Today's Weights Were What I Expected

It was as though tournament anglers needed our March 18 event to find their stride, if the numbers we put up today are any indication. Today's field of 25 anglers in 15 boats weighed a total of 56 bass for a combined total weight of 117.73 lbs., which equates to an average weight of 2.10 lbs.

Here's a look at today's winners:

(From left) Zack Rhodes and Jake Milligan, 1st Place, five fish, 16.09 lbs. total weight, 5.78-lb. big fish and tournament lunker, caught by Jake.

(From left) Lenny Hall and 2016 AOY, Gary Coderre, 2nd Place, five fish, 14.01 lbs. total weight, 4.61-lb. big fish.

Raymond Derrick (accompanied by his daughter), 3rd Place, five fish, 10.69 lbs. total weight, 2.82-lb. big fish.

(From left) Matt Hemple and Mike Speedy, 4th Place, five fish, 9.86 lbs. total weight, 3.35-lb. big fish.

(From left) Jonathan and son, J. D. Glasscock, Mystery Weight winners with four fish, 6.45 lbs. total weight, which was closest to the drawn weight of 6.40 lbs. Their big fish weighed 2.43 lbs.








Here's how everyone else finished the competition:

     * Randy Conkle and Bob Glass, five fish, 9.53 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Rob Peppers and Dave Anderson, five fish, 9.39 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Al Napier, four fish, 8.55 lbs. total weight, 4.08-lb. big fish.
     * Mitch Portervint and Skip Schaible, three fish, 7.38 lbs. total weight, 3.73-lb. big fish.
     * Bobby Moore and Duane Kessel, four fish, 6.93 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Ken Testorff, four fish, 6.85 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Mike Miller and Chris Fretard, four fish, 6.29 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * David Dozier, three fish, 5.71 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Steve Bailey and the team of Nathan and Marjorie Gottsch didn't weigh any fish.

Congrats to all the winners and thanks to everyone who came out today, despite the windy conditions. For planning purposes, our next scheduled event is Saturday, April 8, from safe light to 3 p.m., or as posted later. I hope you can and will join us.

I don't know what kind of patterns other anglers found today, but the one that held together for me most of the day was working a jerkbait around horizontal cover. I couldn't find any fish around trees and stumps. Of the two dink bass that I caught today, one hit a spinnerbait, the other a wakebait. All the keeper fish came on the jerkbait.

I also spoke to one fella who, along with his partner, caught their limit of fish in Pocaty. As he explained, the ticket to his and his partner's success was finding "what the fish wanted." Once they found it, they stayed with it all day.

The wind played a major factor today. I can't tell you how many times I would round a bend in Albright's, only to be met by enough wind to stop my boat in midstream. It was one of those days when you enjoyed every short stretch of relatively protected shoreline you could find. You needed those breaks to get psyched up to do battle around the next bend.