both knew a car just had crashed out there. Rob turned to me and said, "I suppose I'd better go see if everyone is OK," and I agreed. Shortly after he got to the scene of the crash, he called and said the two vehicle occupants were pretty shook up and one appeared injured, so I called 9-1-1 and reported the accident. In just a few minutes, police cars with sirens and lights going were racing to the scene.

While Rob filled the police in as best he could on what had happened, I continued getting my boat ready and launched it. Moments later, while motoring slowly toward the boat basin, I saw a piece of fishing line hanging from one of the tall cypress trees along the water. It was hanging in a position that likely would have caused some problems for a boat or two if the operators hadn't seen it. They probably would have ended up having the line wrap around their props. I tried unsuccessfully to snatch the line from the tree and decided the only safe thing to do was to secure the end of the line to one of the cypress knees along the shore.

I barely had gotten into the store and had everything ready to go when the police relaxed the roadblock they had set up after the wreck, and anglers started arriving with their rigs, ready to sign in and get ready to fish. The next several minutes proved to be really hectic for me because I had 27 anglers in 18 boats waiting to pay their fees and sign up to fish today's tourney. A few minutes before 6 a.m., I was shoving everyone off for the day's fishing.

Given today's huge participation, we were able to pay three places--the first time this year that we've had that privilege (except for the first two tournaments of the season when the marina owners made bonus money available to pay two extra places). If only three more anglers had shown up, we would have been paying four places.

Walking away with the 1st-place cash today was Tim Ackal (right), who fished by himself. He brought a bag of five fish to the scales. They weighed 12.20 lbs. He elected not to check the weight of his biggest fish, instead deciding just to put all five fish in the weigh-in basket. We always leave that decision to the individual anglers.

Second place today went to this team of (l-r) Mike Miller and Chris Fretard, who are becoming regulars in the winners' circle. They, too, weighed a five-fish limit of 11.83 lbs. Their total weight would have been 12.33 lbs., but they were penalized 0.50 for two dead fish. Their big fish tipped the scales at a hefty 4.50 lbs.

The team claiming 3rd-place prize money today was Red Bruun (pictured below) and his partner, Al Napier.

Red and Al also had a sack containing five fish. Their total weight was 10.84 lbs. Meanwhile, their big fish weighed a solid 3.56 lbs.

Here is how the other participants finished today's contest:

     * Jesse Munden had five fish with a total weight of 10.51 lbs. He chose not to weigh his big fish separately.
     * The team of Paul Starcher and Shawn Thompson had five fish with a total weight of 9.80 lbs. They had 10.55 lbs. before a 0.75 penalty was assessed for three dead fish. Their big fish weighed 3.44 lbs.
     * The team of Lenny Hall and Gary Coderre had five fish with a total weight of 8.41 lbs. Their big fish weighed 2.74 lbs.
     * Jim Wilder had five fish with a total weight of 8.38 lbs. His big fish weighed 2.40 lbs.
     * The team of Paul Donnelly and Harry Twiford had five fish with a total weight of 8.20 lbs. Their big fish weighed 2.49 lbs.
     * The team of Rob Chatham and Ken Testorff had five fish with a total weight of 7.64 lbs. Their big fish weighed 2.13 lbs.
     * The team of Bob Glass and Randy Conkle had five fish with a total weight of 7.33 lbs. Their big fish weighed 2.48 lbs.
     * The team of Thomas Wright and David Dozier had five fish with a total weight of 7.09 lbs. Their big fish weighed 2.38 lbs.

Bryan Dear (left) had only one fish, but it weighed a nice 4.64 lbs., which was good enough to earn him the big-fish pot today.

Those who didn't weigh any fish included the following:

     * Duane Kessel
     * Wayne Hayes
     * Bobby Moore
     * Kevin Mills
     * The team of Al Lemieux and Noah Alford
                                                                  * Steve Bailey

Those 20 anglers who participated in the weigh-in accounted for a total of 56 bass weighing a grand total of 106.87 lbs., which translates into an average weight of 1.9 lbs. per fish.

Three more participants qualified today to fish our season-ending two-day Classic on Oct. 12-13 as a result of having fished four tourneys. Those folks added to the list include Duane Kessel, Noah Alford, and Steve Bailey.

For planning purposes, our next tourney is scheduled for next Saturday, June 8th. Start time will be safe light (probably about 5:45 a.m.). Weigh-in will be at 2 p.m.