Top
5 Finishers, left to right, 5th to 1st place:
Rich Perez, Joe Liptak, Don Tripoli, Jim Missel, Ed Carrol
Saturday
morning arriving at the ramp at about 4:15 AM, the rain started. As
usual the weather person was incorrect. She had called for scattered
showers
starting about noon, and the wind was supposed to be 5 to 10 mph from
the
NW.
How
ironic this was. We started the first tournament of the year in a
rainstorm, and here we are at the district finals in another rainstorm.
With all the qualifiers signed in, and having guests from district
#7 (Ed
Carrol and Rich Perez nice to have you join us).
Safety
check and briefing completed the boats were launched at 5:45. Waiting
for the weather to clear before the send-off, it was evident at this
point that it was going to last for awhile With the instructions to
the group they were not to run wide
open and run at a safe speed, I began sending them off. After the
last boat
was sent I took off, going about 100 yards I came off plane and pulled
out
my helmet (darn rain is not nice at 50 mph), and I was making about
a 10
mile run down the lake. Arriving at my first spot the rain decided
to come
down somewhat harder. I guess I'll make this easier... it rained all
day and so
hard that the auto bilge pump kicked on every 4 minutes for about
an hour
and a half, in this 21-foot Triton. The water temperature was 72 degrees
at
my location and it was what I would call clear. At the end of the
first day
the top 5 were:
Ed
Carrol in first with 15.10 lbs.
Rich Perez Second with 11.52
Bradley Gardner with 11.24
Don Tripoli with 10.88
Jim Missel with 10.64
With
3 other tournaments scheduled on the lake the following morning, and
try to insure that we would operate in an efficient manner, I decided
to do
a briefing and partner draw after our day 1 weigh-in. I told the field
that
I would be at the buoy and to launch as soon as they arrived at the
ramp,
and meet me on the water for the live well check.
It
did work out well. We were ready to send off at 6:00 am.and that weigh-in
was going to be 3:00 PM because the other tournaments were scheduled
for 2:PM. The day was a blue bird day wind was out of the North 10
to 15 mph which on this Lake makes it rough, 2 to 3 footers at the
South end of the lake which is where I was
planning to fish. Water temperature was 74 degrees and clear. The
bite was
slow all day, was the report from the fishermen. There were bass boats
all
over the lake. Every spot that could hold a bass there was at least
2 boats
on it. One of my primary spots when I pulled in had 8 boats on it,
however
there were none in the horseshoe opening that I fished in practice.
I had
found a weed line horseshoe shaped in 5 to 7 feet of water and the
opening
dropped to 16 feet, the fish were holding on the break. I should have
made
this my first spot. I ran into an old friend that knew about this
spot, and
he has been fishing the Federation tournament trail and he was fishing
this
one. He told me that he had pulled 15+lbs out of this spot this morning,
and
culled 3 fish. The choices we make some times, hindsight is 20/20
they say.
The results after the second day were somewhat different from day
one:
There
were only 4 limits brought in this day and the standings shuffled:
Ed
Carrol came in with 6.82 and a total of 21.92lbs for 1st place.
Jim Missel came in with 10.64 and a total of 19.69 for 2nd place
Don Tripoli came in with 6.83 and a total of 17.71 for 3rd place
Joe Liptak came in with 8.76 and a total of 14.18 for 4th place
Rich Perez came in with 2.36 and a total of 13.88 for 5th place
We had
our local sponsors supply prizes for
Angler of the Year:
1st
Place went to Jim Missel (Cash Prize)
Donated By Horizon Property Maintenance
2nd
Place went to Don Tripoli (Flipping Stick)
Donated by the Director
3rd Place went to Joe Angelone (Gift Certificate)
Donated by Cote' Supply
I
as director would like to thank all the fishermen for participating
this
year. I would also like to thank everyone for the help at each and
every
tournament, it makes my job a lot easier, And the tournament weigh-ins
run
smoother. A special thanks to Don Tripoli, my assistant director,
and also to my
administrative assistant, Marlene Angelone (who just happens to be
my wife).
The next scheduled tournament is the Nationals in Alabama on Lake
Wheeler.
New York North West will be well represented. As of this report, Jim
Missel, Don Tripoli, Antonio Gallelli, Mark Mothersell, myself (Joe
Angelone), are planning to attend and a possibility that Stan McCumber
maybe
joining us.
Please check the web site for our Early Birds in October.
Butterfield Lake Oct. 19-2002
Honeoye Lake (Open Tournament) Oct. 26-2002
