Mike Spurr reels in unbelievable 20 plus pound sack of smallies

Long distance drive for a long distance tournament for most of the Bubba Bassin Club members who fished the annual night tournament hosted this year on Ossipee Lake. Ossipee Lake is the furthest North tournament scheduled on the Bubba Bassin trails. A Very Special Thanks to Quinn's Trading Post from Wakefield, NH who is sponsoring all three of the Bubba Ossipee tournaments, one from each trail.

This would be the seventh tournament out of the ten scheduled tournaments for the Bubba Bassin Club Draw trail. The forecast looming for this 7:00 PM till 7:00 AM event was looking like raingear was going to be an absolute necessary. On the drive north many experienced heavy spot down pours and the weather predicted 60% passing showers and/or thunderstorms. Thankfully, the weather man was incorrect and we were presented with a beautiful "almost" full moon through the majority of the night. The water temp was luke warm at 78 degrees throughout most of the lake on this mid-summer July night.

At the 7:00 AM return time back at the ramp and weigh-in site there were rumors passing around that someone had caught over 20 pounds. First thoughts in many minds was a 20 pound sack of Ossipee Largemouth. There were dock-talk discussions from anglers who claimed they caught 35 keepers thought out the night like Bruce Acox who was favored on this lake due to his recent successful outings on Lake Ossipee. Others claimed they only had 1 or two fish from the long night. Either way, we were waiting to find out who faired the best from this event.

Right off the bat, because "Curious Minds wanted to Know", we had Mike Spurr weigh in the supposedly 20 pound bag. What Mike did was amazing and a record for Bubba Bassin. He brought in the biggest 5 fish bag ever recorded in the history of Bubba Bassin! Congrats to Mike Spurr on an unbelievable 20.16 lb bag with 5 smallmouth...that included four over 4 lbs....that included a 4.89 lb smallie that took the Lunker Smallmouth award. Mike and his ST-15 foot Skeeter bass boat is on fire this year! Mike has already made it known that he looks forward to purchasing a brand new Skeeter bass boat. Mike states it only makes sense to buy a new Skeeter bass boat with Bubba Bassin participating in the Skeeter Real Money program. You would want to participate in the bonus program to earn an extra 3000 dollars through this great bonus program.

When planning for the Ossipee night tourney, Mike thought there was a certain percentage of the bass population that exclusively feed at night. Especially the big ones. And he thought this was even more the case with big Smallmouth bass. His objective was to find a way to target these bass and hope to get sufficient numbers of 3+ pounders for a good bag. With the water temp being around 80 degrees and a full moon, he was definitely going with top-water. He chose points and grass/weed lines on the main lake as a starting point to try to find these big smallies. He arrived at the first point at about 7:30 and chucked a baby bass colored Storm Chug Bug out into 15’ of water on the outer edge. He didn’t even get to move it before SLAM! The 4.86lb smallie nailed it! What a good fight! It was already time to turn on the live-wells and start praying the battery lasts. He threw the chug bug until it got dark. The pattern was repeated on multiple points and drop-offs around the main lake. Mike said he was actually able to follow their movement from around 15’ deep to the very outside edge of weed lines and weed points in about 5’ of water as it got dark and then back again to deep water as the sun came up in the morning. The bite was not what he would call on fire, but consistent with a good hit about every 20 minutes. Once it got dark, the Chug Bug bite died off and he switched to a black Accent B2 buzz bait. This was easier for the fish to track on the surface. Mike had a good limit by about 10pm and culled out all his 2 pounders by 1am. By 3am he had traded two 3 pounders for two more 4+ lb footballs! When the sun started to rise the buzz bait bite died off and he switch back to the chug bug. He caught several more good size smallies but nothing that would cull.

Coming in second place with a mix bag of 3 largemouth and 2 smallmouth was David Tsao who brought in 16.05 lbs. David claims he fished throughout the night on 2 clumps of grass patches. He traveled back and forth to these two productive main-lake spots and managed to catch 15 keepers using a buzzbait and a jitterbug. His biggest came off the buzzbait. Dave's night was not a quick-start night after going 3 hours without a bite. He started the night at his start-spot that he prefished near the dam where he was productive during pre-fishing but caught nothing there during the tournament. Not until he came to his grass patches that he started catching fish. He claims he had an even bigger fish than his 5.51 pounder that he did manage to bring in. He had the bigger fish right to the boat and all he need to do was net it. When he went to net it in the dark the net collided with the fish and unhooked the bass, and in the process, knocked over his expensive Team Daiwa rod and reel combo. After the weigh-in was over and everyone went home Dave took a ride to the area he lost the bass and his rod. He was psyched to find it in the clear main lake and then able to retrieve it in 10 feet of water (the rod/reel combo, but not the bass).

Third place went to Dan Vasquez who also brought in a mixed bag of 2 largies and 3 smallies. His biggest was a 5.58 lb largie which brought his total weight to 15.41 lbs. Dan shared that he caught 10 keepers on big jointed Jitterbug and a 6 inch Senko in the main lake. Dan targeted mostly 9 feet of water to catch his limit by 2:30 AM.

Our First Losers Pool winner was Mike Pierog who had 15.26 lbs with 4 largies and 1 smallmouth. Mike's kicker weighed in at 4.65 lbs where he caught it in Pine River. Mike had 7 keepers throughout the night using a broken-back Jitterbug. He targeted shore line hitting weeds, wood and rock that he could see in the moon-lit night.

The top 3 of this tournament also received gift certificates presented by Quinn's Trading Post who sponsored this event. As mentioned above, thanks to Bill and Chrissy Quinn of Quinn's Trading Post for supporting Bubba Bassin. Bubba Bassin has Ossipee tournaments, one from each trail. Bill and Chrissy will be awarding gift certificates for the top 3 winners of each event. The next Ossipee tournament dates are August 8th for the Bubba Midweek, and August 12th for the Team Bubba Tournament. Be sure to stop by their place located on route 16 in Union, NH before you get to Ossipee. They are less than 2 miles on your left after passing exit 18 on route 16. Look for the live lobster signs up on the weekends.

Visit their website at http://www.QuinnsTradingPost.com. They have a full line of bass fishing gear including Yamamoto products, Yum baits, and Lil' Hustler baits. Bubba Bassin members will be given a 20% off any bass fishing supplies if you let them know you are a Bubba Bassin member. They even gave us some free product and the winners of Quinn's Trading Post give-aways were Rob Frye, Dave Tsao, Gene Brady and Steve O'Brien.

Our lunker largemouth award went to Gary Croteau who sweated out his 5.78 pound largemouth during the morning weigh-in. He weighed in early and had to wait it out while seeing all the big largies being weighed in. He almost had 1st Losers Pool but instead had to settle for 2nd loser's with still an impressive weight of 14.15 lbs.

Our Free Entry went to Dan Debutts who has a free entry into any of the remaining 2007 Bubba Bassin Club Draw tournaments.

Speaking of, our next Club tournament is on August 18th on Lake Winnipesaukee sponsored by Arma Coating of New Hampshire. The tournaments that Arma Coatings of New Hampshire will be sponsoring are as follows;
Bubba Bassin Club Draw Trail tournament on August 18th on Lake Winnipesaukee,
Bubba Midweek Trail tournament on August 22nd on Lake Winnipesaukee,
and the Team Bubba Trail tournament on September 2nd also on Lake Winnipesaukee.
They will be donating certificates to the top three spots for each of these tournaments as well as door prize give-aways at the Draw and Midweek tournaments. We'll see you there.

Quit Wishin, Go Fishing!!!

Rob F.