With the June gloom looming overhead and temperatures well below normal, 12 pros and 8 co-anglers headed across Castaic Lake in persuit of 5 green fish that would lead them to a 1st place finish in the Top Stick Tour season finale. When the day started, Manas Malikian held a slim 1-point lead over Cliff Gregory in the Angler of The Year race and word on the street was the bite had been up and down all week, but mostly down. With this in mind, we knew it would be a tight finish.. And as predicted, the bite was tough and every fish was important, no matter how small. As the Pro’s made their way to the scale, it was apparent that the race would be even tighter than we anticipated. Of the two anglers racing for the title, Cliff Gregory was the first to give his limit to the weighmaster…9.17 lbs was his weight. While Cliff weighed in his fish, the current leader for AOY was in line a few boats back. As Manas pulled to the scales, the look on his face told me he’d had a tough day. He handed me his 5 fish limit, and we proceeded to weigh it….8.87 lbs came up on the readout. After 5 events it came down to the rest of the field to see where our two anglers finished within the field of 12 pros..
Buck Baurnfiend and his Co Angler Tom Fruh, brought in a limit weighing 14.97 lbs and it was anchored by the big fish of the event(Pro and Co)….Tom Fruh’s beauty tipped the scales at almost 7 lbs and took home big fish honors on the coangler side. Second went to Mike Hart fishing solo, his weight was 12.90 and his kicker fish won him big fish on the Pro side. 3rd went to Pro Jerry Ballesteros, and his partner Pete Hoffman was bumped to second due to second place pro Mike Hart fishing alone. Conditions were tough and all our anglers did a good job adjusting to the conditions. After all the teams weighed in, it was time to do the math and see where Manas and Cliff landed.
1 Buck Bauerfeind 14.97 1,600.00
2 Mike Hart 12.90 1,000.00
3 Jerry Ballasteros 12.19 700.00
4 Walt Kondracki 10.03
5 Tony Capparelli 10.01
6 Cliff Gregory 9.71
7 Manas Malikian 8.87
8 Dale Jennings 8.22
9 Jay Wright 7.62
10 Kevin Johnson 7.36
11 Mark Koback 1.60
12 Cory Dispensario 0.00
With Cliff finishing in 6th, and Manas finishing in 7th, Manas' slim 1 point lead evaporated and left us with a TIE for the 2009 Top Stick Tour Angler of The Year! Both anglers have a total of 282 points. This means that the Angler of The Year race will be extended to one more tournament…..Santa Margarita and the TOC!
Final AOY Standings: Pros
1 Manas Milikian 58 57 57 56 54 282
1 Cliff Gregory 56 60 54 57 55 282
3 Jay Wright 0 59 58 58 52 227
3 Buck Baurnfiend 52 56 0 59 60 227
5 JR Kondracki 51 55 59 0 57 222
6 Mark Koback 53 5 52 54 50 214
7 Dale Jennings 50 5 53 52 53 213
8 Tony Capparelli 54 5 56 0 56 171
9 Ron Cervenka 60 0 0 60 0 120
10 Mike Hart 59 0 0 0 59 118
11 Jerry Ballesteros 57 0 0 0 58 115
12 Harry Jioras 49 58 0 0 0 107
13 Kevin Johnson 0 0 0 55 51 106
14 John Barron 48 0 0 53 0 101
15 Kyle Grover 0 0 60 0 0 60
15 Mike Lander 55 0 0 0 0 55
17 Cory Dispensiero 0 0 55 0 0 55
The Top Stick Tour tournament of champions will crown the 2009 Angler of The Year!!! Thru much debate and angler input, we are still deciding on the date of this event. We will be in touch will all anglers before and after the date is selected..please call or email John and/or myself with your input.
Thanks for a fun and competitive season, and I look forward to the TOC
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