We hosted our second Thursday Night Throwdown last night on Norton Reservoir. Sixteen anglers came out for this one, and with that we’ll be paying four spots.
Many of us quickly found out that rumors of a weed kill were true, which left at least me not sure what to do, not having much knowledge of the lake.
Mike Morcone had no knowledge of the lake, so he just beat the bank for 48 inches of bass, which landed him in fourth place.
Christopher Nardi launched and fished on the Route 140 side of the lake. His 49 inches nabbed third place.
From what I saw, Matthew Conant was fishing a bit offshore, likely targeting rocks. He took fourth place with 51 inches, which was anchored by a 19.75 he caught just as the big storm blew through.
I was sitting on 54 inches prior to the storm, which was solid, the best I’ve ever done there, almost beating my five-fish record! I’d gotten on a consistent frog bite in the sporadic pads around the lake, all but one of my fish coming on that or a follow-up soft plastic if they missed it. The one that didn’t was my biggest, a 20-incher that smashed my bait just after the storm passed—and came off. I skipped back in and luckily it hit again, which was shocking because I jacked it the first time (might have been a different fish, of course). That fish sealed the victory and gave me lunker with 57 inches.
Only two pickerel were submitted for pickerel lunker, and the biggest was caught by Derek Brundle.
Congrats, everyone!
These are fun, high energy events. Like I said in the previous write-up, it’s like speed-round fishing with the shortened times. Stressful, but a good time.