I know what some of you...like me...probably are thinking, "Wow! That's topwater conditions." As it turned out, though, not everyone found any such action. My partner nor I certainly never had any...and that was after throwing an arsenal of several different kinds of topwater baits.
Most of the 15 anglers in nine boats today, however, did find fish. Our totals at day's end were 37 bass brought to the scales for a combined total weight of 80.74 lbs. Those numbers translate into an average weight per fish of 2.18 lbs. and an average weight per boat with fish to weigh in of 10.09 lbs.
Here is the rundown of those anglers who finished in the money:
Here is the lineup for the rest of the field:
* The team of Dave Anderson and Ken Testorff, five-fish limit, 9.81 lbs. total weight, 4.15-lb. big fish.
* The team of Chris Fretard and Mike Miller, five-fish limit, 8.37 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
* The team of Steve Bailey and Dennis Dean, five-fish limit, 8.36 lbs. total weight, 2.82-lb. big fish.
* The husband-wife team of Andy and Diana Morath, four fish, 6.82 lbs. total weight, 2.65-lb. big fish.
* Mark Ingram, five-fish limit, 5.88 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
* Jim Calhoun did not weigh any fish.
Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks to those who assisted the tournament director, Wayne Hayes, in taking care of all the details. For planning purposes, our next scheduled tournament is Sunday, April 11th. As usual, we will fish from safe light (probably about 6:30 a.m.), with weigh-in at 2:30 p.m.
One Last Cast
One of the most telling signs of the time of year we're moving into now was the number of ol' turtles that were sunning themselves on logs nearly everywhere you looked today.
I don't remember another time when I saw as many as were out today. As usual, the vast majority were lined up by order of size, with the biggest at the front.
As I once commented to Dave, turtles are definitely one species that knows their pecking order. However, we did see one giant among today's throng. He was a real bruiser...and he had a log entirely to himself.
Apart from observing this yearly phenomenon, this was a day...for Dave and me, at least...which best could be summed up as "pot luck." Upon landing our fifth keeper of the day, Dave took note of the fact that each fish in the livewell had been caught on a different lure than any of the others. Eventually, though, Dave found one lure that put about three fish in the boat.
And we weren't the only anglers who had this experience. I was talking to some others today, following the presentation of money envelopes, who echoed the same thing. If any pattern truly existed today, we never were able to diagnose it.
All in all, it was a pretty decent day. The temperature wasn't too bad until the clouds, which built throughout the day, finally obscured the warm sun. At that point, it felt as though there was something like a 10- or 15-degree temperature drop in a matter of only a few minutes. And by the time I got home, grabbed a shower, and was able to sit down for dinner, I was listening to raindrops hitting the skylight in our kitchen.
One final note, and then I'll shut up and give everyone's eyes a rest. Remember I noted back in the beginning that Dave nor I...and other anglers, too...were able to generate a topwater bite today? I should point out, that this afternoon, we happened across a fellow in a johnboat who rather gleefully reported that, while he was fishing the mouth of West Neck this morning, he had landed a dandy 5-10 bass on a buzzbait. The one seeming constant reality of bass fishing is that someone somewhere is always putting 'em in the boat on a bait that you can't even buy a strike with. I say that because Dave fished a buzzbait this morning without so much as a second look from a fish. Oh well...
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