Results: Salt City Bassmasters Compete In Tournament On Sandy Pond

[Jen Cardinale]

On June 24, 2012 38 SCBM members competed in a tournament on Sandy Pond. The boats blasted at 6am from The Wigwam and returned at 2pm for the weigh in. Sandy Pond began the series of six points tournaments for the 2012 season.

Boater Division:

Dave Ottman finished in first place weighing in 17lbs 10oz. Ottman found fish in their post spawn pattern during practice with more quality fish holding in 6-12 feet of water. On tournament day those fish seemed to had disappeared. After 8:30am and still no fish in the boat Ottman scrambled to catch a 9lbs limit fishing a spinnerbait on a weed flat in about 4-6 feet of water. The rest of the day was spent flipping shallow heavy cover to upgrade. That decision to go shallow was the game changer as Ottman landed the 6lbs 2oz Tournament Lunker and two 4lbs bass to cull out a few remaining rats in his live well. His 6lbs 2oz Lunker will prove to be a tough fish to beat for the 2012 SCBM Lunker of the Year Award.

Ralph Alexander finished in second place weighing in 16lbs 6oz. Alexander fished weedy areas in 8-12 feet of water using three baits throughout the day; a black or black and red finesse worm rigged with a 1/4oz weight, a 10” Jumbo Ribbon Tail in ‘Red Shad’ rigged on a ½ oz weight, and a 7/8oz [bill Alexander] jig rigged with a 4” chigger craw in black and blue.

Randy LaManche finished in third place weighing in 15lbs 7oz. LaManche’s first bite of the day came on an XPS top water bait and was estimated to be about 3lbs. However, LaManche caught most of his fish in 3-9 feet of water using a 4" black and blue senko with a 3/16oz bullet weight. As the day went on he was able to upgrade his fish by pitching a 1oz Texas rig using a Havoc creature bait into heavy cover and by skipping a 5" black and blue senko into shaded areas.

Co-Angler Division:

Dereck Bigford finished in first place weighing in 19lbs 8oz. Bigford fished jigs, beavers, and senkos in 6-10 feet of water.

Jim Chmielewski finished in second place weighing in 16lbs 15oz. Chmielewski fished in 7-12 feet of water using numerous different plastic worms and creature baits. The spinner bait was slow but did add a few fish as well.

Craig Terpening finished in third place weighing in 13lbs 10oz. Terpening filled a co-angler spot to even the field out at Sandy. He was paired with Joe Koetting who only got one day of pre-fishing in. Terpening didn’t have the opportunity to get out at all. Needless to say they had no game plan in effect for Sandy. Joe felt he had some frog fish, but that didn’t pan out. The pair then opted to take a walk down memory lane which was a weed bed that Terpening caught fish in 5 years ago. They started off with Joe putting a good keeper in the box on a Senko, followed by two that Terpening boated using a tube. Three decent fish made Terpening confident enough to grind out that area all day and suggested to Joe that they do so. Terpening primarily worked clean milfoil in 6- 8 feet of water. The bait of choice was a 3/8 oz Texas rigged 5” magnum flipping tube until the bite died off, then he switched to a Texas rigged Senko. Terpening says that the clean milfoil was the main ingredient for their fishing success.

Both Ed Flick and Jeff Thousands both landed and weighed in a 5lbs 9oz bass which resulted in a tie for Co-Angler division Lunker.

About Salt City Bassmasters:

Salt City Bassmasters is an organization dedicated to helping its members become better bass anglers through discussion, seminars, and interactive learning. Salt City strives to provide a competitive bass fishing tournament trail that encourages sportsmanship, fun, and learning. Lastly, Salt City Bassmasters wants to improve the knowledge of all anglers, promote ethical behavior and sportsmanship, and increase environmental awareness.

www.saltcitybass.com