Wiley & Crans win on the Upper Bay!

August 13, 2011
Northeast River
Anchor Marine


Today's tournament finished off NJ Divisions final tournament of the year. The day started off calm and partly cloudy and ended in showers. On top of a full moon. For some reason it made it tough for our teams to get a 5 fish limit on a great body of water on the Upper Chesapeake Bay.

The team figuring them out was Paul Wiley and Jon Crans bringing in a nice Upper Bay bag of 5 bass including the lunker of the day. Their bag weighed in at 15.80 lbs and big bass of 5.29 lbs. Their total winnings with big bass came to $672.00!!! Great job guys. This bag was also NJ's biggest bag of the year. Coming in 2nd with the only other 5 bass limit was Robert Wolf and John Dell with 10.76 lbs. Rob Hager & Joe Tomaloff placed in 3rd - 4 bass for 7.88 lbs. Adam Weidman & Josh Krieder finished in 4th place with the 2nd big bass of 3.27 lbs.

Throughout three days of fishing, 143 teams brought in 1266 bass that weighed 4074.19 lbs. Today, 27 teams hauled 123 fish, weighing 464.31 lbs for a3.75 lbs average. Nothing to brag about, but we had a great time. Wish we stuck to the jig bite, as we talked to some southern boys that caught 18 lbs a day on the jig. Our first day we caught most of our fish in the morning using cranks, and afternoon we fished rocks and wood with jigs. Day 2, our biggest (nearly 6 lbs) came on a swim bait, but most fish were caught on plastics and spinnerbaits.



Place: 88
Day 1: 5 fish 12.58 lbs.
Day 2: 4 Fish 12.71 lbs
Two day total: 9 Fish 25.29 lbs

New Jersey Division started the 2011 season on the Delaware River. Normally this time of year the fish are beginning to move up for pre-spawn. With such a cool spring this year most of the bass are still in their wintering holes. Water temps ranged in 44 to 47 degrees.

In spite of this, there are always some who find the fish and pattern. A new team to Fishers of Men figured them out and brought in a 5 fish limit David Borodziuk and Brian Stockl. Their total weight came in at 9.46 lbs which rewarded them 1st place, 1st place bonus bucks and 2nd big bass of the tournament (total winnings $715).

Placing in 2nd was the team of Elvin & Vinny Martes with 4 bass that weighed in at 7.76 lbs. Their winnings came to $300. This will help them next week at Lake Guntersville with their traveling expenses. Placing just out of the money was Paul Wiley and Jon Crans; the only other 5 fish limit with 7.61 lbs. This team will also be represented at the National Tournament next weekend. Both qualified from the Regional Tournament this past fall.



http://www.fomntt.com/team/schedule.php?id=2854

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To kick-off the first ever “Adult / Junior Only” Legacy Series event presented by The Fishers of Men National Tournament Trail, for the Maryland – East area, on June 23rd, 2007, we had 12 teams compete on Conowingo Reservoir launching out of Glen Cove Marina. This body of water which sits on the Maryland / Pennsylvania border is the last pool of the Susquehanna River before it dumps into the Upper Chesapeake Bay. Traditionally a good “numbers” body of water with an equal mix of largemouth and smallmouth, the lack of rain and subsequent current combined with tough post cold front conditions took its toll on both anglers and fish as only 1 team managed a 5 fish limit at 12+ inches. The entire field managed just 16 bass for just 21.83 pounds but I am so proud of the 12 kids who fished as every adult reported that not one child gave up, going strong right to the 1:00pm weigh-in deadline.

Our field included 4 teams with children under eight years old so tournament director, Ian Godwin, decided to kick-in an extra $20.00 just to the winner of these four teams and Butch from Glen Cove kicked in a “Talking Bass” plaque for the runner-up. Rob and Robbie Galusha won this tournament within the tournament with 2 largemouth weighing 1.97 pounds and Dan and Cody Downer were the runner-ups with just one bass.

Taking the honors as first time ever Maryland – East Legacy tournament winners was the team of Tom and Jimmy Rufenacht with the only 5 fish limit, a nice mixed bag of smallies and largemouth weighing in at 7.95 pounds. These guys our super tough on the regular team series, having finished in the money at a number of Regional and National Fishers of Men events!

