To all you Bass Blasters and interested on-lookers, this past
weekend at Honeoye was certainly different in many ways and very similar in others. For the different part: the fish
counts were down about 33% this year as compared to last September for the same weekend (340 in 2005 vs. 230 in
2006) for the same six anglers. The amount of fun we missed hauling in fish during the day was more than made up for
in the evening entertainment between Sweigard and Loser. Go to the bar and buy Sweigard a "Malibu Bay
Breeze" and you are set for an hour or two of fun and hysteria around the dinner table. Luckily the dinner
crowds were sparse in the dining room and we weren't asked to leave. Although, I think our group made up about 90% of
their clientele for the weekend so they showed a little more tolerance. As for Loser, once the subject of fishing is
over, watch out for the old memories to start pouring out...just visualize only seeing his stubby little fingers peering out
from beneath the (?) and the hood of his '87 Plymouth station wagon......well, we'll stop at that....you had to
be there to truly get the picture. Also, a word of caution to Jerry Charles, keep your dentures firmly rooted in place.
The lake itself was definitely under par but should rebound in a few
weeks. Significant algae bloom hampered visibility....some areas were like pea soup and forced the anglers to search
for cleaner waters away from their normal honey holes. The alum application started Saturday morning but did not seem
to hamper the bite. The barge broke down again and no further applications were made over the weekend. Most of
the higher numbers of fish caught were on Saturday and trailed off from there.
As for the mini-Bass Blast tournament, this is where things were similar:
I'm here to announce Mr. Swiggy finally made it to the winners platform. The unfortunate part for many of you,
is that he made it up there with the help of his guide and partner, yours truly. That is correct.....the most arrogant
and most hated Bass Blast angler did it for the third tournament in a row. It's a sweep for "Peter Perfect Porter" in
2006...it's sad that I couldn't have completed the cycle with my original partner Ken Kirby...but things didn't line up correctly
to get him on the roster for the September tournament....Sorry Kirb!!!!
You are all invited to Swiggy's house to watch the video from
the weigh-in, I let him borrow the disc. And no, I don't have any extra copies....nor do you want one since
Swiggy and I won. We had all the luck on our side in the afternoon fish....Brad and Ron had a commanding
lead after the morning fish (6 lb. 4 oz vs. 5 lb 7 oz Porter/Swiggy and 4 lb 15 oz for Ummie and Charles). The
totals include the bag weight of 1lb. 8oz. Bolton/Loser team failed to get that one 16/17 incher in the boat
to seal the victory in the afternoon. That left Swiggy/Porter to close the 13 oz deficit and pull off the win
by 11 oz. All I can say is, Loser and Bolton were getting the nice fish all weekend with the Shaky worms on long shank
jig heads, jig and pigs, and regular Senkos. However, the tough conditions on tournament day had everyone scratching
their heads on how to get the fish hooked up. They did their best to finish it off but couldn't find that little kicker fish
to keep everyone else at bay....I guess you could also say the Umberger/Charles team were in it after the morning session
as well only a couple ounces behind. However, Sweigard was his usually suspicious self and found the
Umberger/Charles bag (Umberger was guilty by association) had several inches of water in the weigh bag.....again they slipped
through without disqualification after dumping the extra water and re-weighing their catch. They too had a tough
time in the afternoon and could only manage 3lbs 7oz to finish with a total weight of 8lb 6oz. I've
attached the Tournament and Catch summary for all to see how the tourney played out and total numbers for the weekend (be
sure to look at both tabs on the sheet).
I think it safe to say that Tom Campbell and Ron Loser have a lot
in common and we can't wait to get those two together for an unforgettable story-telling session....
