Top
5 Finishers, Left to Right ,1st to 5th place:
Don Tropoli, Jim Missel, Dave Bitler. Mark Hertline, Joe Liptak
Irondequoit
Bay
July
10th, 2004:
This was our second tournament of the official regular Bass Season
here in upstate New York.We arrived at the ramp at 4 am to set up
and start morning registration. There were anglers already there waiting
for us to arrive. The weatherman was calling for a very nice day with
winds blowing out of the southwest from 10 to 15 mph. The wind conditions
were favorable if anybody wanted to leave the bay and venture out
into Lake Ontario. Which has been known to get 9 to 10 footers if
the wind switched around. The temperature reached into the high 70’s
low 80’s, with slightly scattered clouds. The water temps in
the areas I was fishing was up to 68 degrees.
We had a full field of 20 anglers…being that this was our second
OPEN tournament this year, the expectations were much higher. I would
personally like to welcome Jerry Ventra back, he is bravely winning
his fight with a serious health problem. It is great to have you back
fishing with us again, Jerry!
Most anglers chose to stay right in Irondequoit Bay and do their fishing.
I on the other hand found some good fish in a bay about 20 miles away
going out into the lake to get there. After getting to the bay and
prior to getting to my spot I developed motor problems, but that is
another story for another time. Deciding to fish while waiting for
the marina to open so I could buy new plugs. I was able to land 3
fish all in excess of 3 pounds all on top water (scum Frog) and a
sammy. Marina is now open so I decide to change the plugs to see if
I can get back to the ramp which turned out to be the wrong choice.
Now cell phone call to make arrangements to have someone come and
pick me up on the trailer. Putting the 3 fish back in the water (have
to follow the rules folks) waiting for the trailer I decided to throw
the sammy around close to the marina ramp and landed 2 more nice largemouths.
Just one of those days. At the weigh–in everyone had to weigh
fish.
The winning pattern:
My co-director has fished this Bay all his life and for all intents
and purposes I had a feeling that he was the one that we had to beat,
and my assumption was correct. Don Tripoli brought in the winning
weight of 17.51 pounds, the heaviest weight of the year for our district.
Don used what is called the Irondequoit Bay special worm, the color
of that worm is……. hummmmm I seem to have forgotten that
info, and he was in more than 10 feet and less than 20 feet of water.
Jim Missel was second with 15.91 pounds although I was not able to
speak to Jim My sources say that Jim was using a tube and the color
was…… Hummm, I seem to be having some trouble with remembering
the colors these guys were using, but they were in the same water
depth range.
Great job Guy’s
The TOP FIVE:
1st Place Don Tripoli 17.51 lbs.
2nd Place Jim Missel 15.90 lbs.
3rd Place Dave Beitler 11.05 lbs
4th Place Mark Hertlein 10.64 lbs.
5th Place Joe Liptak 10.25 lbs
Big Bass
Mark Hertlein 4.23 lbs
2nd Big Bass Don Tripoli 4.16 lbs.
Next tournament is at Black Lake on July 24, 2004. PLEASE be on time
at the Launch site..
See you at the ramp!
Joe, Don and Marlene.
Next
tournament is July 24th on Black Lake
Morning
registration starts at 4:15 and CLOSES at 5:25 Promptly. Boaters will
be assigned their boat number as they register
Remember your Boat Insurance forms:
Spot checks will be held!
Hope
to see you all on the water!
Joe,
Don and Marlene
