Overcast
skies and warm weather was the forecast for the third tournament of the Mother
Lode Region on March 14 for the Best Bass Tournaments Circuit. With a total of 64 boats the anglers were
ready for an exciting and challenging day on the water.
CONDITIONS
The trip to
New Melones on Friday was beautiful. The
hills were covered in green. There was a
storm earlier in the week and the grass and trees seemed to have blossomed from
it. Arriving at the Lake around
12:30p.m. gave Kevin Cheek, the Region Director, a chance to talk to several of the
anglers as they came in from pre-fishing.
The conscience was there was a good bite, but the fish were small. The anglers were having no problems with
catching a limit.
EVENT
MORNING
Just like
you anglers that get up early in the morning to drive to a tournament, you know
that your director is dedicated when he gets up at 2:30 a.m. and drives from the
campsite to the lake front to start a pot of coffee to be ready for you anglers
when you arrive for registration. Mom
does the baking but Kevin makes the coffee.
Diamond Nuts breakfast packets were set out along with homemade apple
and cherry turnovers, brownies and chocolate chip cookies for the anglers to
enjoy.
Blast-off
was set for 6:59 a.m. and the anglers were ready. Boat number 34 was the first to leave. There were four flights scheduled with the
first one at 3:00 p.m. the second flight at 3:15 p.m., third flight at 3:30
p.m. and flight number four at 3:45 p.m.
By 7:10 a.m. all the boats were off for their adventures in fishing for
the day.
WEIGH-IN
The first
anglers returned at 2:40 p.m. and the official weigh-in began. With all the boats weighted-in, Kevin called
the scales closed at 4:08 p.m.
To start off
the awards, Kevin had a few sponsor gifts to give away. Safe & Easy - Boat detailer and cleaner -
went to the team of Bruce Harris and Steve Sepulveda. The Wear-It-California Life vest went to Rich
and Ron Ingram. Two $25.00 gift
certificates supplied by the Glory Hole store went to the husband and wife team
of Matt and Natalie Lindsey and the father and son team of Don and Andy
Stilley.
There were
59 that brought in a limit of five fish.
There was a total of 252 fish weighed in for a combined weight of 635.97
pounds.
CHAMPIONS
First place went to the" twin" team of Rich Ingram of Oakdale and Ron
Ingram of Modesto. Rich and Ron came to
the scales with four bags of fish for a total weight of 30.65 pounds. In one of those four bags was the 2nd
place big fish coming in at 10.46 pounds.
These two anglers took home $2,555.00 for their day of fishing. Rich and Ron used weightless worms, and Brush
Hogs while fishing the main lake in shallow waters 10 to 15 feet.
Rich would like to thank his wife Joan and Ron
would like to thank his wife Janet for all their support and
understanding. As Rich and Ron were waiting to take off
yesterday, Joan, Rich’s wife texted him wishing him good luck and to fish
smart. Rich kept this in mind all day long
and contributes this text to their win. So
don't forget the wives deserve to be taken out on the town.
2ND PLACE
& BIG FISH The team of
Bruce Harris and Steve Sepulveda both of Oakdale took second place with their
three bags of fish. Their five fish came
in at 22.79 pounds. This team also
brought in the 1st place big fish, weighing in at a whopping 11.51 pounds. What a beauty that one was. . Bruce
and Steve took home $1,750.00 for all their hard work. These anglers used swimbaits and tubes while
fishing shallow in the main part of the main lake. Bruce and Steve would like to thank their
sponsors and wife Kim and Joya for all their support. Job well done anglers. 3RD PLACE Mike Sanders
of Hughson and Ron Selk of Ceres took home third place in the tournament. They brought up to the scales five fish for a
total weight of 19.93 pounds. Their 3rd
place big fish came in at 9.11 pounds.
This gave the anglers $1,035.00 for their day of fishing. Mike and Ron used swim baits and Pro Worms
while fishing the main lake and their methods used were dropshots and swimbaits. These anglers would like to tank
their sponsor Pro Worms for their support.
Great Job anglers. At this time we would like to thank our staff
teams, Mike Martinez and Tom Fishburn, and Rich Hale and Jim Henry, along with
our weigh Master, Dave Orange and his finance Beth for all their hard work and
dedication. Without all their hard work
we would not be able to do all that we do for our anglers. Mark your calendars;
our next tournament for the Mother Lode Region is scheduled for Saturday, April
18, 2015, at Don Pedro Lake. We look
forward to seeing each of you anglers next month and in the mean time have a
Happy Easter. Thank you for all your
support, and believe it or not our circuit is half over. Come out and fish the second half with us.
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