Tom Johnson
Johnny Matthews
Art Holman wasn’t worried. He was just waiting for his afternoon bite. “I found a spinnerbait bite in practice and it just seemed that the better fish were biting later in the day” he explained. Art was right on in his assessment of his bite with a small limit going into the afternoon his blade bite turned on to a tune of 22.52 which was good for second place and included two fish over seven pounds. Don’t you love it when a game plan comes together?
Johnny was fishing the central Delta with a Brush Hog and a Mission fish swimbait. ‘I would cast the swimbait anytime it got cloudy” he explained. Every swimbait fish that bit I caught he added, and in the end with a weight of 24.36 after a late to weight in penalty, it still added up to a third victory in a two month period.. That is what I would call landing on solid ground.
Deacon Fernendes
After a five year hiatus Johnny Mathews jumped back into tournament fishing in a big way. Having won two tournaments in the last two months he was on a roll. I’m loving it he exclaimed. “I had to take time away from tournament fishing due to being a single parent but now I’m jumping back in with both feet,” and jump back in he has.
Breaking down was not in Deacon Fernandez’s plans, but that is exactly what happened while on the way to the tournament his truck threw a belt. Frantically racing against the clock he was able to fix the truck and make it to check in within the fifteen minute window and was assessed a two pound penalty. Once the tournament started though he fished in a workman like manner “With the water warming up 4 degrees since the last time I was out I knew were I was going” he explained. Deacon fished the north end of the Delta on rock banks with sparse shallow grass. “I was flipping a Double wide Beaver and a Brush hog to catch my fish” he added. Deacon also had the big fish of the tournament of 9.00 lbs that he flipped on a brushhog. Better late then never.
Rounding out the top five with a limit of 18.83 was Darwin Ellison. “My largest bass came on a Senko but the balance of my fish were caught in a baitfish colored deep diving crankbait” He explained. “ I was fishing in the central Delta and Franks Tract area, the bite was on and off but the outgoing tide seemed to be the key” He added.Breakdowns seemed to be the order of the day and Archie Steele and Steve Palenko came out on the worst end of it. Archie and Steve had to be towed in and had to forfeit there catch. “I would like to give a special thanks to Brian Carpenter for coming out to get us and towing my boat back in” Archie said “Maybe someday I can return the favor.” He added............................................... Article by Mike Rold
Justin Arrellano
Chad Frie brought in a solid limit of 20.57 which was good for forth place. “I pretty much spent the whole day throwing Speedtraps and flipping Beavers in various colors” he explained. “I spent most of my time fishing weed lines and sparse tullies in the Franks Tract area” He added. Chad’s approach to crankin was anything but normal. “I wanted to try something different” He explained Chad was crankin with 15lb and 20lb test on a flippin stick. “I wanted to have control and be able to move the bigger fish out of the weeds and tules if I needed to” He added.
Art Holman
