|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 2, 2008, MCB MiniBucks, Tydings. Originally, we were planning on dividing the Susquehanna
River section of the Flats into six holes for this years MiniBucks event however we only had three boats in the field. Therefore,
an executive decision was made to change the rules to a team format with a five fish limit, winner take all. The tournament
fishing waters would include the Susquehanna River to the northern entrance of Tydings Marina on the west shore
and the entrance of Furnace Bay on the eastern shore. Furnace Bay and Tydings Marina were off limits.
The day provided
some early morning sunshine then early afternoon cloud cover with temperatures in the low 50's. Winds were blowing
out of the NE around 5-10 MPH and the water temperature was 55-57 degrees. We launched at dead low tide, the water was very
clear, and the weed beds were thick and massive.
The winning team of Bucci/McVay had a five fish limit of 12.95
lbs anchored by a 4 lb LM caught on a greenpumpkin buzz frog and a 3 1/2 lb LM taken on a 7 inch blue fleck power worm. The
team of Wright/Howson boated five largemouth for a weight of 8.76 lbs narrowly edging the team of Nagy/Brown who had five
largemouth for 8.71 lbs.





----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 18, 2008, MCB #10, Oneida Lake. The annual MCB away trip gathered most of the club members at Oneida during
a four day span of northern exposure. In all, thirteen guy's fished for tournament weight between Friday and Saturday.
As is typical for this time of year, weather played a key role with putting a pattern together for day to
day success with the smallies. The lake level was slightly lower than normal pool and the water was gin clear. Surface water
temperature was between 56 and 58 degrees for all days.
Upon arriving late Wednesday morning, several
of us were greeted with a beautiful, sunny, fall day at the lake. A four hour lake adventure of fishing brought several
smallies to the ramp for a lunker pool. Gary trumpted the five angler field with a 3.8 lb smallmouth caught on
a chartreuse spinnerbait off a shoal.

Gman with a 3.8 lb smallmouth for Wednesday's lunker
of the day.
Thursday morning greeted us with rain and wind. Lots of rain and wind! Boy did
we have fun! Although the conditions were difficult, many of us still managed to catch fish throughout the day. The smallies
were not bunched up in large packs and agressively feeding as we all might anticipate for this time of year.
Therefore, you had to be patient and work an area from shallow to deep water. The more agressive fish attacked
top water and spinnerbaits. While most fish seemed tight and deeper in the weedbeds. Thursdays lunker was won by Dave
Brown with a 3.78 lb largemouth on a spinnerbait under a dock.
Master Mechanic with Thursday's 3.78 lb largemouth lunker of the day.
Oneida Bronzeback Bookends.
When the Gman is happy, everyone is happy!
Friday morning was dry with take off
temp's around 38 degrees and windy. Two footers had to be dealt with for most of the day as the winds were blowing
10 to 15 MPH. Although sunny, the day had a chill to it. Pete Yas, Dave Brown and Sean decided to play their weight on
Friday for their respective tournament results.
The Pure Man Yas used his vast knowledge from many years
of fishing on Oneida Lake. The seasoned veteran was able to pattern a limit catch of five bass, 4 smallmouth
and 1 largemouth weighing 11.76 lbs and capturing 1st place in the tournament. Give the Pure Man Yas a few days
on the water and you'll always find him at the top of the leader board. Great job Yas!
1st Place. Pete Yas with winning weight of 11.76 lbs.
Steelhead Sean had the second heaviest bag of the day on Friday with four
largemouth bass weighing 8.17 lbs, eventually finishing in 7th place. Steelhead loves his largemouth!
Steelhead Sean with 8.17 lbs of largemouth for 7th place.
Friday's daily lunker pool was won by
Officer Dibble! Captain Jack Sparrow captured a 3.67 lb largemouth busting a black and blue sweet beaver through the matted
grass beds. Don't mess with the Captain!!!!!
Captain Jack with a nice 3.67 lb largemouth for Friday's lunker of the day.
Uncle Buck with Oneida Smallies.
Ranger Ricky with Oneida beauties!
Tom The Bell Tolls 1 Oneida Lake Smallmouth.
Friday evening brought cold wind from the north and the evening temperature dropped
into the high 20's. Official launch temperature Saturday morning was a chilly 31 degrees. The day proceeded
to be sunny and warm due to the wind laying down for most of the day. Five limits were brought to the scales on Saturday
with the majority of the fish being smallmouth.
Brian The Nag Nagy had the heaviest bag on Saturday
with five smallies weighing 10.93 lbs. Although nagging most of Friday and Saturday mornings about the tournament
structure change from a two day to one day format, then not being able to take the best weight from Friday
or Saturday, to just plain nagging! The Nag produced a sweet bag of bronzbacks and captured second place in the tournament.
Following The Nag in weight for third place was the Nags target of the weekend, Pete Bucci, with a five
fish limit of four smallies and one largemouth for a weight of 10.61 lbs. Uncle Buck caught several fish on a golden shinner
spinnerbait and others on a greenpumpkin zoom super hog and zoom ultravibe speed craw. All the fish came off shoals.

