Top
5 Finishers, Left to Right ,1st to 5th place:
Pat Dunnl,Rodney Magee,David Livingston,
Joe Liptak, Jim Missel
This was
our second tournament in the 2004 season, Lake Erie 5-29-2004
Saturday
Morning, getting up at 2:30 checking the thermometer outside and it
is reading 36 degrees, while hooking up my boat you could see your
breath. Arrived at the ramp at 4:10am the temperature has already
started to rise for the start of the days’ competition. The
winds were calm and the water was flat. The weatherman was calling
for a nice day..high in the 60’s, and no rain. Turnout was extremely
light being an Open tournament the expectations were much higher.
The two bass clubs that showed interest in fishing with us and ASKED
to have it changed to an OPEN tournament, never showed up. We had
a total of 14 anglers.
During
the days competition I noticed that many anglers were running which
means they were experiencing the same thing I was…the fish had
lockjaw! The water temperature warmed to 58.6 degrees…was the
highest that I found. The water clarity varied depending on the area
you were fishing. Clear to stained. As the day progressed the winds
picked up and good old Lake Erie started living up to its name as
a lake that can get rough quickly. By the end of the days competition
we were fishing in 3 to 4 footers. I was fishing anywhere from 5 feet
to 35 feet with most bites coming between 18 and 24 feet. I was only
able to land 2 fish all day…one 12 ½ inch smallie and
one 14 7/8 inch . The size limit for this lake is 15 inches. I did
hook and lose 4 other fish. One of which was well over 15 inches.
Just one of those days folks. From all the reports from the anglers
the fish were caught on either jigging spoons or tubes…one angler
confessed to actually catching one on a crankbait. The tubes that
were used according to the anglers were brown/chartreuse, watermelon,
white, black with gold fleck. My fish came on a jigging spoon, gold,
reef runner white/green, brown tube gold flake. This was the final
tournament of the special season on Lake Erie for this year. Our next
tournament will be the actual bass season opening for New York June
19th at Redfield Reservoir or sometimes called Salmon River Reservoir.
I already know that this will be a full field event…if everyone
comes who says they are.
Top 5
1) Pat Dunn 4.86lbs
2) Rodney Magee 3.63lbs
3) Dave Livingston 3.34lbs
4) Joe Liptak 2.78lbs
5) Jim Missel 2.74lbs
Next
tournament is Redfield Reservoir 6-19-04 Morning registration starts
at 4:15 and CLOSES at 5:25 Promptly. Jackson Road Ramp. Boaters will
be assigned their boat number as they register
Joe Angelone,
Director
