What a B-I-I-I-G Difference a Year Makes

As I reported just a couple days ago, 21 tournament anglers in 14 boats put up these record-setting numbers on March 19, 2016: 59 bass for a grand-total weight of 143.29 pounds (2.43-lb. average per fish).

Now fast forward to today, March 18, 2017, when 18 anglers in 12 boats showed up to fish this year's season opener. It seemed reasonable to me to figure, at day's end, the final tally would be something at least comparable to last year's numbers. But, man, was I ever more than a little wrong! That mere half of the competition boats which managed to find any fish at all brought a grand total of 10 keeper bass to the scales for a total weight of 14.18 lbs (1.41-lb. average per fish).

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I even heard some of the contestants say they not only didn't catch a fish, but they furthermore didn't even get a strike all day. That's anything but consolation for a bunch of guys who sat through multiple periods of showers and drizzle throughout the whole day, which--at the very best--maybe reached a high of 50 degrees, and I seriously doubt that figure.

So what happened? My money is on the recent nosedive in temperatures locally. More than one angler today spoke of the fact the best water temps they could find were running only 46 to 48 degrees. That compares to a water temp of about 60 degrees I could find just nine days ago. Other factors may have been at play today, too, but whatever those might be, I'm here to tell you that the handful of anglers who claimed money envelopes at the end of the day more than earned their rewards, plus some.

Here are today's winners:

(From left) Skip Schaible and Mitch Portervint, 1st Place, three fish, 3.49 lbs. total weight, 1.50-lb. big bass

David Dozier, 2nd Place, two fish, 3.34 lbs. total weight, 2.50-lb bass (today's lunker)

Steve Bailey, 3rd Place, two fish, 3.34 lbs. total weight, 1.71-lb. big bass

Chris Fretard and Mike Miller (not pictured), Mystery Weight winners with one fish weighing 1.48 lbs., which was closest to the drawn weight of 5.85 lbs. (excluding place weights)







The only other competitors to weigh fish today were as follows:

     * Ronnie McLaughlin, one fish, 1.42 lbs. total weight
     * Jim Wilder, one fish, 1.11 lbs. total weight

Those not weighing in today included the following: Gary Coderre, Rusty Girard and Andrew Bornholdt, Eddie Sapp and Al Napier, Mike Speedy and Stephen Hardwick, Luke Cooper, and Zack Rhodes and Alec Wommack.

Congrats to all the winners and thanks to everyone who braved the wet, cold day to come out and help kick off our 2017 tourney season. For planning purposes, our next scheduled event is Saturday, April 1, from safe light to 3 p.m., or as posted later. I hope you can and will join us.

What's worse than being cold and wet and not catching any fish--or, for that matter, not even getting a bite? How about losing a brand new lure on the first cast--would that make the short list of possibilities?

I was talking to a friend today who told me his first cast with a brand new chatterbait also turned out to be his last cast with it. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't feeling any of that all-too-telltale vibration on the retrieve until he saw only the blade hanging from the end of his line when he got it back, thanks in no small part to shoddy workmanship at the factory.

That's about as demoralizing as some of the tales I've read about folks who lost big fish with Whopper Ploppers because of inferior split rings used in their production. Ain't no danger of that happening to me, 'cause I've "super" upgraded all my Plopper split rings. My only problem to date is finding a fish big enough to test the new split rings--and, NO!, I'm not talking about any of those toothy critters. I'm leaving all those for my kayaker buddies--Charlie and Ron.