3rd Place. Pete Bucci with a 10.61 lb limit.
Adam Dooggie Howser Howson, after a
long night of celebrating with the Mac Attack over his new employment opportunity, he dazzled himself by putting
together a late day pattern in enough time to bag a bookend limit of Oneida Bronzebacks. Using a watermellon
zoom super speed craw, the A-Man caught 10.38 lbs of smallies to finish in 4th place. At days end, Doogie had a big bounce
in his step after a long night with Johnny Mac. Atta Boy Doogie!
Adam Doogie Howson with a 10.38 lb limit of smallies for 4th place.
Johnny Mac was paired with his faithful fishing
guide, Captain Uncle Buck, who has been known to deliver quite a few tournament winners from the back of his Ranger boat.
A top water spook delivered a half dozen bomb explosions for the Mac Man, however, no fish hookups. It's unbelievable
how a bass can blow up on treble hooks and not snag itself! Once the Mac Attack decided to throw the golden shinner,
the bass catching was on. At the end of the day, Johnny weighed in 3 smallies and 1 largemouth for 9.63 lbs and 5th place.
(Pssst, he lost number 5 on three seperate occasions).
Johnny Golden Shinner Mac Attack with four bass for 9.63 lbs and 5th place.
Bennie The Blade Boudrou Brown bagged a bronzeback
limit on blade baits (say that fast 3 times). The Cajun Blade patiently fished behind the Gman for four days, which, most
often, is not a pleasant smelling proposition. However, The Blade survived and loaded the boat with five smallmouth
for a weight of 8.66 lbs and a 6th place finish. Give the Blade a blade bait and Boudrou appears!
Bennie The Blade with a limit of smallie bookends for 8.66 lbs and 6th place.
Gman power fished all day looking for
that elusive school of slab smallmouth. Not to be found, the Gman's determination ended the day with a respectable
limit of smallies weighing 8.12 lbs for a 8th place finish. Additionally, borrowed headgear from Boudrou transformed
the Gman into Rambo!
Rambo, the bass hunter, captures a 8.12 lb limit for 8th place!
Captain Jack Sparrow sailed around Oneida Lake
with The Nag while flipping weeds with a sweet beaver. The Wrighthook managed to haul in two smallmouth for the scales that
weighed 4.49 lbs, good for 9th place.
Captain Jack Wrighthook with two Oneida bronzebacks for 4.49 lbs and 9th place.
Ranger Ricky bagged the tournament lunker!
A beautiful 3.76 lb Bronzeback caught on a Zara Spook off a shoal. Great Job Booz Hound!
Ranger Ricky and Saturday tournament lunker for 3.76 lbs and 10th place.
Dave Master Mechanic Brown had a difficult
day getting a bite behind vacuum cleaner Pure Yas. DB managed to weigh in one smallmouth for 2.36 lbs and finished in 11th
place.
However, the Master Mechanic closed the 2008 MCB fishing season by winning
the Angler Of The Year award! Back to back AOY awards! Congrats Dave Brown!
Andy,
the only straight guy in the club, Orsini also caught a keeper bass, however, the man in Andy would not allow him to
show the fish to his limp wristed fishing buddies.
The tournament resulted in 42 fish being caught,
35 smallmouth and 7 largemouth, for a total weight of 88.87 pounds, or 2.12 lbs per bass. All fish were released alive. Of
the thirteen anglers, there were six 5-bass limits, two 4-bass bags, one 2-bass bag, two 1-bass bags, and two zero's.
Good fishing!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 4, 2008, MCB #9, Marsh Creek. The morning started a little chilly then turned
into a beautiful, sunny, fall day. The tournament director decided to hold a paper tournament which proved to be the
right strategy. In all, 22 fish measured 12 inches or greater with two over 15 inches.
Gary Woomer has the Marsh
Creek pattern down to a science. This is the second time the club has fished Marsh Creek this year and Gary has won both events.
With three fish total, two measuring +15 inches, Gary took first place and lunker with a total of 44 inches. Gary's fish
were caught on a greempumpkin speed craw.
Second place went to Tom Bell with 3 bass for a total of 41 inches. Tom
caught his fish on a electric blue/chartruse tail worm.
Third place was Dave Brown with three fish for 40.75 inches
caught on a buzz frog (imagine that).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 21, 2008, MCB #8, Blue Marsh. Fog captured the lake until about 8:30 am
so running was not an early option.
Trolling motors deployed, Pure Fishing Yas enticed a pig smallie
