Only One More Event Remaining This 2021 Season

Fifteen anglers in nine boats showed up this morning to mark the end of our qualifier tournaments this year. At the end of the day, the anglers in seven of the boats weighed five-fish limits, for a grand total of 35 bass, weighing a combined total of 76.41 pounds, for an average weight per fish of 2.18 pounds, and an average weight per boat (of those seven weighing fish) of 10.91 pounds. Anglers in the remaining two boats did not weigh any fish.

Those anglers who walked away with a little extra spending money in their pockets today included the following:

1st Place, the team of (from left) Gabe Himmelwright and Fred Crawford, 18.73 pounds total weight, with a big-fish kicker and today's Lunker Prize weighing 6.14 pounds. In addition to these accolades, Gabe also claimed bragging rights as our 2021 Angler of the Year, with a grand total of 159.71 pounds of bass.

2nd Place, Andy Morath, 13.27 pounds total weight, with a big-fish kicker weighing 3.85 pounds.

3rd Place, the team of (from left) Dennis Dean and Steve Bailey, 11.78 pounds total weight, with a big-fish kicker weighing 3.08 pounds.

Here is how everyone else finished the final qualifier:

     * Chris Napier, 10.58 pounds total weight, no big fish.

     * The team of Rob Peppers and Don Carter, 7.84 pounds total weight, no big fish.

     * The team of Mark Ingram and Bob Clarkson, 7.60 pounds total weight, no big fish.

     * The team of Gary Coderre and Dave Anderson, 6.61 pounds total weight, no big fish.

     * Chris Fretard and the team of Wayne Hayes and Ken Testorff did not weigh any fish.

Two more contestants became eligible to participate in our season-ending two-day Classic tournament on Oct. 16 and 17. Bob Clarkson and Chris Fretard join Mark Ingram, Rob Peppers, Don Carter, Craig Jones, Rob Chatham, Dave Anderson, Bobby Moore, Fred Crawford, Gabe Himmelwright, Steve Bailey, Dennis Dean, Andy Morath, Diana Morath, Jim Calhoun, Rusty Girard, Gary Coderre, Chris Napier, Wayne Hayes, and Ken Testorff as the 21 anglers who will be vying for the best payouts of the entire season. Following Day 2 weigh-in, they are invited to attend a cookout for the group.

To those winners today, as well as all those who have shared the winners' circle over this past season, I offer my hearty congratulations on a job well done.

For those 21 eligible to fish the Classic, plan on starting both days at safe light (about 7 a.m.), with Day 1 weigh-in at 3 p.m. and Day 2 weigh-in at 2 p.m., in order to accommodate the cookout. I will be contacting you in coming days by email to find out how many of you plan to fish, as well as how many plan to hang around Day 2 for the cookout. Accordingly, please stay tuned to your email so you can respond as soon as possible, and I can pass the numbers to our tournament director, Wayne Hayes, who will be attending to all the necessary arrangements.

One Last Cast

I've known for a very long time now that my tournament partner is one of the luckiest guys I've ever known. For openers, I have been at various fishing events over the years in which raffle prizes were awarded during a drawing, and I've frequently watched as one or more (frequently the latter) of Wayne's ticket numbers were called as winners.

That being said, I watched today as he not once, but twice again demonstrated just how lucky...and good...he really is.

In the first instance, he had broken off a crankbait after it became lodged in a submerged stump. But don't you know that only seconds later, his crankbait floated to the surface, and after not more than a couple of casts, he had hooked it with another crankbait and salvaged both for use another day.

Then, this afternoon, as he was releasing three dink bass we had caught but decided not to weigh, one of the dinks accidentally slipped from his grasp while a culling clip still was attached to its jaw. He subsequently backed his boat away from the dock, and there, a short distance away, the culling clip was bobbing on the surface. It disappeared for just a couple of moments before Wayne had another opportunity to grab the clip. Once again, though, the fish pulled the clip under before he could get to it. On the third pass, however, he was successful.

I've had a couple of personal encounters with accidental release of culling clips over the side of my boat, and I've yet to ever recover one of them. I can only hope that if I spend enough time around Wayne, perhaps some of his luck will rub off on me. At the same time, I pray my clumsiness and lack of fishing skills don't rub off on him. I wouldn't wish those on my worst enemy.