We Lucked Out Once Again

Yesterday, it was looking like those northerly winds might wipe out today's tourney, but as it turned out, there was plenty of water for the 24 anglers in 14 boats to launch this morning and fish the full eight hours as scheduled.

Winners today were as follows:

1st Place, the team of (from left) Don Carter and Rob Peppers, five bass, 11.61 lbs. total weight, 3.32-lb. big fish.

2nd Place, the team of (from left) Red Bruun and Al Napier, five bass, 10.47 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

3rd Place, Ronnie McLaughlin, five bass, 10.30 lbs. total weight, 4.55-lb. big fish and lunker award.

4th Place, Wayne Hayes, five bass, 10.07 lbs. total weight, 2.30-lb. big fish.

Mystery Weight Winners, the team of Paul Celentano and (not pictured) Sid Ryan. They had 7.28 lbs. total weight (with no big fish), which was closest to the weight drawn of 7.00 lbs.







Here is how all the other contestants finished the day:

     * The team of Mike Miller and Chris Fretard, five bass, 8.87 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * The team of Chris Napier and Jared Allbritten, five bass, 7.29 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Gary Coderre, five bass, 6.64 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * The team of Randy Conkle and Bob Glass, five bass, 6.43 lbs. total weight after 0.50 penalty for two dead fish, no big fish.
     * The team of Mitch Portervint and Skip Schaible, three bass, 2.88 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * The team of Nathan and Marjorie Gottsch, one bass, 0.81 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Neither Steve Bailey nor the team of Rob Chatham and Ken Testorff weighed any fish.
     * The team of Jake and Jesse Milligan was disqualified for failure to make it back to the boat basin by the 2 o'clock deadline for weigh-in. It should be noted that they had outboard problems.

Overall, today's anglers weighed a total of 49 bass for a total weight of 82.65 lbs. The average weight was 1.68 lbs.

Five more contestants became eligible to participate in our season-ending two-day tournament. Those whose names joined the other 23 already on the list include Paul Celentano, Sid Ryan, Chris Napier, and Nathan and Marjorie Gottsch.

Congrats to all of the winners and thanks to everyone who came out to participate. For planning purposes, our next event is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 12, from safe light (about 6:30) to 2:30 p.m. I hope you can join us.

Many years ago, I had a boss who was so superstitious that she never worked a Friday the 13th in her whole life. If I have one such fault, it's that I always feel like my day is doomed when I lose my first fish of the day, as I did today.

On about my third or fourth cast this morning, I had a fish really nail my spinnerbait in front of a stump. I set the hook and had the fish coming toward me until it was about three feet from the boat, at which point it came unbuttoned. For the next several hours, I thrashed the water to death but only could muster one 11 and 3/4-inch bass for my efforts.

I suppose I should knock on wood and be happy that I continued to dodge my first skunk of the year, but that seems like small solace in the grand scheme of things. I can only equate the feeling I have with what a dog probably experiences as it haplessly chases its own tail. I reckon you might say we both do what we do for the "sport" of it. Perhaps one of these days, one or both of us finally will be successful.