to strike his pop r several times before he finally set the hook. The brownie tipped the scale at 4.27 lbs and established
lunker for the tournament.
As the fog lifted, the pleasure boat idiots made the main lake a challenge
to fish. Once passed the no wake bouy's, fishing boats were on every point, cove, tree and stump. However, that did not
prevent livewell accommodations for 15 inch bass.
Dave Brown (you had to touch the dial) boated two LM and one
SM for a weight of 7.57 lbs and first place. Two of the fish came on a 1/16 salty spider and the third fish was caught on
a black and blue jig. After breaking off baits on five rods with about 20 minutes left in the day, the master mechanic hauled
the last fish out of a tree with braided line.
Pete Yas finished in second place with two smallies weighing
6.63 lbs. Third place went to Rick Booz with two largemouth for 3.93 lbs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 20, 2008, MCB #7, Haws Ave. Well, it was a
hot one on the picturesque Schuylkill River during the clubs annual summer dink event on home water.
An excellent showing
by the rookie, and future lure designer, Jason "Kidd" Rinelli and his shaky head mardi gras worm proved to
be the winning combination that doubled his weight from the closest competitor. During the course of the day, the Kidd weeded
through more than 20 bass to find 4 fish that measured 12 inches or greater for +6 lbs to win going away. The Kidd
also caught lunker of the day, a +2 lb smallie with 15 minutes left in the day! A stud performance eventhough he is second
fiddle in his own home to his professional womens bass tour wife! The Kidd now has some bragging rights around the party
keg.
Finishing a distant second was the Kidd's tour guide of the day, Captain Uncle Buck with 3 bass for
+3.5 lbs. Three baits, a green pumpkin tube, watermellon red ultra craw, and green pumpkin jig were the attractants of the
diminutive smallies.
Third place was captured by the Pure Fishing Man with 3 smallies for +3.3 lbs. Pure
Man was fishing a bitsy bug green pumpkin/brown jig for his three keepers. Assisting Pure Yas was his faithful fishing
assistant, the infamous Miss Russian Bathing Beauty Babe, Ulilia (hopefully spelled correctly), who snubbed Gman's invite
as a co angler so she could ride with a Pure Man.
Evidencing that Gman is still the reigning President
of the Rainbow Coalition!
|
The
Kidd is having fun! (straight guy in the background)
|
Uncle Buck
|
|
Pure Man
|
Gay Man
|
|
|
Bennie The Blade Man
|
|
Dead Man's Curse!
|
The Bell Curve (there's really a fish in
his hand)
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 22, 2008, MCB #6, Delaware River. The day shaped up nicely with some cloud cover,
moderate sun and wind until late morning when the monsoon hit, and a falling tide starting around 6 AM. Water temperature
was in the high 70's and the clearest in years. Sounds promising? Wait, it's the Delaware!
In typical fashion,
the mighty D wasn't going to give up it's bounty because we decided to show up with rod in hand. Fishing was incredibly
tough for no good reason.
Andy O, the heterosexual (not to be confused with the Rainbow Coalition), won his
second tournament in a row on the Delaware with two LM for 4.12 lbs that include the day's lunker at 3.12 lbs. Both
were caught around the tanks on a black 7" senko cut tail worm. Dave "jetboat" Brown charged hard to de-throne his
hated relative, however, he fell short with two LM for 3.42 lbs. Adam "food stamp" Howson (editor entitlement
rule exercised) claimed third place on this difficult day of catching, with one LM for 1.46 lbs.
Thank God we don't
have to visit the Delaware until next season!
(pictures to follow if Rick can figure out what a jpeg is)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 1, 2008, MCB #5, Tyding Flats. The weather was sunny and warm with 80 degree high
temperatures. High tide was around 8 AM and the water temp was 68 to 72 degrees. A great day to be on the water!
Jackie Wrighthook and the Master Mechanic made the run down south to the Sass and brough back a nice load of fish.
The rest of us stayed up north and did not experience the same success.
The McVay honey hole gave up a 16.10
lb bag of LM for Jackie on a black/blue sweet beaver. Wrighthook cruised to first place with the heaviest
limit weight of the 2008 year. Contributing to his weight was a 4.91 lb lunker. His partner and guide for the day Dave
