The day started off with temps in the mid 40's for a chilly start with cold winds blowing 10+ mph out of the NNE. The forecast was calling for a colder day with a high of 55 degrees, compared to the previous days of 60+ degrees. If you were positioned in the wind it felt much colder but if you were out of the wind and if the sun peaked thru the clouds it felt like it was in the high 70's. That's the way the day went, one moment you were shedding clothing and then a few minutes later you were throwing them back on.
 
With a total of 36 teams registered in the morning we started out the second Team Bubba Open of the year on Lake Massabessic that borders Auburn and Manchester, NH. After our brief pre-tournament meeting we started our motors and took off under way to our start spots. The morning water temps was around 52 degrees with the cold winds keeping the surface temp pretty steady through out the day.  
 
Myself and Buce Acox went to our start spot which was back towards the ramp into the river that flows into the lake. I had prefished the previous Tuesday night after work and landed a nice 6 lb largie off a piece of shoreline structure. We pulled into the river and started throwing spinnerbaits and rattle traps. We made our way over to the structure that I pulled my 6 pounder off and pitched a jig up tight. I was about to start retrieving the Tournament Force Tackle jig back and felt a couple of thumps. I then set the hook and instantly realized that I never checked my drag on my Quantum reel as the line started pulling out way too easily. I didn't have time at that split moment to adjust the drag on my Quantum as the bass started swimming towards the boat and then made a dash back to the cover. With much anticipation I finally had the chance to tighten the drag and work the bass on my Castaway rod back towards Bruce with the net. In came our first fish that weighed 4 lbs on the culling scale. That was a sweet start, wasn't exactly 6 lbs but it wasn't too shabby either. We fished most of that river and was thinking about heading to our next spot when Bruce jigged up our next fish about an hour later to put our second one in the boat. We spent another hour, but that was it, the river was getting busy with boats coming in and out trying their luck. We proceded to Battery Point on the main lake of the Auburn side and try some rattle traps and crank baits. I had hooked into a 3+ smallie there last Tuesday but we didn't come up with anything on this stop. We then went to the Manchester side to a cove that I had caught 3 nice largies under the same brush pile during pre-fishing. It was nice to see no one in the cove and I trolled right to the brush pile and then "bang-bang" we had two largies in the boat that filled our limit by 10:30. We ended our day with 12 keepers in the boat (and 3 drops), all caught shallow of less than 3 feet on rattle-traps, spinnerbaits and jigs. The majority of our bites, including 3 of our 4 fish limit, came off of a black/gold RockyLedge vibra-bug spinnerbait that we worked with constant-medium retrieves. The fish were crushing this little spinnerbait in the shallows. That little bait helped us take 1st place with 13.18 pounds. We cashed in at $600 for first place and because I registered with the Skeeter Real Money program I also earned another $1000. Thank you 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 into second place was the team of Rich Lavoie and Fred Mills who brought in 4 nice largies that weighed in at 13.09 lbs. Their kicker fish caught on a jig weighed in at 4.35 lbs. Their kicker just missed the lunker largemouth pool out of the five 4 lb'ers weighed in at the tournament. Congrats to Rich and Fred for their nice bag and earning themselves $380.
 
Third place went to the team of Bob Marcoux and Jim Wilcox. They had 4 good bites on jigs and jerk baits. They claimed they did a lot of running around the lake to get their bites to earn $245. It was nice to see that no one reported seeing a rooster tail on the back of Bob Marcoux's boat this time . The top 3 teams of any of the Team Bubba tournaments automatically qualify for the Team Bubba Tournament of Champions tournament on Winnipesaukee slated for October 28th.
 
Fourth place went to the team of Joe White and Tim Linehan. Joe and Tim also ventured into the river next to the ramp in the early morning. They fished spinnerbaits and green tube baits. I was kidding with Joe earlier in the day telling him that Tim was going to carry the weight today since Joe had done well at our previous tournament on Massabessic by taking the lunker largemouth of that tournament. Little did we know at that time, but Tim did catch their two biggest fish both weighing over 4 lbs. They spent the morning in the river and then left but ended coming back to spend the rest of the day in the river with the multitudes of boats also visiting. Tim caught his big fish on the green tube bait that he was working slow in less than 3 feet of water. Joe mentioned they were culling by 10:00 but they couldn't cull out their two smaller fish but it was enough weight to take 4th with 10.92 lbs and earn $150.
 
Fifth place went to last year's first place team of the Team Bubba trail of Bob Goss and Frank Campisi. Bob and Frank brought in 2 largemouth and 2 smallmouth including the tournament's Lunker Smallmouth that weighed in at 3.47 lbs. Their total weight scaled in at 10.82 lbs and cashed a $90 check.
 
Sixth place went to a rookie team of Matt Stephan and Marc Poirier. Matt and Marc were locals to Massabessic and did very well on their home lake with the last weight over ten pounds in today's tournament. They brought in 10.49 lbs with 4 largies. They caught their fish on senkos in shallow water. Way to go guys, we always enjoy seeing new teams fishing with us, as well as cashing a check. They also cashed in the last pay-out spot of today's tournament to earn their tournament entrance fee back of $50.
 
Coming in with just under 10 pounds with 4 largies totaling 9.97 lbs was the team of Jim Peake and Chris Jean. Jim and Chris started off the morning fishing jerk baits and rattle traps on shallow flats near the ramp. They ended up catching their bag on jigs in the shallows and up tight to shore.  It pays to be a loser in Bubba Bassin since they walked away with the First Loser's Pool that totaled $340. Congrats to Jim and Chris for being our First Losers.
 
I didn't get a chance to interview our winners like I normally do so hopefully the winners will stick around in the future tournaments to help share some of the information that they implemented to catch their winning weights. Special thanks go out to our hard working tournament directors, Kevin Phaneuf and John Woodman. We also want to thank those who volunteer their time in helping with the morning registration like Scott Weinhold, Dennis Watson, Henry and Lisa Boone. Thanks a lot folks! We had a total of 14 smallies and 56 largies weighed in and all released alive. There were 13 teams that full filled their limits out of the 36 teams.
 
Our next stop on the Team Bubba trail is on the mighty Merrimack River launching out of Lawrence, MA. For June 3rd. For those who do not have a Massachusetts fishing license and want to fish this event we have good news for you. The weekend of June 2nd and 3rd is Free Fishing in the State of Mass. For those who enjoyed Massabessic we want to inform you of one of our upcoming events called the Bubba Bassin Sweetheart Tournament for July 14th. More details of these upcoming events can be found on the website and on our Schedules page.
 
 
Quit Wishin, Go Fishing!!!
 
Rob Frye