20.Jun.2014 by David A. Brown MARBURY, Md. – He couldn’t find the quality, but picking through the quantity enabled Gregory Wilder, of Brooklyn Park, Md. to take over the day-two lead in the Rayovac FLW Series Northern Division event on the Potomac River.Wilder moved up from second place on day one by adding a day-two limit of 15 pounds, 3 ounces to his opening weight of 17-4 and moved to the top with a total of 32-7.“I did the same thing I did (on day one) and ran the same routes,” said Wilder. “I didn’t get the big bites I had yesterday, but I caught a good amount of fish so it was a pretty good day.”
Essential to his success, Wilder said, was having viable spots for high and low water. Today’s tide schedule saw about two hours of outgoing water at the tournament site on Mattawoman Creek, with incoming water most of the morning and early afternoon. Depending on where they fished, anglers caught a piece of the afternoon’s incoming cycle before time expired.
Abu Garcia introduced their Veracity fishing rods last year at ICAST. They sent me a couple of their rods this spring to fish with and test in a variety of situations. As it turns out, they became some of my most used rods this season. Here are a number of reasons why I continuously reached for these rods in different situations:
19.Jun.2014 MARBURY, Md. – Starting his day with a big fish gave William Kemp a ton of confidence and no doubt helped him relax en route to topping day one of the Rayovac FLW Series Northern Division event on the Potomac River.Kemp, who caught a limit that weighed 19 pounds, 2 ounces, reported a rather lackluster morning bite. However, the bites he got were quality fish – including the 6-10 that bit at 8 a.m. and ended up earning Big Bass honors for the Scotland Neck, N.C. pro.
“Overall, it was pretty slow this morning and the fish bit better this afternoon,” Kemp said. “I just caught a couple of key big ones this morning. It was a slow bite, but I got the right bites.”
His big fish, he said, energized him and filled him with enthusiasm that was “through the roof.”
Kemp said that his morning fish bit Zoom Brush Hogs that he was flipping into grass. Later in the day, the fish seemed to become more interested in feeding.
“It just seemed that the fish switched up when the tide got higher – they got a little more active and aggressive,” he said.
The Inaugural Bassmaster BASSfest at Chickamauga Lake is in the books. What is BASSfest? BASSfest, a 5 day event of the top 140 anglers, 107 Elite regulars and 33 qualifiers through the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series competing for the championship. All 140 anglers compete on days 1 & 2, and then the twist. On day 3, the top 50 take the day off and appear at the BASSfest Expo, meeting fans, giving seminars, and signing autographs. The remaining 90 anglers would start from scratch in a one day shootout on a totally different lake, with the top 10 advancing to compete on day 4 with the top 50 qualifiers from days 1 & 2. And for the final day 5, the top 12 anglers would compete for the $125,000 grand prize and a berth in the 2015 Bassmaster Classic. Day 1 started off great with Michael Iaconelli having the hot hand. But on Day 2, the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup winner, Jacob Wheeler came alive with a whopping 29 pounds 13 ounce limit that propelled him into the lead. A lead he never gave up, despite having a 4 fish limit of 16-2 on day 4. He finished up day 5 with a 22-1 limit and won by 5 pounds 10 ounces over top Elite pro Kevin VanDam. Jacob averaged 4.768 pounds per fish over the four days of fishing with 19 fish caught, while Kevin averaged 4.427 pounds per fish for his 19 fish caught. Yes, both first and second place missed a limit of fish on day 4 and still managed to place ahead of their competitors. Jacob now must complete the 2014 season of the Northern Open in order to claim his berth at the 2015 Bassmaster Classic. A small price to pay to earn a chance at becoming the Bassmaster Classic Champion, a dream so many kids share. But it does make you wonder, does an Elite angler, who wins an event; must he fish every tournament to claim his berth? I couldn’t find out if he must or not. Does this win by FLW Angler Jacob Wheeler mean that the FLW has the best anglers? Does it put a thorn in the side of the Bassmaster Elite series? It does enflame the question as to which series has the title of best anglers. Or does it show that they both are on equal footing? What do you think, FLW or Elites? Wheeler, Martin, Dudley or VanDam, Crews, Horton?
We’ve had so many requests for wicking performance shirts we just had to add them to our apparel line! So now when you’re out on the water pounding fish in the hot summer sun, you can stay cool, protect your skin and even look cool (really cool) while you’re doing it! Check out all the cool features of these awesome New PTL Cooling Performance Long Sleeve Crews:
* Moisture wicking (pulls the sweat off your body)
* Stain release (just in case you like to wear your lunch just as much as you like to eat it)
* Odor resistant (for those of you who don’t realize how stinky you really are)
* 100% Polyester Interlock material with an ultra-tight knit to resist snagging (just a flat out cool detail)
* Available in Men’s and Women’s sizes (gotta keep the ladies cool too…remember, if they’re happy, we’re happy)
And for those of you who haven’t discovered the cool functionality of performance gear yet, it’s time to wake up and smell the comfort! Trust me when I say your body will thank you for it.
