Top Stick Joes Crowns It's Very First Champions

[John Barron]

Congratulations to Shane and Dennis Morgan for winning the first in a series of five events. Shane, also known as "Palmdale Shane" and Dennis weighed in 12.60# with a 3.74# kicker for 2nd big fish.

"Big Ed" Cazares and Vince Perkins finished 2nd. "Big Ed" scored some very valuable points for his Bass Club the California Bass Contenders.

Thank you to everyone that came out for the first Top Stick Joes. April 26th is our next event at Pyramid and the bite should be really good. Watch for more announcements about this event.

John Barron

1 Shane Morgan/Dennis Morgan 12.60
2 Ed Cazares/Vince Perkins 12.16
3 Walter Kondracki 10.79
4 Mike Carpeter/Jeff Grossman 9.59
5 Joe Payne/Keith Cummings 9.43
6 Jim Basham/David Cunningham 8.85
7 Jeff Jue/David Sachez 7.13
8 Steve Iwashita/Edgar Uyema 6.60
9 Doug Battenfield/Scott Grantham 6.38
10 Don Peterson/Charlene Neal 6.02
11 Mike Austin/Jesse Austin 5.92
12 John Yonce/Erick Prado 5.37
13 Brad Szarkowski/Lenny Scinto 5.10
14 Lance Karafelas/Dan Proctor 3.76
15 Ken Burkhart/Daren Lacher 3.62
16 David Zimmerman/Gloria Zimerman 2.57
17 Ron Lacari 2.36
18 Ed Cusick/James Lara 1.86
19 Tyler Beck/William Perkins 1.62
20 Michael Rooney/Michael Rooney Jr 1.62
21 Mike Robinett/TomFruh 0.00
22 Kevin Johnson/Nicole Sauluk 0.00
23 Danny Payne/Katherine Payne 0.00
24 Jeff Harris/Tim March 0.00
25 David Handy 0.00

[palmdale-shane]

I'll post my story tomorrow. I'm still going on 2 hrs of sleep.

[JeffJ]

Congrats to you and your son Shane!!!! Way to find them under a very tough bite.

[Big Ed]

Thanks to John Barron, Ray Layerly and the entire staff of the Top Stick Joes;

The tournament was run very proffessional and it made for a great time and a great first time experience for my partner Vince Perkins. The quality of anglers was very apperarent but what ended up being not so obvious was the attitudes of all of the anglers present. Everybody was out for a good time low key and doing what they love. We met several people who we knew only by their screen names and others whos family came out to share the experience with them at the weigh in.

It was awesome to see the families participating together. Husbands and wives, fathers and sons and brothers. This truly is the event we have been waiting for. Thanks again JB and Ray, I hope more people will come out and participate at Piru next month because the fishing and the catching should be awesome.



JB and Ray, make sure Jim Bashaum gets some sunblock for the Piru event. His poor red face looked painfull.

Later; Big Ed!

[palmdale-shane]

I want to first say thanks to John Barron, Ray L. and staff for taking the time to put the (affordable and fun) Joes together. I can’t say how much it meant to both my son and I to have fished this event let alone win the first one we’ve ever fished together. Dennis will always remember this and I’m positive he’s now addicted.

Well let me start by saying that I hadn’t been to the lake since Dec. I wanted to pre-fish on Saturday but I ended up not being able to go. I wasn’t too worried, that was until I looked at the weights from Saturday’s tournament before going to bed. All I could say was wow….18 pounds and only 4th place.

The plan was to go looking for breakers and then throw big baits the rest of the day. We headed to our first spot only to discover that there were no breakers. Worked the area good for about an hour and then decided to change the game plan and just try to get five fish in the boat. Made a short run and within five minutes we had our first fish which came from 30ft. 30 minutes later we put a small one pound fish in the boat.

About 10:30 we decided to head over to the ski arm and ended up dragging up fish #3 from about 25ft. Then for some reason I had the urge to pick up the DS and I made a long cast onto the bank and ended up sticking our big fish from about 2.5ft of water.

Now we only needed one more fish and I was pretty sure we could get one in Ski cove. We headed in only to find a parking lot in the back. I stopped and threw on one of the points half way back and put #5 in the boat.

Having about 11.5 pounds at that time, thinking that it would take at least 15 pounds to be in the money We threw swimbaits for about the next 3 hours only to stress over the followers that wouldn’t commit.

With 4 minutes before check in I put down the big bait, threw out the worm, got stuck and told Dennis that even though we couldn’t get rid of the rat we were lucky to have a limit and “that’s just the way it is sometimes”.

That’s when my line went from being stuck to moving under the boat and I reeled down and put a 2 pound fish in the box. We couldn’t believe that just had happened and were able to cull out the dink.

I told Dennis that the last fish would make a big difference but I never imagined it would have won it for us.

All fish were caught on a variety of Oxblood colored Robo worms fished on the DS and SS.

Sorry that this was so long. It was good seeing so many friendly faces….The Mad Greek, Jeff J, Ron C, and the rest of the gang. I agree 100% with what Big Ed had to say about the Joes.

