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1st Place |
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2nd Place |
4th Place |
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Joe Thompson, Jerry Gerlach Win Upper Chesapeake Bay
On a beautiful warm, late spring day that seemed to be made for bass fishing, 69 of the top teams in the Mid-Atlantic area converged on the Upper Chesapeake Bay. The third qualifying event of 2004 was held on the North East River out of Anchor Marina and the buzz around the ramp in the early morning hours was that the largemouth bass were feeding aggressively. Would this rumor prove to be true or was it just fictional “dock talk”?
Some teams reportedly ran 60 miles or more to the Bay's western shore to probe the waters of the Gunpowder and Middle Rivers. Other teams searched for largemouth on Maryland's famed Eastern Shore rivers while still others ventured to the Susquehanna River grassbeds in search of both large and smallmouth bass. A couple of teams were forced to fish near the ramp due to early mechanical problems.
As the first flight began to weigh their fish at 3:00PM, it appeared the bass were abundant, but few bags had more than one good 3 ½ pound bass. As the weigh-in progressed, the fish appeared to have been a bit more cooperative with the boats assigned the later starting positions as both the numbers and size increased.
In 5 th place and claiming the $590 cash prize was the Pennsylvania team of John Hart and Bill Bowe. Winners of 3 Angler's Choice events, John and Bill haven proven themselves wherever they fish. Their limit weighed 14.57 pounds
Ken Wood, Sr. from Pennsylvania and Brian Swall from Virginia teamed up to take 4 th place with 5 nice largemouth weighing 15.02 pounds. They were awarded $670 for their finish. Nice job!
Current AOY leaders Don Jones and Chuck Dent from Virginia built on their overall lead with a 3 rd place finish and earned $740 to boot. They weighed a limit of largemouth totaling 16.11 pounds and by the way…did I mention they had Big Bass? Their 5.63 hawg fell for a Hawg Stalker jig and paid them a bonus of $690. Nice payday, guys!
The only Maryland team in the top five did a fine job representing the host state as they tricked enough largemouth bass into visiting their livewell to take 2 nd place honors. Glen Pittman and Cal Brooks, III put a 5-fish limit in the boat weighing 16.44 pounds and were presented runner-up plaques and checks for $950. Good work, fellows!
Today's champions also hail from the state of Pennsylvania. This formidable duo competes in many trails and is extremely thorough inn executing their game plan pending the water they are fishing. On the Potomac, they stayed close to the ramp fishing cover obviously overlooked by other competitors. On a tough Lake Anna, they concentrated on smaller, keeper slot fish to ensure points, and then went after the 15” fish. At today's tournament, they kept things simple opting for plastic worms and crank baits to do their damage. Joe Thompson and Jerry Gerlach put 17.41 pounds in the boat…enough for 1 st place and $1900 and the winner's plaques. They vaulted into 3 rd place in the hotly contested 2004 AOY race. Congratulations to two deserving champions!
The next Angler's Choice DelMarVa tournament will be held July 11 on the James River in Richmond, Virginia.
