2017 Qualifying-Tournament Season Comes to an End

No matter how many tournaments bass fishermen engage in, they never seem to tire of the drill. Even though today marked the end of our regular tournaments this year, I certainly didn't detect any dissatisfaction on the faces or in the demeanor of today's 17 anglers in 11 boats. They brought a combined total of 40 bass to the scales, weighing 69.72 lbs, for an average weight of 1.74 lbs. per fish.

Standing tall at day's end as our 2017 Angler of the Year was Bobby Moore, with a season total weight of 149.82 lbs. In succession close behind him were Duane Kessel, with 147.45 lbs.; Rob Peppers with 147.12 lbs.; Bob Glass and Randy Conkle, with 141.96 lbs., and Al Napier, with 137.22 lbs. Bobby's name and AOY stats will be added to the plaque that hangs in the West Neck Marina Store.





Earning money envelopes today were the following anglers:

(From left) Andy Morath and his cousin, Zech Morath, 1st place, with five bass weighing 10.12 lbs. and a big fish weighing 2.61 lbs.

(From left) Bob Glass and Randy Conkle, 2nd place, with five bass weighing 9.35 lbs. and a big fish weighing 2.77 lbs.

(From left) Rob Peppers and Don Carter, 3rd place, with five bass weighing 8.84 lbs. and a big fish weighing 2.75 lbs.

Winner of the big-bass pot today was Mike Miller, with a fish weighing 5.36 lbs. His bass was the only fish he and his partner, Chris Fretard, brought to the scales.

And last, yours truly managed to bring two keepers to the weigh-in, for a total weight of 2.40 lbs., which was closest to the drawn weight of 3.30. My big fish weighed 1.55 lbs.








Here is how everyone else finished the day's competition:

     * Wayne Hayes, four bass, with a total weight of 8.04 lbs. His big fish weighed 3.41 lbs.
     * Jim Wilder, five bass, with an adjusted total weight of 7.53 lbs. after a 0.25 deduction for one dead fish. His big fish weighed 2.15 lbs.
     * Rusty Girard, five bass, with a total weight of 7.50 lbs. His big fish weighed 3.09 lbs.
     * Steve Bailey, five bass, with a total weight of 6.32 lbs. His big fish weighed 1.69 lbs.
     * Bobby Moore and Duane Kessel, three bass, with a total weight of 4.26 lbs. Their big fish weighed 1.63 lbs.
     * Skip Schaible and Gary Coderre didn't weigh any fish.

With no new names added to the Classic list today, it looks like we will have 17 qualified anglers fishing our two-day season-ender next weekend, Oct. 14 and 15. One other angler who qualified has indicated he has other obligations and won't be joining us.

Congratulations to our newly crowned 2017 AOY and to all of today's winners. Thanks to everyone who showed up to fish with us--not just today, but throughout the entire season. Hope you'll be back again in 2018.

In discussions I had with some of the fellas who weighed a limit today, they indicated that five bites were all they had for their eight hours on the water. I, too, had only five bites, but three of the fish didn't cross the 12-inch stripe on my ruler, so I had to release them.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I spent a fair amount of time fishing a wacky-rigged finesse worm (first time ever that I can remember) today but all to no avail. I never had a single strike with the rig. Four of my fish came on a Bomber Square A crankbait, and one smacked a Whopper Plopper.

One thing that I found a little disappointing was the fact that while I was fishing a cove above the bridge this morning, a couple of kayakers saw fit to follow me in and started shadowing me like I had invaded their personal honey hole. I bit my tongue and didn't say anything to them, but, needless to say, that experience left a sour taste in my mouth. I solved the problem by firing up the gas motor and running to the back of Albright's, which is where I caught all of my fish. Not quite sure why these guys were so rude, but I've lately been hearing similar remarks from others in our tournament crowd.