The New Hampshire B.A.S.S. Federation held it's annual Mid-Summer Open on Sunday July 11, 2004 on the Connecticut River out of Bellows Falls Vermont. The weather for this event was textbook summer conditions for the Connecticut River Valley. Cool temperatures and patchy fog in the morning, giving way to clear, sunny skies with daytime temperatures reaching the mid-eighties and a light breeze. This section of the mighty Connecticut River is a new stop for the NH B.A.S.S. Federation. This stretch of the river features over 40 miles of
navigable water and several miles of rapids and gravel bars that are summer home to a very good smallmouth bass population. In the southern end, the river is very wide and has several cutbacks and weedy backwater ponds that draw in the largemouth bass. The Connecticut River Valley is very picturesque with rocky hills and bluffs plunging sharply toward the river and eventually giving way to miles of underdeveloped farmland and fields.
The field was set at 60 boats as President Rob Frye and Tournament Director Bob Hurst gave the morning briefing. As usual, the key to winning any river tournament is to successfully pick the right direction to travel and thus the right species to target. Roughly half of the field headed up north in search of smallmouth while the rest stayed in the southern section and targeted the fewer, but heavier largemouth bass. With a lot of boat traffic and many recreational users, coupled with a weak power draw, the weights were low overall, yet still many limits were checked in when weigh-in commenced at 3 p.m.
Weighing in first and then sweating out a late charge from the second flight was the team of Alan Denise and Neil Shelton who brought a limit of 8 smallmouth bass to the scales that weighed 18.82 lbs. Alan and Neil utilized an early topwater bite to quickly boat a limit and then cull out fish periodically throughout the day. They mainly fished white Pop R's over sand and gravel flats to catch their winning creel.
First place was worth over $1700 and included two paid entries to the upcoming STQT and a prize pack of valuable plastics courtesy of Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits.
Falling just short of victory and settling for $1080 and second place was the team of Jean Coulombe and Northern Bass Supply owner Sandy Oja.
Jean and Sandy weighed in a mixed bag of 5 smallmouth and 3 largemouth bass for a total weight of 18.63 lbs. They fished in the mid river section and targeted grasslines and wood cover in 4 to 10 feet of water with black jig/pigs and Yamamoto Senkos. They also received a gift pack courtesy of title Sponsor Gary Yamamoto.
The husband and wife team of Jeff and Leslie Carr from the Monadnock Bassmasters finished third with a total weight of 18.44 lbs. They ran north and targeted mainly smallmouth bass with 5 inch green pumpkin Yamamoto Senkos and gold spinnerbaits. Their key fish was a 3.82 lb. largemouth that grabbed the Senko late in the afternoon. Jeff claimed that most of their fish came in the morning, and that he "spent a lot of time holding the net". Their main pattern consisted of targeting isolated wood snags along grasslines in 5 to 10 feet of water. Jeff and Leslie received a check for $864 and a nice prize package from Yamamoto.
Dave Duffy and Ryan Roy, also of the Monadnock Bassmasters finished in fourth place with a limit of bass that weighed 18.33 lbs. This team stayed in the southern end of the River and targeted largemouth in shallow, weedy backwaters. They fished green pumpkin tubes (texas
rigged) and black jig and pigs along grass flats that featured isolated wood. They had a sporadic, all-day bite that resulted in a total of 9 keeper largemouth bass.
Finishing in fifth place with 18.15 lbs. was the team of Tim Aldrich and Brad Bellville. They weighed in a mixed bag of 5 smallies and 3 largemouth bass. The big fish of the tournament, a 4.67 lb. largemouth bass, anchored their creel. The big bite came on a purple-pearl colored Yamamoto Senko pitched to wood cover. Their smallmouth bass were caught on jerkbaits along main river grasslines.
Lunker smallmouth of the tournament was caught by the team of Lucarelli/Lucarelli and weighed 3.84 lbs. It was taken on a watermelon-red flake Yamamoto tube in the southern section of the river.
Other teams finishing in the money are as follows:
6th place: Dave Roberts/Ron Bladja: 17.54 lbs.
7th place: Jason Faro/Dan Morin: 17.48 lbs.
8th place: Dave Banford /Brian Brooks: 17.23 lbs.
9th place: Dave Andrews/Scott Leppanen: 16.70 lbs.
Despite the warm water temperatures, the tournament staff had a very successful release rate of 99%. Overall, 324 bass were weighed in with just 4 fish lost. There were 233 smallmouth and 91 largemouth checked in.
Overall, the 2004 NH Federation Yamamoto Mid-Summer Open was a big success. Special thanks go out to our main sponsor Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, and also to all of our sponsors for their continued support:
Pennzoil Marine, Quantum/Motorguide, Lowrance Electronics, Flowmaster, Berkley Powerbait, Citgo, Northern BASS Supply, Keep Alive, Mepps/Mister Twister, Lucky Craft, Luhr Jenson, Stealth Stik, Plano Molding Company, Zylas, Yamamoto Custom Baits, Ultimate Lure Saver, Hotspots Outfitters, Hog Sticker, Lil Hustler Tackle, Extreme Bass, Xtreme Marine, Stealth Charging Systems, Netters Inc, J&D Screenprinting and Embroidery, Cull-m-Rite, Rocky Ledge, Havoc Lures.
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