2016 Season Opener in the Record Books

Seventeen anglers in 10 boats helped usher in the new tourney series today at West Neck Marina. Winners were as follows:

1st Place, the team of (from left) Lenny Hall and Gary Coderre, five bass, 11.06 lbs. total weight, and a 3.90-lb. big fish, which was good enough to capture the day's lunker award. Gary caught that fish.

2nd Place, Jim Wilder, five bass, 10.31 lbs. total weight, 3.50-lb. big fish.

3rd Place, the team of (from left) Mark London and John Goodman, 9.85 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

Winning the mystery-weight award was the team of (from left) Mitch Portervint and Skip Schaible. They had 7.39 lbs. total weight (with a 1.74-lb. big fish), which was closest to the 6.90 weight that was drawn.



Here is how all the other contestants finished the day:

     * Steve Bailey, five bass, 9.46 lbs. total weight, 2.23-lb. big fish.
     * The team of Ronnie and Chandler McLaughlin, five bass, 8.76 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * The team of Nathan and Marjorie Gottsch, one bass, 3.66 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Jim Bauer, two bass, 2.94 lbs. total weight, 1.83-lb. big fish.
     * The teams of Bob Glass and Randy Conkle and Rob Chatham and Ken Testorff didn't weigh any fish.

Overall, today's anglers weighed a total of 33 bass for a total weight of 63.43 lbs. The average weight was 1.92 lbs.

Congrats to all of the winners and thanks to everyone who came out to participate. For planning purposes, the next event is scheduled for Saturday, March 19, from safe light (about 7 a.m.) to 3 p.m. I hope you can join us.

I had forewarned my partner, Rob, to expect a slow bite, if any, until noon today or thereabouts. I based that prediction on the results I had been obtaining solo in recent weeks. Unfortunately, noon came, then 1 o'clock and 1:30, with absolutely nothing to show for our joint efforts but one short bass and several nice white perch. We also both had some missed strikes.

In talking to one other team after weigh-in, I learned that one member basically caught fish all day long on a soft plastic. When his partner eventually changed to the same bait, though, it had absolutely no effect on his fishing luck--he still couldn't catch 'em.

In my opinion, we likely are only days away from the "catching" business for nearly everyone picking up dramatically. I'm awaiting that event with baited breath.