Feathers--Yes, Feathers Everywhere

That's what Rob and I found today in Albright's Creek, where we spent the day trying to eke out a limit of bass for weigh-in, only to come up two fish shy. There literally were feathers on the water's surface everywhere we looked. It resembled what I often find in my yard after the neighborhood hawk has made a meal of a hapless dove.

While we were trying to figure out where all these feathers came from and, at the same time, catch a few fish, others in our group of 26 anglers in 16 boats were putting quality limits in their livewells. The money-winners today were as follows:

1st Place, with five fish weighing 16.05 lbs., the team of (from left) Bob Glass and Randy Conkle. Bob also walked away with the day's Big Fish pot, with a jim-dandy bass weighing 6.89 lbs. This fish was good enough to thrust him into the lead for the Seasonal Lunker pot, with only three tournaments remaining.

2nd Place, with four fish weighing 10.82 lbs., the wife-husband team of Corinne and Michael Sims. Their big fish weighed 5.62 lbs.

3rd Place, with five fish weighing 9.57 lbs., the team of  (from left) Thomas Wright and David Dozier. They didn't weigh a big fish.






Here is how everyone else finished today's tourney:
     * The team of Al Napier and Red Bruun had five fish weighing 9.10 lbs. They didn't weigh a big fish.
     * The team of Mitch Portervent and Skip Schaible had five fish weighing 8.44 lbs. They didn't weigh a big fish.
     * Steve Bailey had four fish weighing 8.21 lbs. His big fish weighed 4.16 lbs.
     * The team of Mark London and Lee Scearce had five fish weighing 7.86 lbs. They didn't weigh a big fish.
     * Jesse Munden had five fish weighing 7.61 lbs. He didn't weigh a big fish.
     * Jim Wilder had five fish weighing 7.12 lbs. He didn't weigh a big fish.
     * The team of Lenny Hall and Gary Coderre had five fish weighing 6.03 lbs. They didn't weigh a big fish.
     * The team of Dave Meers and Mark Seals had five fish weighing 5.50 lbs. They didn't weigh a big fish.
     * Jeff Stemen had five fish weighing 5.20 lbs. He didn't weigh a big fish.
     * The team of Rob Chatham and Ken Testorff had three fish weighing 4.81 lbs. They didn't weigh a big fish.

Rob Powell, Wayne Hayes, and the team of Al Lemieux and Noah Alford didn't weigh any fish.

Those 22 anglers who participated in the weigh-in accounted for 61 bass with a combined total weight of 106.32 lbs., for an average of 1.7 lbs. per fish.

Four more anglers qualified today for fishing our Oct. 12-13 Classic contest. Those four are Rob Powell, Jesse Munden, Jeff Stemen, and Mitch Portervent. These additions make a total of 32 anglers now qualified to fish our season-ending event.

Winner of the free T-shirt in today's raffle drawing was Jesse Munden.

Congratulations to all of today's money-winners and thanks to everyone who participated.

For planning purposes, our next tourney is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 21. Start time will be safe light (about 6:30 a.m.), with weigh-in at 2:30 p.m. Please note that these times differ slightly from the hours posted in our schedule at the start of the season.

I often don't have a chance to talk to some of the tourney winners, but yesterday was an exception, and I thought I would share some info that readers have indicated they would like to see as a regular part of these tourney reports. That info, in case you haven't already guessed it, is the lures the winners used.

In talking to Bob Glass, I learned that he caught his big bass--and most likely a majority of his other fish, too--on a Senko worm. "I tossed it up to where I knew there was an ol' stump," he explained about the big fish, "and when I picked up my line, the fish already was moving off with it."

Meanwhile, Michael Sims said that he and his wife were taking their fish on shakey-head worms.

If I catch up with David Dozier and Thomas Wright, the 3rd-place finishers yesterday, I will add their info here, as well.