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It was another interesting day on the bay today. The wind blew somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 miles per hour out of the Northwest to start the day, and the tide was easily 3 foot below normal by mid morning. Our day started of fairly well, and we were catching good trout. My first bite was a very nice trout, that came up doing the classic big girl head shake. That's always scarry, and this time was no exception. After her five seconds at the surface, she headed straight towards me, staying down, until she had completed her first lap around me. Then the inevitable, she came up for round two of the head shakes, and bloop, out comes the Corky. She was however nice enough to lay there on the surface, about 15 feet away for long enough for me to fully absorb the fact that I had just lost a trout in the 6 pound class in the first hour of a tournament. The good news is that there were a few more good fish that were willing to bite. After the first one, I proceeded to redeem myself by landing the next 4 trout before they took their mid morning break. I had 2 small ones and two between 4-5 pounds at the end of the first wade.
Daniel had been wading a good ways down the shoreline, so I didn't really have any idea what damage he had done. Our fish shut down at the same time, so we took a break to get the livewell going. Turns out that Daniel had been working some magic of his own, and he had two that were probably right at 5 and close to 5.5. We loaeded them up in the livewell, grabbed a quick bite and talked things over. It was pretty relaxing to realize that we had at least 14 if not 15 pounds already in the bag.
Feeling sure that there was a kicker waiting somewhere out there, we went back to it. Each of us right back to where we had started the day. After a solid hour of not catching a fish, and remembering that Daniel had seen some bait moving, while I hadn't, I headed towards him. The move paid off, and I got fairly close, I stuck another nice fish. This one popped the hooks as well, but got my concentration back where it needed to be. As we worked the area slowly, we each got bitten a few more times. Daniel's fish seemed to be crunching the Corky, and missing the hooks. My next bite was the best of the day. She thumped poor little Fatboy good, and then gave me the big scare at the surface. I thought for sure that she had pulled the hooks, as she charged across the surface, and my line went limp. As I started to crank the Corky back in, the line came tight again, and the battle was on. This fish had no intention of giving up easily, but after several head shake sessions and 6 full laps around me, I was able to grab her. My guess on the spot was that she would go 7 pounds, and about 27 inches. We managed a few more bites up until around 12:30 or so then decided we had done what we came for.
At the weigh in, we were holding down a very strong first place. That is, until Randy Weaver and Dean Stevens weighed. These two have been on some truly huge trout lately, and today was no exception. Until they weighed, we were first overall and first in big trout, with our 17.76 pound string, and 6.94. Weaver and Stevens brought there fish to the scale and trumped us by just over a quarter of a pound! 18.09!! Man, that's a huge tournament string!!!
Overall, there were slightly more than 60 competitors in the Spectacular Trout Series today, with 14 teams that brought their strings to the weigh in. Congratulations to all, especially Randy Weaver and Dean Stevens and Rob Ellis and Bryan White who took the big fish honors.
We had a great day overall, and probably released 14 pounds strings at least 3 times over to get the right 3 too take to the weigh.
The fininshes are as follows:
1- Randy Weaver, Dean Stevens 18.09
2- Steve Soule', Daniel Popovich 17.76
3- Aaron Stillwagon 14.98
4- Joe Townsend, Kenny Garza 11.23
5- Leon Napoli, William Cauthen 10.76
6- Pickel, Marshal 10.58
7- Hoogeboom, Hardaway 10.57
8- Ellis, White 10.40
9- Bautista, Aguirre 9.52
10- Rodefeld, Inglehart, Johnson 8.96
11-Reuter, Baker 8.8
12- Roberson, Storm 8.55
13- Battistomi, Battistomi 7.67
14- Dixon, Woodcock 7.18
The top three Big Trout were:
Ellis, White 7.13
Soule', Popovich 6.94
Weaver, Stevens 6.72
Looking forward to the next one and more warming weather.
Daniel had been wading a good ways down the shoreline, so I didn't really have any idea what damage he had done. Our fish shut down at the same time, so we took a break to get the livewell going. Turns out that Daniel had been working some magic of his own, and he had two that were probably right at 5 and close to 5.5. We loaeded them up in the livewell, grabbed a quick bite and talked things over. It was pretty relaxing to realize that we had at least 14 if not 15 pounds already in the bag.
Feeling sure that there was a kicker waiting somewhere out there, we went back to it. Each of us right back to where we had started the day. After a solid hour of not catching a fish, and remembering that Daniel had seen some bait moving, while I hadn't, I headed towards him. The move paid off, and I got fairly close, I stuck another nice fish. This one popped the hooks as well, but got my concentration back where it needed to be. As we worked the area slowly, we each got bitten a few more times. Daniel's fish seemed to be crunching the Corky, and missing the hooks. My next bite was the best of the day. She thumped poor little Fatboy good, and then gave me the big scare at the surface. I thought for sure that she had pulled the hooks, as she charged across the surface, and my line went limp. As I started to crank the Corky back in, the line came tight again, and the battle was on. This fish had no intention of giving up easily, but after several head shake sessions and 6 full laps around me, I was able to grab her. My guess on the spot was that she would go 7 pounds, and about 27 inches. We managed a few more bites up until around 12:30 or so then decided we had done what we came for.
At the weigh in, we were holding down a very strong first place. That is, until Randy Weaver and Dean Stevens weighed. These two have been on some truly huge trout lately, and today was no exception. Until they weighed, we were first overall and first in big trout, with our 17.76 pound string, and 6.94. Weaver and Stevens brought there fish to the scale and trumped us by just over a quarter of a pound! 18.09!! Man, that's a huge tournament string!!!
Overall, there were slightly more than 60 competitors in the Spectacular Trout Series today, with 14 teams that brought their strings to the weigh in. Congratulations to all, especially Randy Weaver and Dean Stevens and Rob Ellis and Bryan White who took the big fish honors.
We had a great day overall, and probably released 14 pounds strings at least 3 times over to get the right 3 too take to the weigh.
The fininshes are as follows:
1- Randy Weaver, Dean Stevens 18.09
2- Steve Soule', Daniel Popovich 17.76
3- Aaron Stillwagon 14.98
4- Joe Townsend, Kenny Garza 11.23
5- Leon Napoli, William Cauthen 10.76
6- Pickel, Marshal 10.58
7- Hoogeboom, Hardaway 10.57
8- Ellis, White 10.40
9- Bautista, Aguirre 9.52
10- Rodefeld, Inglehart, Johnson 8.96
11-Reuter, Baker 8.8
12- Roberson, Storm 8.55
13- Battistomi, Battistomi 7.67
14- Dixon, Woodcock 7.18
The top three Big Trout were:
Ellis, White 7.13
Soule', Popovich 6.94
Weaver, Stevens 6.72
Looking forward to the next one and more warming weather.
Attached Files
He's a great guy and unbelievable angler, who I have fished with for nearly 15 years now.
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