You know it's a pretty ho-hum type of day when the biggest excitement you experience during your eight hours on the water is watching a "healthy" rat leap off one of the barges sittting in what generally is known as the "grain canal," swim to the shoreline ahead of your boat, and then hop out of the water and disappear in the distance. That, however, is exactly the sort of day Wayne and yours truly had.
To be fair, though, some of those 12 anglers in six boats fishing today's tournament out of Pungo Ferry managed to have a bit nicer day by catching a five-fish limit of bass, which, after all, is what these gatherings really are all about. The combined final tallies were a total of 20 bass caught, with a total weight of 34.83 lbs., and an average weight of 1.74 lbs. per fish.
The remaining competitors ended up as follows:
* The team of Andy Morath and Nick Estrada, five fish, 8.22 lbs. total weight, and a 2.16-lb. big fish.
* The team of Rob Peppers and Don Carter, five fish, 7.47 lbs. total weight, and a 2.21-lb. big fish.
* The team of Steve Bailey and Dennis Dean, as well as the team of Wayne Hayes and Ken Testorff, both had some fish but decided to dump them, rather than take them to weigh-in.
Only one more name was added to the list of anglers qualified to participate in our 2022 Classic as a result of their participation today. Chris Napier becomes the 14th competitor eligible to fish our season-ending event on Oct. 15th & 16th. There are just two more qualifying events scheduled this year: Sunday, Sept. 25th, and Saturday, Oct. 1st, and there are just two more anglers who still can qualify by fishing each of these last two events. They are Bobby Moore and Ken Matthias.
Congratulations to the winners today and thanks to everyone who came out to participate.
For a while today, Wayne and I stopped in West Neck Creek to fish. I was tossing a small square-billed crankbait when, all of a sudden, it just stopped dead in its tracks.
I quickly ascertained that, while the lure seemed hopelessly stuck, the object it was stuck on wasn't entirely immovable. By tightening down the drag on my rod's 30-pound braided line, I could get the bottom object moving toward the surface...finally far enough to get a quick look at what it was. I immediately knew beyond any doubt that I somehow had hooked what appeared to be a large concrete block.
Turning toward Wayne, I jokingly commented that I thought I just had snared Jimmy Hoffa's anchor.
For the benefit of anyone who isn't familiar with the Jimmy Hoffa story, he was an American labor leader who served as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1957 to 1971, and was one of the most controversial labor organizers of his time.
Known to have long associated with organized crime figures, Hoffa nevertheless survived a series of governmental prosecutions until 1967, when he entered the federal prison in Lewisburg, PA, to begin a 13-year sentence for jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy. Hoffa refused to resign as president of the Teamsters while in prison and kept his position until December 1971, when President Richard M. Nixon commuted Hoffa's sentence, stipulating that he could not engage in any union activity until 1980. Hoffa, however, fought the restriction in court and was widely believed to have covertly continued his efforts to reestablish a union position.
On July 30, 1975, he disappeared from a restaurant in suburban Detroit under circumstances that never have been fully determined. He was said to have had an appointment at the restaurant with Anthony Provenzano, a New Jersey Teamsters official and former Mafia figure, and Anthony Giacalone, a Detroit mobster. Both later denied having encountered Hoffa, who never was seen again. He was legally declared "presumed dead" in 1982.
A popular theory espoused during my youth was that Hoffa probably ended up at the bottom of a lake, river or ocean, with a piece of concrete tied to his butt...hence, my comment earlier today.
In case you're wondering, I truly was only being facetious, but it was good enough to bring a smile to both of our faces and...momentarily, at least...gave us some comic relief from the frustrations of yet another very slow day on the water.
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