Lucky "3" for Rob Frye's win at the Bubba Bassin Draw on Winnipesaukee sponsored by Northeast Battery with the weigh-in presented by the New Hampshire Radio Network
Story by Rob Frye

Bubba Bassin Club had their 6th 2007 draw trail tournament on Lake Winnipesaukee on June 30th launching out of Ames Farm. Special thanks to the NH Radio Network for their onsite setup during the weigh-in and the tournament's sponsor, Northeast Battery. It was the day after a cold front had moved through and the day's forecast was for mostly sunny, highs in the upper 70's and wind 5-10 mph. The wind certainly was higher with wind gusts over 30 and large rollers out on the broads. With the combination of the waves from the high wind and the heavy weekend boat traffic we ended up with a couple of broken boats by the end of the day. Still all 63 anglers came in by the 3:30 return time to weigh-in their catch. All anglers who weighed in fish would then stick around for prizes to be given away including a brand new Trojan Battery provided by Northeast Battery and their representative, Jack Roy.

The weigh-in was a little bit more festive than usual. Roger Proulx and Andy Mack from the NH Radio Network was all set up with their PA system and over $500 worth of prizes that would be given away. They helped announce the weights as the anglers came through to weigh their fish. After each angler weighed in their fish they promptly brought them over to a tagging station staffed by 4 personnel from New Hampshire Fish & Game Department headed up by their Marine Biologist Warmwater Project Leader, Gabe Gries. This was the inaugural tournament that NHFG used to start their Bass tagging study out of Ames Farm. The purpose of this study is for NHFG to collect data on bass movement after being released from bass tournament weigh-ins held at Ames Farm Inn on Lake Winnipesaukee. Gabe and his crew did an excellent job tagging 95 fish that made it through the weigh-in with absolutely no delays. They even had extra precautionary measures to care for the fish for their safe return back to the lake. As a matter of fact, I spoke with Gabe the following Monday who informed me that one of the tagged bass was caught the next day. On Sunday there was another tournament launched out of Ames Farm. One of the anglers caught one very hungry bass that had a tag from Bubba Bassin's event. This was very exciting news to see how fast a bass will go right back into a feeding mode after being caught, weighed-in, and released the day before. Who knows, maybe it was just a largemouth that likes to go on boat rides.

After the fish were tagged the anglers then moved over to the Northeast Battery Wheel-of-Fortune to chance their opportunity to win one of the many prizes from NH Radio Network including the Trojan Battery provided by Northeast Battery.

Taking first place for this event was yours truly, Rob Frye with 8.70 lbs which included the tournament's lunker largemouth of the event at 5.06 lbs. This would be my Third win of the year which included a Draw win on Pawtuckaway and a Team win with Bruce Acox on Massabessic. This also meant this is my Third Skeeter Real Money win with a $1000 bonus from the Skeeter Real Money program. Thank you again to Skeeter Boats/Yamaha, Mark Burgess and especially to our faithful Skeeter Boats dealer, Irwin Marine for submitting the Bubba Bassin trail tournaments into the Skeeter Real Money program. It’s a terrific incentive for Skeeter/Yamaha owners who especially fish any of the Bubba Bassin tournaments. More details of this program including the opportunity to win $3000 can be viewed on the web at www.skeeterboats.com.

I was very fortunate and lucky with this win, which is probably credited to the fact I was able to get out and pre-fish on the previous Wednesday. On Wednesday my main goal was to find largies keying in on docks under the hot sun. I was fishing in areas that were new to me around Fish Cove. I didn't anticipate that I'd be doing any sight fishing, aka bed fishing, with it being so late in the year. I was in total shock and awe while pre-fishing that I stumbled onto two large fish "doing the dance" over a bed. Neither of them had seen me since I saw them from a distance in the clear Lake Winni waters with the sun directly overhead. Just out of curiosity I made a long pitch with a 6 inch Junebug Senko on 15 pound P-line. It landed directly on top of them and the bigger one that I guessed for 5 lbs came up and sucked it in. I set the hook and out came the bait and hook flying straight at me as she must have spit it out just in time. I thought well that's no problem I might as well just hope for the best and hope that they are still on that bed come Saturday. I trolled over closer to the bed and as soon as I got near both fish started circling further away. I looked at the bed and was even more amazed to see yet another smaller bass in the middle of the bed. Three fish to a bed! I knew it was a male, and a lucky male at that, with two she-fishes. I was guessing almost a 4 lb'r and a 5 lb female on the same bed. I was able to catch the male with my jig pretty quickly and weighed it at 3.03 lbs. Nice sized buck bass. I released him and he went right back to the bed. I stuck around to see if the other two would come back and surely they did eventually. So now all I could do was hope for the best that these THREE fish would be there on Saturday but of course, I had high doubts. I would be happy even if just one of those fish stuck around, and not to mention, hoped no one else found them. Come Saturday's send-off I went straight there for my first spot and I was happy to see the 3 lb male and the 4 lb female. It took me about 90+ minutes to catch both of them with the 3 lb'r caught on a white jig and the 4 lb'r caught on a 5 inch green pumpkin senkos. I then dragged my non-boater, Jim Wolford, to a couple of other spots that consumed about 2 to 3 hours and then decided I would make one more return to the bed to see if the 5 lb'r showed up. We came up to the bed and I didn't see anything and then as we were about to leave Jim saw her almost directly below the boat. I couldn't believe that she was still around. We spent about 30 more minutes with her but she kept swimming under a boat dock every time we got too close or cast at her. I decided to leave thinking she was un-catchable. About 2 hours more went by and I just had to return to try again. On this THIRD return the wind was blowing pretty good that I couldn't even see if she was on the bed so I just blind-cast my big Senko on top of the bed. I let it sit on the bed for about 15 seconds and then started to reel my line in and then noticed my line was swimming out away from the bed. My heart started pumping and I set the hook and WOW, she was on there! I yelled to Jim, "I GOT HER!!" Now Jim thought, no way, you are just kidding but than he saw her jump and he quickly went for the net. I reeled her over to the net and into the boat she went. I was bringing her for a ride to the weigh-in. Talk about being pumped up!!!

