Gary Croteau prevails over the windy conditions for the Winnipesaukee win.

Story by Rob Frye

[Photos] [Results] [Standings]

Bubba Bassin club had their draw trail event at Winnipesaukee for the second time in 2007 with the first one on June 30th and with the most recent on August 18th. This event was sponsored by Arma Coatings of New Hampshire who we want to thank for their support of Bubba Bassin. They donated gift certificates for a spray on bedline to the top 3 places as well as a few more for door prizes. Thanks again to Arma Coatings of New Hampshire who will also be sponsoring the upcoming Midweek and Team Bubba events scheduled also on Winni. On this day 61 anglers came out to play on a very windy day. The weather forecast was set for partly sunny skies with winds in the 10 to 20 mph range. Basically, that's how the day started but we saw 30+ mph gusts and constant 20+ winds. With the West/Northwest winds came the big waves and those venturing across the broads were set for a very rude awakening.

During the pre-tournament meeting it was hailed to all about being careful out there and not to push your luck. It was mentioned that there was one couple who had launched out of Libby Museum on the other side of the lake in the early AM and could not make it across the broads and had to turn back. At that point they chose the safe route to drive over to Ames and launch there. Unfortunately, by the end of the day the wind and the waves would claim some property damage. Husband and Wife, Jim and Pat Preisendorfer had decided to call it quits half way through the day and had already dumped their fish to head out. They had launched at another ramp and were on their way out when their 17' Nitro stuffed 3 concurrent waves. This filled the boat just enough to cause another wave to completely flood the boat from behind. The waves continued to wreak havoc of poor Jim and Pat as the waves eventually positioned the boat to be parallel with the waves and flipped the boat over. Fortunately for Jim and Pat, they were wearing their life jackets as required when running the big motor. They were eventually rescued and towed back to Ames Farm. Jim says this would not have happened if they launched out of Ames Farm to begin with. At least Jim and Pat are OK and we hope the best for them on the condition of their boat and gear.

Remember the couple that was mentioned who launched out of Libby Museum? Well, the boater Gary Croteau was the operator of that boat and probably somehow allowed him to make the right decisions to take first place. Gary brought in a 5 fish limit of largemouth that totaled 14.64 lbs. Gary who has done well in the past on previous Winnipesaukee tournaments managed to stay consistent and bring in the tournament's lunker largemouth that almost reached 5 lbs, at 4.93 lbs. Gary shared with us his decision to find coves close to the ramp that were protected from the mighty winds. He pitched and flipped a brown jig around boat docks and other similar structure that was offered in these coves. Gary caught his limit by 9 AM and had caught a total of 12 keepers. He had the lunker in the boat at 8:30 AM. He culled about a half a dozen times through out the day and was having fun doing so. Way to go Gary and a big Congrats.

Coming in second place was John Diaco who brought in a limit of 5 largemouth that weighed in at 11.86 lbs. His biggest fish weighed in at 3.62 lbs and John had the lead for first place during most of the weigh-n right up till the end, until Sand-bagger Gary strutted in his big bag of fish. John still had a fun day and mentioned he had seen Gary in a lot of the coves that he visited, but Gary was always there first. John caught his limit by 9 AM and caught about 20 keepers using two separate patterns. He caught a lot of his fish on the docks as well using a baitcaster with 12 lb test flipping and pitching black and blue jigs. He also used a spinning rig that he lined with 10 lb test fluorocarbon using it to skip senkos.

Third place went to a bag of smallies caught by Jim Wolford. Jim brought in 5 brown fish that weighed in at 11.76 lbs. Jim fished as a non-boater in the back of Chris Bolduc's Basscat. Jim and Chris were targeting bait in 30 feet of water but the wind and the waves were making it very difficult to execute. Jim noticed on the fish finder that the arches were showing up suspended about 10 feet under the surface. Jim started throwing a Rocky Ledge spinner bait out over the 30 foot depths and was rewarded with about 15 keepers. He had his limit by 11:00 AM about an hour after he started throwing his spinnerbait.

Taking the First Loser's Pool was Tom Lamb with another nice bag of smallies. Tom could not hold on his usual open water humps because of the wind and the waves. After half the day was already passed Tom decided to fish behind an island that was for the most part, protected from the wind. Tom said it was an area he fished a long time ago and decided to try it again because it did offer protection. His pattern consisted of motoring up ahead of the area and letting the boat drift back over with the wind and the waves. He would continue this drift over and over through the rest of the day catching his limit by 1:30. He managed to boat 15 keepers on his spot using spidergrub on football heads as well as a few on a Carolina Rigged lizard in 25 to 32 feet of water. Some of his deeper fish came even deeper in 37 feet. Tom's final weight was a respectable 11.67 lbs.

Taking the Lunker Smallmouth award was Bruce Acox who landed a nice 2.99 lb smallie early in the morning. Bruce mentioned he struggled early in the day but was fortunate to revisit a spot he had caught a 3 lb smallie in a previous tournament. He said it was like Deja-Vu. He trolled up to the spot just like he did before and on the first cast he landed a nice smallie that was almost 3 lbs, just like he had done before.

Again we want to thank Arma Coatings of New Hampshire for all their support. Be sure to visit them online at www.ArmaCoatingOfNH.com. Our next club event brings us to the beautiful waterbody of Squam Lake on September 22nd. We look forward to seeing all the Bubbas then.

Quit Wishin, Go Fishing!!!