"Johnny it's my hole, I found it first" Brown finished second with 3 LM weighing 7.77 lbs on a pop r
and a black/blue jig. Third place went to Rick "Tommy John surgery" Booz with two quality LM for 7.04
lbs on a watermellon red flake senko.
The rest of the field all had one bass. Oh, that's right, Andy
lost his only fish at the boat. It was a striper. Right?
|
|
|
Tommy John 7.04
|
|
Pete Bucci 4.10
|
It's suppose to be Gary
2.92
|
Tom Bell 2.25
|
|
John McVay 2.23
|
Adam Howson 2.11
|
Bennie "The Blade" Brown 2.05
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 17-18 2008, MCB #4, Potomac River. The river was
muddy from heavy rains during the week and the first day of the tournament brought cold front conditions and wind. That created tough
fishing conditions with water temperature dropping into the high 50's at day break on Saturday morning.
The sun was out for most of the day and the water gradually warmed up, but the fish never became agressive. Most guy's
caught shorts, however, Dave Brown managed two LM for 6.68 lbs to lead day one. Brian Nagy caught one LM for 2.5 lbs and second
place. Those two were also paired together and won the day one team weight.
Day two provided more stable
weather until about 11:30 when showers began. The water temperature was 60 in the morning and rose to 65 by noon. Sunday
saw more general activity with bait fish and bass breaking the calm morning water. All anglers had a better
day on Saturday catching bass, although most fish were still smaller than the 15 inch limit. But Johnny "The
Lunker" McVay hauled in a limit of LM that weighed 14.56 to include another 6.06 lb pig for his third consecutive
tournament lunker. Frankly, I don't know if this consecutive lunker streak has ever been accomplished in MCB
club history. Johnny finished in first place, won lunker, and single handed won the team weight for the second day. Pete
Bucci weighed in 3 LM for 7.77 lbs to finish in second place. Dave Brown finished in third place with 2 LM for 6.68 lbs. Andy
Orsini also had a big LM that weighed 4.84 lbs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 3, 2008, MCB #3, Flats, Elk River. As we exited
our vehicles at the ramp, the wind greeted us with unexpected cold front conditions. The weather
forcast reported clouds and slight wind of 7 MPH. The day unfolded with cloudy sky's, wind of 10-15 MPH and
a slight drop in water temperature from the cold front. Gary Woomer caught two LM weighing 4.87 on a rattle
trap in the Sassafras River for first place. John McVay finished second and recorded his second lunker of the year with another 4.68 LM
hawg caught on a rattle trap in the Sassafras. Pete Yas, providing the guide service for McVay, placed third with a 3.05
LM from the Sass on a rattle trap.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 19, 2008, MCB #2, Flats, Elk Neck. The weather was perfect,
sunny, slight wind, 58 degree water temperature in the AM moving to 64 degree water by early afternoon.
Pete Yas weighed in four LM to finish in first place. Three bass were
caught in Furnace Bay on a golden shinner war eagle spinnerbait and his fourth was caught on a brown jig/greenpumpkin trailer
in Cabin John Creek at about 2:45 PM.
Dave Brown placed second with three LM caught early in the morning on a
red rattle trap in the Sassafras.
John McVay rounds out the top three places with two LM caught on a greenpumpkin
5" senko in the Sassafras. Anchored by a lunker 6.32 pig which ranks as the second heaviest club lunker of all time behind
Ken Bittner's 6.63 LM.
|

Pete Yaskowski, 1st place 10.35.
|

Dave Brown, 2nd place 10.02.
|

John McVay, 3rd place 9.33 and lunker 6.32.
|
|

6.32 LM caught in the Sassafras on a greenpumpkin 5" senko.
|

5.69 LM caught in the Sassafras on a greenpumpkin sweet beaver.
|

4.98 LM caught in the back channel on a pumpkin zoom worm football
head jig.
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 6, 2008, MCB #1, Marsh Creek. The weather was quite miserable,
air temperature in the 40's, windy, water temperature around 46-47. Just a lovely day to be on a trolling motor only lake
with a 15 inch bass limit!
But
the Gman was able to battle through the harsh conditions and come to the scales with one bass to take first place and lunker
on a black jig. Rounding out the top three was Brian Nagy (shad crankbait) in second and Pete Bucci (green pumpkin
baby brushhog carolina rig) in third.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Club
Warm Up, Haws Ave., 3-29-08
|