This past Saturday, for the first time in a long time, we had a full field of 25 anglers! Was good to see. Unfortunately, by the end of the event, most had already gone home.

Anglers were met with strong winds almost right from the start. The eastern shoreline was relatively calm, at least in comparison to the washing machine that was the western side of the lake. With this place being notoriously tough, the wind did not help matters.

Only six anglers caught a limit!

At the ramp after the event, I announced another angler as having won the pickerel lunker pool. He entered an incorrect length, however, and after correcting it, Mike Morcone’s 21-incher moved into the top spot!

Lunker bass for the event went to Steve Hedges, who nailed a 19.50 just after 7 AM. Great job, man!

Torrence Davis kindly donated one of his Bubba Bass Anglers tackle boxes to the first person out of the money, and that angler was Domenic Eno!

Thanks again, Torrence! And if you’ve not checked out the Bubba Bass Anglers YouTube channel, do yourself a favor and do so. Then smooch the like button, kick subscribe, and headbutt the bell, or whatever. Something like that.

Seriously, though, it’s a great channel.

Speaking of Torrence, with 65.75 inches, he landed in fifth place, his first time in the money with MAKB. Congrats, man! Fishing rocks was where he found the most success.

Also with 65.75, Steve Hedges nabbed fourth place, with his tournament lunker being the guaranteed tie-breaker.

I landed five fish all day, and it took me fishing the entire western side of the lake to do so. Those five fish went 71.25, good enough for third.

Troy Brown almost backed out after his car was rear-ended the day before. Luckily he woke up not feeling as bad as he feared, made the event, and threw 72 inches on the board. Anchored by a solid 18.50, the second biggest of the event, this hoisted him up into the winner’s circle and second place. Glad you made it, man!

As I made my way up the shoreline, noting that the farther north I went there were less weeds and more rock and hard/sandy bottom, I lamented not bringing my bag full of Z-Man products. I felt the ned rig would have been perfect for that stuff. I had the rod, the hooks, but not the baits.

Toward the end of the day, coming down the eastern side, I passed Matthew Conant, who said something along the lines of, “Keep going. Nothing to see here.” I saw he had a ned rig in his hand, which confirmed what I was thinking earlier…

As he said, once he tied that on, it was “like night and day.” After struggling most of the day, the ned produced for him almost immediately, and he continued to catch fish and cull up to a solid Long Pond limit of 74.25, plenty enough to give him yet another notch in his belt! Congrats, brother!

Check out the full results here.