Rob Frye goes all the way for a win on Pawtuckaway.

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Bubba Bassin Club members fished the third draw trail tournament of the 2007 season on Lake Pawtuckaway in Nottingham/Raymond, NH on May 12, 2007. The day's forecast was expected to reach 65 degrees with up to 10 mph out of the ENE and eventually changing to ESE. The clouds intermittently blocked the sun’s rays but the sun stayed out most of the day which played a key role in a lot of the angler’s patterns to find fish. The water temps ranged around 66 to 69 degrees through out the lake.

With 61 anglers the tournament started around 7:15 and everyone was sent off to try and fulfill their two fish limit. This tournament should be known as the "Oh Boy" weigh-in. Those were the repeated words, "Oh Boy" every time a nice fish (20 kicker fish over 4 lbs) or bag (15 limits over 6 lbs) was brought into the scales. There would be 73 largies and 16 smallies brought in.

I relied heavily on the sun to watch cruising and staged fish in the shallows. I fished shallow all day finding fish in less than 2 feet of water to as little as 6 inches. I started in a shallow cove that was also being fished by David Tsao. I had witnessed him catch the first fish in the cove. I then proceeded to sight fish for two 3 lb bass that I was able to catch on a black/blue jig. I had my limit by 8:30 and watched Dave catch 1 more to fill his limit shortly after. As Dave said, it was now time to go "kicker" hunting.

I had a great day fishing tight to shore and being able to see fish up in the shallows. I caught around 20 bass on this day including three 4 lb'ers that I was able to cull-out. My key to success was to keep moving keeping an eye out for moving or staged fish with the bright sun shining down on them. I also used the calm shorelines that were protected by the wind to my advantage of being able to spot fish before they saw me. I witnessed a lot of big fish in the shallows last Wednesday and heard the same reports numerously from others. I knew with that many cruising bass in the shallow that they were actively feeding or staging for the spawn. My largest bass that I caught was cruising in about 1 feet of water. I was targeting a bass that I saw in the shallow reeds when a shadow caught my attention to my far left. It was a big bass chasing perch or sunfish. It was about 80 feet away and I cast my jig off my Quantum reel into the vicinity of the bass. My jig landed about 10 feet away and the big bass sped right over to my jig. It stopped to look at it and I just left the jig motionless and after a few seconds the bass sucked it in. It was a beautiful sight and I set the hook using my Castaway Rod. The bass took off and swam right at me. It came at me so fast from that far away that I just reacted when it came next to the boat and without hesitation I flipped that bad girl right onto the deck of the boat. I usually don't flip 5 lb'rs into the boat but I didn't have time to reach for the net and I wasn't sure on the hook set at that distance. I was pretty ecstatic at that time that I had to yell out a big "Wahoo"! The best part of this type of shallow fishing was I was able to see my entire bites take place except for two of them. One of those two that I didn’t see bite was my second biggest fish that I brought into the scales that help me take first place with 9.41 lbs. With this win it also earned me another $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.

Coming in second place was Martin Look with a just as impressive 9.13 lbs. Martin caught his fish early in the day also fishing shallow with a watermelon Senko fishing shallow shoreline. Martin was fishing the front of the boat and being the nice guy after he caught his two big fish early he gave the front of the boat to his non-boater for the rest of the day. He was one of the first to weigh in and held the lead thru the majority of the weigh-in until the very end when he was bumped to second.

Taking third place was John Diaco who also fished a black/blue jig in the shallows flipping to every piece of cover he could find. He stated that the water conditions with the high water made it perfect for flipping and pitching to shallow cover of brush and banks. The sun positioned a lot of these fish up tight that the jig just created the perfect reaction bites. He also caught around 20 bass on this day. John mentioned this was one of the best jig days he's had with so many big fish and said he caught 8 fish over 3.5 lbs. His total weight came in just under 9 pounds settling the digital scale's read-out at 8.92 lbs.

Taking the event's First Losers Pool was a weight of 8.83 lbs was caught by Mike Spurr. Mike caught his fish on jigs including the tournament's Lunker largemouth that weighed in at 5.43 lbs. Mike claimed he caught about 25 to 30 fish and had his limit in 10 minutes. Mike walked away with the biggest purse of the event of $500. Not a bad pay-out after paying in $25 which included the inexpensive $20 entrance fee and the optional $5 First Loser's pool.

Big Daddy, Mike McNamara fished shallow and deep to catch about 20 fish on the day. He used a white Sweet Beaver and also using a cinnamon grub that caught the lunker smallmouth of the event that weighed in at 3.27 lbs. Nice fish Mikey and congrats!

Congrats to our top 4 winners and Lunker winners but we also had a few other winners at this event. Winning the Free Entry give-away was Denise Allain. This turned out to be a nice Mother's Day surprise for her. Winning the Raymond Woods & Water gift certificate was Roland Rondeau. Thanks again to Raymond Woods & Water located in Raymond, NH at the intersection of route 27/156. Winning another door prize was Anthony Scianna Sr who won one of the original Bubba Bassin Club logo'd t-shirt. The last winner to get a free give-away was Greg Day who won a couple of buzz bait's from TNT-Lures donated by Marc Hamel. He also received a couple of Bob Beans custom made blade baits called Beans Buddys. Thank you Marc and Bob for the give-aways and they've given us plenty to give-away at the upcoming Bubba Draw events.

Thanks to our tournament directors Jim Peake and Bob Hurst for a great run tournament. We also want to thank Dave Tsao for handling registration. We appreciate everyone's patience that we have to endure with at this ramp and the alternate parking. Myself and Steve McCann (who we also thank) used our vehicles to shuttle 14 rigs and their drivers to the alternate parking over 2 miles away.

Our next stop on the Bubba Draw trail brings us to Shirley Resevoir in Shirley, MA. on June 2nd. If you don't have a Massachussetts fishing license this is a free fishing weekend in Massachusetts so can still come and join us without purchasing a MA license. Its another great fishery and by that time this will probably end the cold water spring fishing and the bass should be in post-spawn fishing patterns.

Thanks again for all those who came out to fish on a beautiful day and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms.

Quit Wishin, Go Fishing!!!
Rob F.