Shane Morgan

[buddy brown]

Great job Shane, Big Ed and Walt. Sorry that I missed this one it sounded like it was a good time and challenging bite out there.

[Yoz]

Congrats Shane and Dennis. I was the bald dude with the Stratos who parked next to you after weigh in. Great job to you and Dennis. I agree with Big Ed. This was a special event because of the great format. It gave me the chance to run the front in a tourney and that was an excellent learning chance. All in all, Erick and I had a blast and you can count on the fact we will be at the rest.
Thanks John, Ray, Ron, Darren, Jim, Lance and Dan you guys did a great job

Yoz

[DAKINE198]

Very cool Shane good job, and to all of the parents fishing with there kids. Next year hopefully my son with fish TS Joes with me.

[Jesse Austin]

This was the first bass tournament for my dad and I. It was an awesome experience. I wanted to thank everyone that put their personal time into Top Stick Joes, without this tournament we wouldnt have even thought of competing. We placed 11th overall and had a blast. Hopefully next month we do better. Congrats to Palmdale Shane and his son. I look forward to the rest of the series. Are we going to be at Piru or Pyramid next? Any information would be great. Now that I know of this forum I wont be calling John and Ray all the time. Im sure they will appreciate that. Thanks to everyone involved and what a great day it was.

[Ray L.]

First off thank you all for the kind words and for making this series a success. Secondly congrats to Shane and his son for winning the first event. This was even more impressive since it was out of a Skeeter bay boat and not a Ranger or Champion or such.
Jesse you can call me anytime.
Ed the reason Jim was red faced was because he loved your sexy legs in those shorts. Joke bud.
Thanks again to all and yes we are going to piru. John was half asleep when he wrote that.

[palmdale-shane]

Ouch Ray……That hurts. My Skeeter is a bass boat on steroids (minus the 250 on the back).

J/k with ya, actually I take it as a compliment.

[Dan P]

Congratulations to Shane and Dennis on your win. Hope to see all of you at the next event at Piru.

DP

[propgun]

Congrats to all the winners!!! John, Ray and the entire Top Stick staff Job well done .

[kenneth burkhart]

Congrats to all that fished! That was a cold launch.
Way to go Shane and Dennis, finally put the name with the face.
Hope that we get more boats for the next one. Piru should be a good one.

[DL]

This was the first bass tournament for my dad and I. It was an awesome experience. I wanted to thank everyone that put their personal time into Top Stick Joes, without this tournament we wouldnt have even thought of competing. We placed 11th overall and had a blast. Hopefully next month we do better. Congrats to Palmdale Shane and his son. I look forward to the rest of the series. Are we going to be at Piru or Pyramid next? Any information would be great. Now that I know of this forum I wont be calling John and Ray all the time. Im sure they will appreciate that. Thanks to everyone involved and what a great day it was.

Jesse, glad you guys had fun at Castaic. The next event is at Piru on the 26th of April. The bite should be great...see you there!

[DL]

Great job Shane and Dennis, it was hard to tell which one of you was more excited for the win!

Nevermind Ray, his fingers and his brain are not always working together

[Lance (SCFF Duplicate)]

Who is Shane.........


Nice job guys and to the TSJ's staff.....great job.....even you Ray

[palmdale-shane]

Lance, you need a Popeye pipe to go along with your hat.

[bass tracker]

I would like to thank everyone who helped organize the top stick joes. Sunday was one year to the day we bought our Bass Tracker and without an event like this we would have never thought about entering a tournament. We did ok for ROOKIES my son carried out team this time (hope to contribute more next time) with an 11th place finish it could have been worse. The morning was slow for us didn't get a fish till after 12:00 ended up up with three. We learned alot and had fun doing it, without feeling like we gave our money away with no chance at all. Looking forward to Piru, See Ya there. Mike Austin

[bass tracker]

forgot to give congrats to Shane and his son good job guys

[Ray L.]

Just a heads up
Dennis Taylor has put up some info on Piru. He has fished that lake for years and has a lot of good info.
Ask him and he will answer.
Also smitty may be able to answer some questions about that lake as well.
Ask them anything you want about the lake and they will answer your questions.

[JeffJ]

Yea I am listening what he has to say.

[Kelly Ripa]

Unless your lips are moving Jeff your reading....not listening.... Jeez Jeff you should be tell'n us whatz up at Piru isn't that Jeff Jue's home water???? . I might get involved in the Joe's just because I haven't seen half youse guyz in forever and a day....Poor ol' Tom Lee cannot make it on Saturday to Casitas...Whatz a girl to do? I think I'll lay waste to the place from dawn to dusk as the little womans gone..............

Rip

Where ever y'all fish this weekend I hope the backside of the moon treats you right!

[JeffJ]

Hey Kelly, yea haven't been to Piru in a year so have no clue what's going on. I know what they should be doing but will find out as time gets closer to the date. Been stuck at Castaic for ever. Getting burned out on that lake and might lock the boat down at Casitas next year to fish some stuff up that way.