As windy as it was I would not have been able to execute the decisions that I made without my three onboard Trojan batteries and my 101 pound thrust MinnKota trolling motor. Not only do they support Bubba Bassin but most of all, they make the best products that are unbeatable. We had the Bubba Bassin Team event the next day and these products over produced again on back-to-back days.

Coming in second place with one smallmouth and one largemouth was Mark Peabody with a total weight of 8.47 lbs. His two fish limit also consisted the tournaments lunker smallmouth at 3.87 lbs. Mark had the lead position and the leading lunker largemouth through most of the weigh-in. Mark's chance for the "Hat Trick" or "Triple Crown" lasted right up till the last angler weighed-in the sand bagging winning limit. Mark limited out on smallies by 8 AM and by 9 he had 6.25 lbs worth of smallies including the lunker, all caught on Senkos in 3-6 feet in weeds. After 9 AM he started searching for largie kickers and started flipping a jig & pig. He targeted Moultonborough area up to Greens Basin in the weeds, rocks & weeds, and docks. Mark claims this was one of his best days on Winni with the jig/pig while catching over 10 keepers with five over 3 lbs. He was having lots of fun culling out 3.75 pounders. He kept wondering if he would have the dilemma of "what if" he caught a bigger largie than his almost 4 lb smallie. He said if it happened he would opt to keep the 3.87 lb smallie to win lunker smallmouth award. Even though it was one of his best days on Winni he admitted that it came with a price with a broken boat from the Windy day. Another interesting moment was when he caught his 5 lb'r he didn't realize it was bigger than it really was so he swung it up not knowing, and it broke his rod. He also found that the bite was difficult to feel because of the wind so he relied on watching his line movement.

Third place went to a veteran of Bubba Bassin that we haven't seen in awhile. Chris Bolduc took 3rd place in his brand new BassCat that he bought through Owen's Marine in Hooksett, NH. Chris had a nice weight of 8.08 lbs with two largemouth bass.
Chris caught about 30 largies in the Meredith area flipping a creature bait in the bay area. He caught his limit right off the start with a RockyLedge spinnerbait. Chris also mentions he had one hell of a ride on the way back with the rolling waves. Chris was happy to be back fishing with the Bubba Bassin guys and hopes to fish a lot more this season. He appreciates all the hard work that is shared by many especially our Draw Tournament Directors Bob Hurst and Jim Peake AND our volunteer Registration King, David Tsao.

Taking the First Loser's Pool was Greg Saulnier. He too had a blast on Winni catching a lot of his fish on the old reliable Carolina Rigged Lizard. He caught his biggest smallmouth on the CRL and the other fish that he brought to the weigh-in was a largie caught off a senko. Greg claims he had his limit by 10 AM and was culling out ounces through out the day. It was enough to take home the $255 FLP award.

We also want to congratulate the winners of our many give-aways at this event. Our free entry winner went to Mike Day. Mike can use this free entry to any of the remaining 2007 Bubba Bassin Draw tournaments. Brad Russell won a TNT buzzbait lure custom made and donated by our very own Marc Hamel. Kevin Parragher won a nice Beans Buddy Blaidbait custom made and donated by Bob Lavierriere. Prizes donated by the New Hampshire Radio Network were also given away at this event. We want to thank again for Roger Proulx and Andy Mack for coming to our event and we hope to see them again soon. Chris Bolduc won a pair of tix to the Castle in the Clouds. Jim Wolford won a trip to the Squam Lakes Association obervatory and a free tour trip on Squam Lakes. Greg Saulnier won a round of golf at Canterbury which also included a free use of a golf cart. Our grand prize
winner of the Trojan Battery donated by Northeast Battery went to Brad Russell. Brad was excited since he just bought a brand new MinnKota trolling motor this year and needed one more battery. He was very grateful to Northeast Battery and wants to thank them.

Well that's the end of my story, sorry so long but glad you read it. Our next stop for the Bubba Bassin Club Draw tournament trail is our fun-filled NIGHT Tournament. This year we go to Ossipee, where they make'em B.I.G.!! We've all seen or heard of the big weights up on Ossipee, now come join us in trying to catch them when the bite can be the best. The adventure of a night tournament is we fish from 7pm till 7am. You get the best of THREE bites; the evening bite, the nighttime bite, and the early morning sunrise bite!!! Yeah baby, count me in!! Stay tuned on our website's bulletin board, we'll make sure we have the members throw up some advise about what to bring to a night tournament. It's a different experience, so expect the Best
and the "Funnest"!!

Quit Wishin, Go Fishing!!!