When in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks Is This Wind Going to Back Off?

If all nine tourney anglers in seven boats had to chase down as many lures as I did today, thanks to those never-ending strong winds, they had to be at least a tad happy to see weigh-in time arrive. I only had two fish in my livewell an hour before quitting time, so I went ahead and put all my stuff away, fired up the outboard, and headed for West Neck Marina.

We only paid two places today, and both teams who claimed those money envelopes weighed five-fish limits. Everyone else came up a bit short. Here are the competitors who went home with a little "scratch" in their pockets:

Standing tall in 1st place was the team of (from left) Dave Anderson and Craig Jones. Their limit weighed 13.66 lbs., anchored by a 3.76-lb. bass.

Claiming 2nd place was the team of (from left) Gary Coderre and Lenny Hall. Their five fish weighed 9.66 lbs. Their big fish was a 2.42-pounder.

Big-fish honors went to Jim Wilder, who weighed in a 5.54-lb. bass. He had three fish totaling 9.46 lbs.

Winning the mystery-weight award today was Eddie Sapp. He weighed four fish totaling 5.66 lbs., which was closest to the drawn weight of 6.20.








Here is how everyone else stacked up at day's end:

     * Ken Testorff, two fish, 4.23 lbs. total weight, 2.22-lb. big bass.
     * Skip Schaible, one fish, 2.00 lbs. total weight.
     * Steve Bailey didn't weigh any fish.

Overall, today's field weighed a total of 20 bass, for a total weight of 44.67 lbs. and an average weight of 2.23 lbs.

Congrats to all the winners and thanks to everyone who came out "swaying in the breeze" alongside all the rest of us. For planning purposes, our next event is scheduled for Saturday, April 21. We will fish from safe light to weigh-in, probably about 2:30 p.m. Hope you can come out and join us.

I reckon we've all heard that saying, "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched." I relearned that lesson today. Pulled up on my opening spot and immediately put two fish in the boat. "Looks like I picked the right place today," I thought to myself. How wrong I was, though.

I stayed in Albright's all day, catching only one dink bass beyond the two keepers I weighed, along with a nice crappie that would have weighed more than a pound.

And once those winds kicked into high gear, the celebrating was pretty much history...for everyone. I heard more than one fella who allowed that they had caught all their fish early. Can't tell you how happy I am that I decided not to run any farther south today than Albright's. I originally had planned to check out Milldam this morning, in which case, the ride back this afternoon likely would have been a bit rough.