Paul and Zach Wiley, with 4 bass weighing 6.70 pounds, took 2nd place on the strength of having the biggest largemouth of the tournament at 2.70 pounds. Dan Jarrard and his grandson, Devin Chavis earned 3rd place honors with 3 bass weighing in at 3.87 pounds. Claiming the final check and 4th place with just 2 largemouth was John and Nick Smith. Finishing in the unenviable position of 5th place and “one out of the money” was John and Sean Jeddry. Winning the prize for catching the biggest smallmouth at 1.79 pounds was the team of Eddie and Luke Amatucci.

The final adult / junior only tournament of the Legacy circuit season for the Maryland – East division will be July 14th, 2007 on the Upper Chesapeake Bay. All the information for this event can be found at our national website www.FOMNTT.com under the Schedules tab or for more detailed information, at http://www.sfvu.com by double clicking on the FOM logo, then hitting the Adult / Junior Only section.

(Continued, see http://www.fomntt.com/schedule.php?id=1084)

On May 5th, 2007, launching within minutes of our nations capital, 42 teams from the Mid-Atlantic division of The Fishers’ of Men National Tournament Trail competed on the famous tidal waterways of the Lower Potomac River. This fishery consistently ranks as one of the top 10 destinations in the U.S. for quality bass fishing, in both numbers and size although the immense tournament pressure is definitely starting to show its effects. Having just missed the full moon phase by 3 days, in which the week prior many 27+ pound bags were reported to have been weighed in, our field of talented anglers still managed to catch 138 fifteen inch plus largemouth bass for a total weight of just under 403 pounds! A testament to the quality of the fish was that all but a few had already “spawned out” creating havoc amongst anglers trying to locate the better quality females who had just left the beds. Teams that figured that out early reported having caught their fish in typical early post spawn locations throughout the northern and southern ends of the river system. Most fish were caught on jigs, soft plastics and crankbaits. Weather early was partly cloudy and in the high 60’s with tides high by 10:00am but by weigh-in time, temperatures had fallen 15 degrees and rain deluged our anglers and crowd at Smallwood State Park. Winning close to $1400 via their 5 fish bag that weighed in at 20.75 pounds was the team of Paul Wiley and Jon Crans. Anchoring that sack was the big bass of the tournament at 6.58 pounds. This win, in combination with their 2nd place finish on the “Flats” last month, puts these guys in 1st place for the coveted Divisional Points Championship. ( A special thanks to the team of Rob Hager and Joe Tomaloff who took the time out of their fishing to assist this team with their breakdown and keeping perfectly within the rules, ferried there fish in so that they could make the weigh-in on time. ) Source: http://www.fomntt.com/schedule.php?id=984

On April 14th, 2007 we had 45 teams launch out of Tydings Marina which sits in historic Havre de Grace, Maryland. This area, also known as the Tidal Susquehanna Flats, is now considered one of the finest bass fisheries in America where past FOM events have taken 20lb bags to get a check and as much as 27lbs to win. On a regular basis, the Upper Chesapeake Bay waters draw 15-20 tournament trails a month to compete on this vast bonanza of excellent largemouth bass fishing. With severe post cold front conditions greeting these members as they fished their first Mid-Atlantic division tournament, God graced us with a reprieve Saturday morning as we did not have the tremendous 30-50 MPH winds that these angler faced on their practice day Friday. Many teams struggled with finding the quality fish they had found in practice prior to the off-limits cut-off with water temperatures dropping as much as 10-15 degrees in a week. In total, 81 largemouth bass at 15 inches or better were caught for a total weight of 275.60 pounds. Only 3 teams managed a 5 bass limit while just over a 1/4 of the field could not manage to catch a keeper. In interviewing teams in the top 10, no significant patterns or locations were the key as teams caught fish from as far south as Middle River to as far as the Eastern Shore rivers with most being caught on reaction bites from crankbaits as well as jigs and soft plastics fished slow on the half to low outgoing tides. The winning team of brothers, Eric and Brian McNulty, took home 1st place with a huge sack at 24.26 pounds. In total, with 1st place winnings from the regular payout, bonus bucks and having the biggest bass of the event at 6.73 pounds, they took home $1630.00. Claiming 2nd place with 18.59 pounds was Paul Wiley and Jon Crans from Pennsylvania – many of you remember Paul who unfortunately sunk his boat at the 2006 Regional Championships on Lake Erie. Showing the determination of a true winner, he was even more excited to be back this year and is obviously backing it up with fish in the boat. Source : http://www.fomntt.com/schedule.php?id=983