For Most, a Nice Day and Good Fishing

With the exception of yours truly and Wayne, the 12 anglers in seven boats had a good tournament day. Five of the boats weighed five-fish limits, with another weighing four keepers, for a combined total on the day of 29 bass. Their aggregate weight was 71.76 pounds, for an average weight per fish of 2.47 pounds. 

Meanwhile, there's no other way to describe the day Wayne and I had, except to admit that we had our butts handed to us...a couple of bream and three dink bass, which "might have" made one 12-incher if we had laid them end to end. Just goes to show you that a couple of productive days' pre-fishing like we had this past Monday and Tuesday doesn't always mean squat. But, of course, we're not the Lone Ranger here; most anglers take their turn in the barrel of disappointment from time to time. All you can do is pick yourself up and get right back in the game.

Those tournament anglers standing in the winners' circle at day's end were as follows:

Claiming 1st place was the team of (from left) Rob Peppers and Don Carter, whose total weight was 17.26 pounds. Their big fish of the day--a 6.33 pounder--thrust them into the lead for seasonal lunker. They also walked away with the 1st side pot.

Finishing in 2nd place was the husband-wife team of (from left) Diana and Andy Morath, who brought 15.06 pounds to the scales, anchored by a fish weighing 4.68 pounds. They also took home the 2nd side pot.

Here is how everyone else stacked up:

     * The team of Fisher Bryan and Gabe Himmelwright, five fish, 12.53 pounds total weight, with a 4.83-pound big fish.

     * The team of Gary Coderre and Dave Anderson, five fish, 10.79 pounds total weight, with a 5.78-pound big fish.

     * Chris Napier, five fish, 8.94 pounds total weight, no big fish.

     * Bobby Moore, four fish, 7.18 pounds total weight, no big fish.

There were no new additions to the list of those anglers who have fished a total of seven tournaments on the year and thus are eligible to fish our season-ending two-day Classic tournament. (UPDATE) The only anglers who still can qualify are as follows:

     Fred Crawford (needs all four remaining tournaments)

     Chris Napier (needs two more tournaments)

     Don Carter (needs one more tournament)

     Chris Fretard (needs three more tournaments)

     Bobby Moore (needs two more tournaments)

     J. P. Twohig (needs three more tournaments)

     Mark Ingram (needs three more tournaments)

     Ken Matthias (needs two more tournaments)

     Jim Calhoun (needs all four remaining tournaments)

     Mike McCluskey (needs three more tournaments)

Congratulations to all of the winners today, and thanks to everyone who came out to participate. For planning purposes, our next tournament is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 27th, from safe light or about 6 a.m., with weigh-in at 2 p.m. Hope you will make an effort to join us.

One Last Cast

Throughout the course of today's tournament, Wayne and I discussed the possibility of last night's full moon having a negative effect on our catch rates today. Once we got to weigh-in, however, and saw what everyone else was bringing to the scales, it became readily apparent that our theory pretty much had gone out the window.

If we had any lingering doubts, they pretty much were squashed by an article I read after getting home today. It was written by avid angler and veteran fisheries biologist Dr. Hal Schramm for Lurenet Fishing Headquarters back in November 2014.

In that article, Dr. Schramm said, "It would seem the moon, or more specifically the lunar cycle, would affect bass. The moon has a powerful effect on tides, and tides organize fish behavior. The dramatic spawning of the grunion that use the moon-influenced tides to deposit their eggs high on southern California beaches come to mind. Bass in tidal rivers position themselves at drains to gorge on the forage pulled from the marsh during falling tide. But there are no tides in inland freshwater systems. Does the moon affect bass in the vast inland acres where most bass anglers fish?

"The simple answer is that there is no direct scientific evidence to support a lunar effect on bass. Numerous studies have assessed largemouth and smallmouth bass movement. These studies have found that bass have home ranges, select certain habitats, and exhibit seasonal and even day-night changes in movement and habitat use. A few of these movement studies have looked for lunar effects and found none. But these are movement studies; although feeding can be inferred from movement, these studies do not measure feeding behavior or angler catch rate.

"While there is no scientific evidence to support an effect of the moon on bass catch, I suggest there is strong evidence, at least for daytime fishing, that moon phase does not affect bass-catch rate. Upper-tier bass tournaments fished by highly skilled bass anglers happen every week from early spring through late fall. Consistently, winning anglers catch limits of big fish. You don't need a calendar to verify that, collectively, these tournaments occur during every possible moon phase. Maybe someday, some obsessed statistician will assemble all these tournament stats and relate them to moon conditions, but I can tell you that when catch rates vary little (which seems to be the case, at least for the top-finishing tournament anglers), you are not going to find much of a relationship with a fluctuating variable like moon phase."

Given Dr. Schramm's credentials, who am I to doubt what he says on this topic? I gladly bow to the much wiser man.

Current Overall Statistics