AC/WRL Delta Wine Division Full Story for March 14, Tourn

[Randy Pringle]

ELITE TO DELETE - THE AC/WRL POUNDS THE WATER AFTER BEING POUNDED

The Berkley AC/ WRL hit the water on March 14th during the last day of the Elite Series, launching out of Russo’s Marina. It looked to be a great day with no bad weather in site.

As the boats were positioned, ready to blast off with the large boats to follow the small boats, I went over all the rules and gave the flight times so each team would know when they were due back for the weigh in. We had a Moment of Silence to honor Jim James, an angler who fished the WRL for years who lost his battle with cancer a few weeks before. Jim was not only a member of the Western Rookie League; he was a member of two bass clubs, Sonora and Riverbank who had several friends who thought the world of him. He was also a client and close friend of Sheri and I. He is missed by many. Then it was time to blast off as the boats headed for their first stop of their fishing area.

With spring knocking at the door, the fish were just not ready to make their appearance to come out and play. With 104 teams on the water, again breaking AC/WRL records, the staff and I were ready to weigh in fish at 3 PM. The Delta, which is rated one of the top five bass fisheries in the nation, well, tell that to the bass! The bass decided to play a shell game, now you see me and now you don’t; it was a tough day of fishing for most! One after another, anglers came to the scales with one or two bass in their bags while others didn’t weigh in a single fish. Only four teams brought a limit to the scales. It took 5.08 pounds to receive a check. The winners of this event had only three bass, one just so happened to be the largest fish of event weighing in at 9.52 pounds. From Sacramento, the team of Ronald and Jenna Rushing had a weight of 16.27 pounds. Ron caught their bass using red crank baits on the high tide in White Slough. With this bag of fish, they earned $3245.00 for their effort. Congratulations!

In Second Place was the team driving in from Nevada, Troy Fleming and Casey Rhyme who had the largest limit of the field that weighed 16.12 pounds and their kicker was 5.94 pounds. They took home $1440.00 for their day plus frequent driver’s miles for the distance traveled! They told the crowd they “leap froggedâ€