April 12, 2003 Kerr Lake, NC
Hord And McManus Win Kerr Lake

Hord And McManus	Brooks And Stickel
2nd Place Winning Bag
Results

Hank Parker, Roland Martin, Bill Dance and many other fishing shows on TV have featured Kerr Lake at it's best in early Spring. The winter run-off from the mountains in the west USUALLY eases the water back into the bushes and sweet gum trees along the shoreline, making the bass easy targets for spinnerbaits or jigs. Usually!
An extremely cold and snowy winter has had Kerr Lake (Buggs Island) at a higher-than-normal level this Spring. Add to that seven days or so of consistent heavy rains and Kerr is now at it's highest level since a major hurricane eight years ago. The lake is now almost 16 feet above normal pool.

This event was almost canceled several times in the past two weeks, but Vance County Department of Tourism's Event Coordinator, Nancy Wilson, went above and beyond securing a launch site that was capable of handling our tournament safely. Much credit goes out to Nancy, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the many North Carolina Park Rangers who helped make this event possible.

Not to be deterred by the sight of such intimidating flood conditions, 54 DelMarVa teams cautiously launched their boats in the water by safe light at the ramp....errr, I mean "pavement". The entire group won the praise of the Park Rangers, who were amazed at the order and discipline as the last vehicle was parked.

Weigh-in was extended to 3:30 and 3:45 as both flights hoped the first day of sunshine in 10 days would move the bass into a predictable feeding pattern. One team would rush back to the Bullocksville State Park around noon as one member became extremely ill with internal stomach pains. The Park Rangers were waiting at the ramp to rush the team to a nearby hospital. Their 2 fish were weighed later and they actually finished as the first team out of the money, and the stricken member thankfully was released later in the day.

Kerr Lake is known for big bass, and even in these conditions several were carried to the scales. Although not a single limit was to be had, Brian Trieschmann and Wendell Potter from Maryland made the most of their 3 largemouth, whose 8.46 lbs. earned them 3rd place plaques and checks for $640. Brian and Wendell also moved into third place overall in the Angler's of the Year Race.

Our 2nd place finishers could only entice 2 bass to bite, but at 10.30 lbs., they were giants on this day. Maryland's George Stickel teamed with Virginia's Doyle Brooks to take second place as well as big fish for the tournament with a 6.61 lb heavyweight that fell to a Zoom Brush Hog. Their payday was worth $1340.

Our Kerr Lake Champions weren't encouraged by the conditions at Kerr throughout the week and were hoping the tournament would be re-located to Kerr's sister, Lake Gaston in order to fish more stable waters. They chose to make the most out of the hand they were dealt, and put their years of lake-fishing knowledge together to develop a plan. Under normal conditions, Virginia's Gene Hord and Mac McManus will cast spinnerbaits to shoreline timber in the shallows. These waters were virtually unreachable by boat, but the same type of cover was located throughout the lake only in 15-20 feet of water. Expecting the bass to still be relating to the wood cover, Gene and Mac decided to "get down to their level" by switching to 3/4 oz. X-Citer spinnerbaits. Although one short of a limit, their 4 bass were consistent enough to earn them their first Angler's Choice victory with 11.53 lbs. This extremely tough day on Kerr Lake proved profitable for Gene and Mac, as they were presented $1600 worth of checks, a $1000 Bass Cat Bonus Bucks certificate, 2-$25 gift certificates courtesy of Venom Lures, and 2 walnut plaques acknowledging them as our Champions.

Gene and Mac seemed to put find the only feeding pattern as most of the other teams lucky enough to weigh in fish reported catching their bass on quite an array of baits including flippin' tubes, grubs, Rogues, Flukes, jigs, lizards, and even a buzzbait. Other than the myriad of pine and sweet gum trees, other patterns included fishing picnic tables, highway road signs, dog houses, bar-b-que pits, chimneys, and decks...that's with an "e", not docks.

Much of the success of the Angler's Choice DelMarVa trail is accredited to our local sponsors which include Extreme Offshore Marine, The Fishin' Shop, Foard's Western Auto, Northern Neck Chevrolet/Pontiac, Jenkins Boat Sales, X-Citer Baits, Edgewood Western Auto, Venom Lures, Luhr-Jensen, Eat-'em Up Handcarved Baits, and Jack's Juice.

The next DelMarVa Qualifying Tournament is on the Potomac River on Sunday, May 18th out of Maryland's Smallwood State Park.