|
(Left
to right) Ed Riley, 3rd place; Jim Iden, 1st place and Danny Rodriguez
with a 2nd place finish.
RESULTS>
PAIRINGS>
By Jamie Coyle
First ever Classic, with separate divisions,
produced for some extreme excitement on both the Boater and Non-Boater
divisions on a howling Deep Creek Lake.
Larry (Jim) Iden and Joe Delauney should fish together more often. They
finished First and third in each of there divisions. Jim, fishing his
home waters as a boater, was in third place after day one with nine
pounds-eight ounces. In dramatic fashion, he jumped to the final lead
with a second day weight of nine pounds-fifteen ounces on a blustery
grey day. His non-boater partner, Joe Delauney finished third, from the
back of the boat with a two-day total of five Pounds. Joe’s only
comment was, “This guy (Jim) has the total package”.
“The first day the fish were schooling on extreme wind blown points
and I just kept covering water for aggressive fish. My Gold Shiner
spinnerbait was calling the fish up and they were hammering it” Iden
said on the first day. The second day was completely different with the
cloud cover for Jim, a Jig and Pig produced his bigger fish along wind
blown docks and a last minute wind adjustment with his spinnerbait
rounded out his limit to best the field with a two day total of nineteen
pounds-seven ounces. This is Jim’s first State Team appearance, thanks
to Pops Marine, and is the MBF’s 2006’s first State Team Qualifier.
Richard Exline first place non-boater
Perennial Non-Boater, Richard “the Babe” Exline took the first place
honors from the non-boater division with four fish the first day and a
limit the second day for a total of eleven pounds-eight ounces. “Boy,
my arms are about to fall off,” exclaimed Rich as he threw jerkbaits
and crankbaits for two straight days into the wind on Deep Creek's main
lake wind blown points. His Lucky Craft and Bandit crankbaits were
enough to hook up his fish.
“It has to have rock and wild celery grass mixed together, that was
the key—the wind was blowing so hard that there were eddy’s that
were being created in 4 to 8 feet of water and I used my smallmouth
knowledge to target the fish” Rich stated. Rich wanted to thank his
boater Bill Sheppard for adjusting to the conditions and giving Rich the
opportunity to catch his fish. This is Richard’s first time also on
the State Team and is the first non-boater on next year’s team.
Danny Rodriguez landed in second place in the boater-division after
spending almost the entire second day with his big motor idling around
docks. “My batteries wouldn’t hold a charge and after being towed in
the first I was afraid to cut the big motor off with the way the wind
was blowing and I’d like to thank Earl Jenkins for all of his help,”
said Danny. Lake trees with gitzits produced almost all of his fish for
a two-day total of seventeen pounds-nine-ounces.
Darrin Hoover took second place non-boater.
Second place in the Non-Boater went to Darrin Hoover with five
pounds-two ounces. “Going thru different baits was the key. My partner
Ed Riley gave me a custom marked bait that gave me the confidence which
produced most of my fish, thank you Ed”. Darrin stated. “I had my
first double in a tournament on that jerkbait, two 2 inch smallies, darn
bait was bigger than both of those fish."
Ed Riley rounded out third place for the Boater division with a two-day
total of seventeen pounds-six ounces. “Junk Fishin” was the key.
“I’d start on a main lake shoreline and hit the trolling motor until
I saw a piece of junk structure, catch one, and keep on Junkin” as Ed
put it.
Many thanks to Roger, Dick, Earl and Daniel for running the Classic.
Everyone stated that they had a great time and thought it was a huge
success. The separate Boater/Non-Boater divisions this year produced a
great Trail and Classic.
|
