| This past weekend was
the annual United Way Bass Tournament. What a great time
and event. This tournament raised $23,000.00 for the Youngstown/
Mahoning Valley United Way. It is an honor to be invited
and help benefit such a worthy cause.
The fishing itself was nothing short of incredible.
The tournament consists of two private watershed aquifers
for the city of Youngstown, Pine and Evans Lakes. Relatively
small waters, Pine and Evans Lakes are full of grasses
and monster, UN- pressured quality largemouth bass.
Many teams weighed in scores of double digit bags and
caught many Bass.
Ole HBF (Hooters Bass Fishing) was teamed up with Youngstown’s
own…. Fred Woak. Fred is the radio D.J. for 93.3.
What a great sportsman and an absolute blast to fish
with.
Fred and I headed straight for a hump out in the lake
we had caught 14lbs. on the year before at the same
event, and they were there. We had about fifteen pounds
by 9:30 / 10 o’clock. Our bite was deep, 12 to
20 feet, slow and difficult to tell you had one on.
The conditions were windy, overcast and post frontal.
We only caught about 10 or 12 fish all day but they
were the right ones. Carolina rigging and concentrating
on two specific humps and their sweet spots, we stayed
with our pattern. We figured if we could keep getting
a 4lb or better bite every hour we should easily obtain
a 20+ pound bag. That’s just what we did. Breaking
a rod on the last four pounder we put in the boat, gave
Team Hooters a five fish limit of 21.46 Lbs. Best bag
of largemouth I have personally ever weighed in a tournament,
ever! Given the conditions a site fishing team would
have to do everything right to beat us.
Team Hooters took 1st place honors, narrowly escaping
the wrath of the OBFN’s own Brian Runyon. Brian’s
team smashed the scales with a 20lb. bag of bruisers
as well on traps and swimbaits. It was great to see
so many guys from the OBFN support the tournament.
Hooters Bass Fishing would like to thank Todd Thompson
and Paul’s Marine for the loaner boat, Rod Pullins
who volunteered and brought the OBFN Tour Trailer for
a great stage and tourney gear, off course, the United
Way all their staff and all the sponsors who contributed
to the event. Thanks to my good friend Fred Woak from
93.3 who landed the two biggest bass of his life. I
hope Fred enjoyed fishing with Hooters as much as we
did with him.
Fish on!
Brad D. Wall
Hooters Bass Fishing
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