Results

The Nanticoke River may not be recognized as one of the premier bass fishing locations in the east, but it's clearly one of the most popular venues on the Angler's Choice DelMarVa trail. Not known for its numbers of quality largemouth bass-a 7 pound, 5-bass limit will get you a check in most tournaments- but more for the sheer strength of these bass.

Living their entire lives in a super strong tidal current keeps these fish toned and scrappy. A 12-13" keeper will be as broad and thick as most 2-2 ½ pounders elsewhere. Many DelMarVa anglers liken them to the fight of the spotted bass.
This tournament began in unique fashion. For the first time in six events, the skies were clear throughout the day. A "cool" front that passed through the night before made for a beautiful mid-70's day of fishing.

51 teams were in the water at Cherry Beach Park and ready to launch at safe light, which was right at 6:00AM. Only a couple of teams returned prior to the 3:00PM weigh-in with trolling motors that fell prey to the swift Nanticoke current.
Over 30 5-bass limits made the return trip to the ramp and onto the scales. Our 5th place finishers, Butch Thompson and Jay Metzbower found a small stretch of pads that were producing some quality bass on a one-of-a-kind buzz bait. A freak accident snapped the bait off of Butch's rod on a back cast (or was it Jay?) and other topwaters would not produce. They relied on Jay's Zoom prowess as the tide rose into the wood to bring a limit weighing 10.57 to the scales and collected $500.
Finishing in 4th place on this day was Don Shirkey and Terry Algier. Don and Terry maximized their knowledge of this famed Eastern Shore river to catch 5 bass that weighed 11.52 pounds...good enough for $585.

In 3rd place with 11.58 pounds, was the team of Karl Bunch and Stan Zakorchemny. Karl and Stan put in a lot of practice hours on the Nanticoke and they have plaques and checks totaling $630 to prove it. Their bag included a nice 4 ½ pounder. Nice work, guys!

Second place was claimed by Larry Taylor and Matt Taylor. They "wow'd" the large crowd in attendance with a huge limit of bass that weighed 12.61 pounds. That's a great weight for the Nanticoke! Larry and Matt were presented plaques and checks for $790. Good going!

Our champions spent the last 20 minutes of weigh-in biting their nails as the last of the second flight came to the scales. They breathed an exhausting sigh of relief as the last team weighed their fish. Narrowly establishing themselves as Top Gun in this event, Kevin Baker and Melanie Peterson brought a limit to the weigh-in pavilion that lowered the scales to 12.69 pounds...barely edging Larry and Matt for the victory! In addition to 2 nice walnut plaques, Kevin and Melanie received a $1000 Bass Cat Bonus Bucks certificate and checks for $1585. This gave them a $2585 payday! Congratulations!

Big Bass of the day was caught by Dwayne D'Antonio and Bob Fisher. This 4.72 largemouth is a Goliath on this river, and earned them $510 and the Lunker plaque.
The final DelMarVa event will be held on the Potomac River out of Smallwood State Park on September 21.