Okay, onto the new bait colors:
The 4.5″ Bully Grass Devil got hit with the famous Okeechobee Craw! The 3.6″ JP Hammer Shad got dusted with a shot of Gold Digger! And the 6″ Gator got the Kitchen Sick thrown at it!
Hot colors in hot baits and cool Performance gear to keep you comfortable while you’re slinging fish into the boat. Fish on!!!
1st Place: Tony Stanley & Travis Parker of Four Oaks & Mebane…5 bass…16.48 lbs
What a great day for the Boats Unlimited NC Team Tournament Bass Trail Championship at Kerr Lake. 76 of the 84 qualified teams enjoyed the beautiful weather and a great day of catching bass! It was very nice that morning at about 65 degrees with very little wind and around 84 that afternoon with light winds. Water temps averaged 88 depending on the area fished. Kerr, again, really seems to be on the rebound after the bass virus. The fish really looked healthy and a putting on some good weight! Tony Stanley of Four Oaks & Travis Parker of Benson smiled all the way to the stage to weigh in their 5 bass weighing 16.48 lbs. to win the Championship by just 3 100ths of a pound! They won $10,000 for 1st, & 1st place Big Fish (5.77 lbs.) worth $1,050 & 2 beautiful JB Custom Fishing Rods for a grand total of $11,450 in cash & prizes! The team stated most of their bass were caught on plastics. Rodney Hilber of Hillsborough & Ken Penderman of Durham almost won but instead took 2nd with 5 bass weighing 16.45 lbs winning $1,325 along with $1,540 for 1st place TWT and a $200 Gift Certificate compliments of Outhouse Tackle in Raleigh for a total of $3,065. Points Champions for the Trail were the team of Bryce McClenney of Cary & Michael Christie of Cary
winning them $1,000 and 2 nice Kistler Rods compliments of Skeeter Boats. Tow Boats US $100 Member Bonus went to Todd Massey of Chapel Hill. Almost every team weighed in for a whopping total of 269 fish weighing 626 pounds for an average of 2.33 lbs. each. We had two fish over 5 lbs. one of which weighed over 6 but the team was not in the big fish pot! Hot baits for the day were , c-rigs, shakey heads, finesse worms, jigs, crankbaits and some top water early. Most fish were caught from 1 to 10′ in depth. After the weighin the teams were treated to a wonderful cookout compliments of Ridgecrest Baptist
Outdoor Ministries in Durham during which, over $8,000 in sponsors door prizes were given away! I want to thank all the anglers that participated and all our sponsors that supported this trail. The next tournament will be Cashion Fishing Rods End of Year Team Bass Trail Qualifier #1 at Jordan Lake on July 12th, out of Farrington Point Wildlife Ramp. All the information on our tournaments can be found at http://piedmontbassclassics.com/
Now here are the full results:
1st Place: Tony Stanley & Travis Parker of Four Oaks & Mebane…5 bass…16.48 lbs…$10,000
2nd Place: Rodney Hilber & Ken Penderman of Hillsborough & Durham…5 bass…16.45 lbs…$1,325
3rd Place: Dave Murdock & Tony Fofi of Sanford & Spring Lake…5 bass…15.89 lbs…$815
4th Place: Billy Bledsoe & Brian McDonald of Fayetteville & Hope Mills…5 bass…15.82 lbs…$600
5th Place: Robert Perkins & Chris Bullock of Rougemont & Fountain…5 bass…15.35 lbs…$547
6th Place: Todd Massey & Brandon Gray of Chapel Hill & Bullock…5 bass…15.23 lbs…$486
7th Place: Troy Horne & Darryl Peele of Goldsboro…5 bass…13.95 lbs…$425
8th Place: Bryce McClenney & Michael Christie of Cary & Fuquay Varina…5 bass…13.88 lbs…$365
9th Place: Todd & Jeff Sumner of Southern Pines…5 bass…13.85 lbs…$304
10th Place: Phillip Johnson & Geno McCree of Durham…5 bass…13.78 lbs…$243
11th Place: Richard Cooper & Allen White of Clayton…5 bass…13.71 lbs…$243
12th Place: Bill Recher & Roger McLamb of Henderson & Stem…5 bass…13.58 lbs…$182
13th Place: Eric & Jennifer Christian of Graham…5 bass…13.53 lbs…$182
14th Place: Thomas Sheffer & Ken McNeill of Cary & Raleigh…5 bass…13.29 lbs…$121
15th Place: Seth Ellis & Chuck Byrd of Lillington & Sanford…5 bass…13.05 lbs…$121
16th Place: Johnny Wilder & Mike Harris of Butner & Oxford…5 bass…12.52 lbs…$121
1st Place Big Fish..1st Place Team above…5.77 lbs…$1,050
2nd Place Big Fish..11th Place Team above…4.88 lbs…$450
1st Place TWT..2nd Place Team above…16.45 lbs…$1,540
2nd Place TWT..3rd Place Team above: 15.89 lbs…$600
I bought one of the new Daiwa Tatula reels last fall after talking with the Daiwa folks at ICAST and fishing with Andy Montgomery last fall. He raved about how good and smooth the reel was to cast and fish with, so I had to review the Daiwa Tatula 100 for myself.
