The New Hampshire BASS Federation held it's 2nd Annual Club vs. Club Championship on Saturday, October 9, 2004 out of Ossipee Marina on Lake Ossipee. This year, a total of 12 clubs and 29 boats participated, making for over 100% growth from last season. The weather for this end of season event was quite pleasant with patchy morning fog and mild, windless conditions turning into a day of filtered sunshine, variable winds and a few passing fronts. Daytime highs climbed into the seventies and lake temps ranged from 62F to 66F.
Lake Ossipee proved to be an excellent venue for this unique-format tournament, as clubs had the decision to make whether to focus on the back ponds and pursue the largemouth bass, or head for the big lake and try for smallmouth. Teamwork was essential for the winning teams and all of the anglers seemed to enjoy the format and the sharing of information concept.
As the boats checked in, some really nice limits came to the scales. It appeared that the largemouth bite was on, while the smallies were harder to pattern. This year, the NH Federation instituted a drop format to this Tournament. This meant that clubs could send either two or three teams, but those that sent three teams would have to drop their lowest weight. This rule had no effect on the Granite State Bassmasters, as all three of their teams brought a limit to the scales and even their drop weight was solid. Their team was paced by the 21.17 lb. Limit of Ray Nieuweboer and Dean Webster who weighed in all largemouth bass including the lunker of the event at 5.64 lbs. and earned the team an additional $290. Eric Bouldin and Dave Debelis contributed 18.38 lbs. to the cause and Frank Montmarquet and John Plourde rounded out the winning team with a drop weight limit of 17.86 lbs. Granite States official winning weight came in at 39.55 lbs. and earned them $1450. They will receive a trophy at the Federation Banquet and will have the right to pick the sight for next year's event and be host club.
Placing second in this year's event was the Bubba Bassin club. Bubba had consistent limits from Hurst/Woods (17.53) and Ritter/Hebert (17.86)
for a total of 35.39 lbs. The team of Greg Saulnier and Greg Terry rounded out the second place club. Team Bubba focused on largemouth bass and mainly concentrated in the back ponds and keyed on weed edges and drops to pattern their bass. By taking second place, Bubba Bassin earned $870.
Sending only two teams, but capturing third place was the Bass Cullers. Bruce Buckingham and Paul Ford led the way with a mixed bag limit totaling 19.31 lbs. Included in their catch was the lunker smallmouth for the day at 4.10 lbs. Steve Hall and Gary Slattery brought 7 bass to the scales that weighed 13.49 lbs. and gave the Bass Cullers a total weight of 32.80 lbs. and earned the club $580.
A total of 93 largemouth bass and 73 smallmouth bass were brought to the scales. All 163 fish were released alive back into Lake Ossipee. The NH BASS Federation would like to thank all of the clubs who participated and look forward to further growth of this unique tournament in years to come.
Here's how the rest of the clubs fared:
4th place: Southern New Hampshire Bass - 30.42 lbs.
5th place: Monadnock Bassmasters * 29.23 lbs.
6th place: Honky Tonk * 28.58 lbs.
7th place: Back Bay Bassmasters * 28.05 lbs.
8th place: Hardcore * 27.09 lbs.
9th place: Bass Hookers * 25.92 lbs.
10th place: Clearwater * 22.34 lbs.
11th place: Coastal Six * 22.11 lbs.
12th place: Hawg Hunters * 11.19 lbs.
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