2006 BASS BLAST

Porter/Kirby take Championship at Bob's Lake !!!.

A very nice week at Bob’s Lake…so much happened I don’t know where to begin. The weather was great, water level was up about 1-2' and water temperatures somewhere between 79 and 81 degrees.

Let’s start with the Bass Blast Tournament itself….I first want to thank Jim Umberger for doing an outstanding and most “eggciting” job as the Bass Blast official host and emcee from TV Station WWIN “The Big Fish Network”…..the angler’s were prodded with difficult questions but they couldn’t get a word in edge-wise in response. Gerry Charles is still trying to eggsplain the illegal fish found in his live well during pre-inspection of the boats prior to the tournament take-off….you just can’t trust the guy. We’re all still waiting to hear the reason for the meltdown of the two FLW Pro Teams of Jeff Smeltz and Ron Loser….Jeff and Donny Hale only weighed in one fish the first morning which put them in a big hole from the start. The team of Loser and Jan Bowerman were standing in third place after day one but could not put the big fish in the live well on the second day and finished out of the money, a very disappointing 5^th place. However, Ron was presented with an award for catching the biggest fish during practice, 4 lbs. 2 oz fish….the award and $.50 will buy him a small cup of coffee. The team of Dale Sweigard and Charlie Markley were the biggest surprise, finishing second….and they even thought they had it won….up until the previous day's leader bag (Porter/Kirby) was weighed and the disappointment set in. The team of Tom Campbell and Brad Bolton made a good showing as well with a 3^rd place finish…they were in second place after day one but couldn’t get the “Jig‘n YUM” to produce the big kicker fish everyone needed. The Jerry Squared team (Charles and Leader) were a respectable 4^th place but their meager two fish weight on day one put them too far behind to make a run at the leaders. Jim Umberger and his rookie son-in-law, Rick Armermann, made a fine showing by beating one of the professional teams (Smeltz/Hale) which put them slightly higher than whale turds in 6^th place. It was the most hated team in the entire field that prevailed yet again. The Gary Yamamoto sponsored team of Steve Porter and Ken Kirby put together two solid days and weighed in 10 lbs even for their 5 fish limit to take home the coveted trophy. Their fish came from the same drift each day using the sponsors beloved Senko worms to do the trick. Kirby rose to the occasion on day two to keep their tournament winning streak alive and well. You can view the entire tourney results on the 2006 Bass Blast Results and Stats, Page Link on the upper left of this page.

NOTABLES: The biggest bass caught during the week goes to “Gentleman Tom Campbell” with a very nice 20.75” Larry Largemouth weighing in at 5 lbs. 2 oz. It came from beneath a large log laying several yards out in the lake. It was hooked on the most famous new lure of the week….you guessed it, a “Jig’nYUM”. Tom was given this single opportunity to fish the log by Mr. Bolton who swore that mistake will never happen again as long as he is on the trolling motor.

And for all you guys who went out and bought the second hottest lure, “Chatty Cathy”, you can put them out at your next yard sale and put a “FREE” sign on them. If you can’t give them away, whatever you do, don’t bring them to CANADA…..the fish just roll their eyes at them and seek the nearest cover.

Of course, according to Gerry Charles, Mr. Leader hooked and fought the most eggstrordinary fish of the decade…..a 27” smallie weighing close to 9 lbs. was tricked into biting a plain old tube bait fished in 20’ of water…..but alas, after being strapped in to his fighting chair in the back of the boat and fighting the beast for several seconds, the fish broke his 6 lb test trout line….does everyone believe that one? It was caught in Long Bay on the east bank by the trampoline in case anyone wants to go there next year….it should be a world record by then. "Gerry the 1st" supposedly taught "Jerry the 2nd" everything he knows about bass fishing on the river and in Canada. If that's the case, Mr. Leader needs a new teacher....6 lb line? I don't think so.........

Brad landed a nice Larry that measured 18” and topped the scale at 3 lbs 10 oz. Yours truly had a notable smallie that measured 19.25” and weighed a meager 3 lbs 5 oz.

LESS NOTABLES: Tom Campbell is now considered a volunteer fireman for the NYFD….he is very adept at putting out non-eggsistent fires with his onboard fire eggtinguisher without there even being a fire in the boat. Secondly, he pulled a Bill Dance and broke off a rod tip in his truck cab….but he did successfully mate two bare wires to his aerator pump by tying them together with braided fishing line. Brad couldn’t help him much since he succeeded in breaking his glasses and couldn’t help anyway.

Who can forget the mess Mr. Sweigard created in his own boat. Apparently he caught a couple of very smart fish during the tournament…..the fish kept grabbing and placing the floating cull balls in the overflow pipe in his livewell hoping the resulting flood of water would provide them the means for escape….the plot was foiled but the water still got into his boat creating a huge mess and more importantly soaked the prize money for the winning teams. Sounds to me like a Disney story line from “Finding NEMO”….only Swiggy could think up that one….and who can forget the two mile boat trip retracing his course in hopes of locating his Jon Boat’s seat cushion that apparently flew out of the boat with nobody noticing….and also the thirty minutes of missed fishing time scouring the storage lockers and water for another boat cushion that was sitting on the live well the whole time….him and Mr. Markley looked like two parts of the Three Stooges….

And the biggest prize of all goes to Mr. Umberger….who proceeded to complain to the tournament director about the lack of communication. It appears Mr. Sweigard failed to tell him what time the sun rises in the morning so Mr. Umberger would know when to get up. Mr. Sweigard thought this a little absurd since even if Mr. Umberger did get up in time, he couldn’t get out of his cabin because he had the door locked….”from the INSIDE”. Go figure that one…….

Well, I guess that about sums it up….hope everyone had a great time and hope to see you all again next year….Kirby and I will look forward to your warm and tender congratulations when we hoist the trophy yet again in 2007.

Sincerely,

Steve P.