Well what can I say except WOW, Mother Nature threw us a curveball. With almost 6” of rain the week before the tournament the lake was on the rise. In fact, it was 12’ high and rising on Saturday. But that didn’t stop the diehard anglers from making it out.
We had 15 teams total, 11 in open division and 4 in the traditional division. We were very satisfied with the turnout given the weather and lake conditions. It turned out to be an awesome day with warm weather and light winds.The fish were not co-operating in the morning, with everyone struggling to catch much of anything, Small seemed to be the consensus as I was out and about talking with the teams and getting some pictures. However, as the day went on the bite seemed to pick up. Several teams managed to catch lots of fish, but the size was still a challenge. As always, when you get a group of tournament anglers together, it seems that someone manages to catch them. This time it was the team of Mark Notley and Josh Jackson with a winning weight of 9.34# and a big fish of 1.79#. They were over 2# heavier than the 2ndplace team of David Riggs and Robert Southerland.
Trae and John Hamilton won the tradition division with a weight of 6.58# which included the biggest fish of the tournament at 1.82#. All the top teams said they had more big fish caught but struggled to get them into the boat. I even had one team that had caught their 7 fish and just didn’t feel they had a big enough weight so the just released them, after seeing the low results of the day the later regretted that decision. As I told them that is how we learn, tournament fishing is a tough sport and you just have to play the cards you are dealt.
The next tournament is Skiatook lake on June 1st. This tournament will be our youth focused tournament. Your team can have a 3rd angler in the boat as long as they are 15 years old or younger. So figure out who you are going to bring and get a kid out on the water!!!
