Nobody Does It Better in Total Darkness Than Bass Fishermen

That's right--the 11 anglers in 7 boats on hand at 0-dark-30 for today's tourney all launched without any help whatsoever from Dominion Virginia Power. Seems last night's storms knocked out electricity to an area in Pungo, which included West Neck Marina, about 8:30 p.m., and it was 10:15 this morning before power was restored.

All hands pitched in and helped one another launch their boats, and we all went fishing on schedule about 5:30 a.m., with absolutely no hitches.

Winners of today's contest included the following:

In 1st Place, the team of (from left) Mike Miller and Chris Fretard, five bass, 9.87 lbs. total weight, 2.22-lb. big fish.

In 2nd Place, the team of (from left) Darryl Dunn and Jim Wilder, five bass, 9.75 lbs. total weight, 2.69-lb. big fish, which earned Jim the day's lunker pot.

Yours truly claimed the Mystery Weight award with a five-fish limit that weighed 6.12 lbs. after a 0.25 deduction for one dead fish. The weight drawn today was 5.20 lbs. I had no big fish.







Here is how the other contestants finished the competition:

     * The team of Bob Glass and Randy Conkle, five bass, 8.98 lbs. total weight, 2.22-lb. big fish.
     * The team of Skip Schaible and Mitch Portervint, five bass, 8.07 lbs. total weight, 2.54-lb. big fish.
     * Gary Coderre, five bass, 7.01 lbs. total weight, 1.98-lb. big fish.
     * Ronnie McLaughlin, five bass, 6.33 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

Overall, today's anglers weighed a total of 35 bass for a total weight of 56.13 lbs. The average weight was 1.60 lbs.

One more contestant became eligible to participate in our season-ending two-day tournament. At the moment, we have 21 anglers qualified.

Congrats to all the winners and thanks to everyone who came out to participate. For planning purposes, our next event is scheduled for Saturday, July 30, from safe light (about 5:30 or 5:45) to a 2 p.m. weigh-in. I hope you can join us.

While I heard some of the guys talking about catching their fish today on soft plastics, I continued using nothing but my topwater baits to generate a limit. My tally on the day was a total of eight bass, with only five keepers. I also lost a couple of decent fish while bringing them to the boat.

With the exception of one fish, I caught everything on my INT bait.

On the whole, I didn't consider the weather today overly oppressive. We had a few light, short-lived showers throughout the day, which certainly helped, and of course, for a large chunk of the morning, we were blessed with mostly overcast skies. Some of my recent fun-fishing days certainly have been far more taxing than I considered the elements today.