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Final Sweetheart trail tournament won by Denise Allain and Gary Croteau on Winni.

Story by Mike McNamara

This is the closure of a wonderful first year of the sweetheart trail. Many thank you’s go out to all those that helped to make this first year such a success from those that helped with parking, registrations, weigh in’s to those that put on such a great end of trail barbecue for everyone. So much effort has been put into making this first year a success and it sure did pay off. A round of applause must be shared for Elizabeth and Greg Day tournament directors, along with their posse Sue and Bob Hurst, Betty and Alan Denise, Sara and Mike McNamara, Denise Allain and Gary Croteau, Deb Ash and Mike Spurr, Kelly McNamara and Jim Peake and I am sure we are forgetting a few others, so thank you to all. You ladies rock for getting that barbecue going and helping with the photo shoots and putting up with the cranky old men and yes some cranky young men. Just my take on things.

Before we get to the results, let me share with you some of what I heard at the fish sink. This is just my opinion of what I heard, my opinion, a whole lot of smack talk that this sweetheart or that sweetheart caught all the fish, caught all the big ones, I carried him, I was on fire (her), he got hissy, he got with the program finally. Great to be a fly on the wall or in my case a fly on the sink. While I was at the sink, I could feel the drama starting, almost as a good as the Olympics.

The first place winning team of the final sweetheart trail tournament was Denise Allain and Gary Croteau. Congratulations. The winning weight was 16.26. We had a can of whoop ass get opened up, I heard it all first hand, the lady of the lake opened up a can of whoop ass and got jiggy with a jig. Yeah you heard me, no more Senkos for this lady, she is fishing a black and blue jig, guys look out or should we say Gary look out. She told this reporter, Gary missed a fish, and she ohhhh picked up her jig, flipped it in and ohhh magic. The big fish in the net. Kudos to the lady of the lake. They talked to having their limit around 10:30, culled a few times, had a beautiful day. Absolutely enjoyed themselves. Denise and Gary thanked everyone for a great year.

Moving on to second place Kelly McNamara and Jim Peake with 15.61. They also had the lunker smallmouth at 3.80. Some special thank you’s need to go out to the England brothers and the England brother’s bait company. Kelly and Jim were feeling pretty special Saturday morning when Wayne England hand delivered the now to be called the “Peake’s special” football head. (so lets all get busy and call up the England Brothers because they used this jig all day and caught many, many ,many fish with it.) While I was at the sink I observed a little game face going on from Kelly McNamara. Kelly and a few of the girls were taking the photos but as we weighed some of these larger smallmouths, Miss Kelly promptly observed the fish in the sink and then stepped back with that game face. We all realized why once she weighed their big fish. Yes they took lunker smallmouth and second place. And yes they had a wonderful day. You could see it in their smiles. Congratulations. Oh we might add this, because of the very tight schedule of family, friends and other personal commitments this was their first sweetheart tournament of the year. It was good to see my baby throwing some smack down .

Rolling on down to our third place winners are Deb Ash and Mike Spurr with 13.83. You know this couple by their sweet new ride, the Deb Ash “real them in” pickup with a hemi. Isn’t that new Skeeter going to look sporty hauled by that “reel them in” ride next year. Deb has a plan. This couple spoke mostly of main lake humps, concentrating on smallies in 15 -20 feet using spider grubs. Later in the day moving into Lees Mills got the rest of their fish, culled four times for a sweet bag of 13.83. So at the scale I asked Deb, so Deb did you catch all the fish and she said I caught my half, but it weighed ;) more than his half . So I guess from the wink I got from Deb, she carried Mike. LOL

Coming in fourth place Cheryl and Tom Hansen. Glad you could join us. Tom it looked like Cheryl had a good time. You must have been a good guide because we know that Cheryl caught all the fish and you were relegated to being a net boy. Another almost lost / missed fish, but got it in the nick of time, Tom being relegated to the net boy almost missed Cheryl’s fish and almost went swimming but he saved the day and his ass by “getting –R – done”. So if we had an award for “getting –R- don”, Tom you would have won . They talked to catching most of their fish on a Carolina rigged lizard. Had their limit at 1 pm ,and culled a few more times for a total of 13.46.

Now to that coveted first loser, this is where most of our partners (ladies) blush slightly, because at the photo op, we all know the sign. It was Jayla and John Hooper’s first tournament with us having so much fun with it all. They caught their limit by 10 am, culled about 8 times.

Ok, just as a reminder to all, trophies for first, second and third place teams along with trophies for biggest largemouth (no that trophy wont go to me;-) and smallmouth . Results and final standings will be coming soon, but in the meantime, for the large fish, let me through out some numbers. Smallmouth – 4..35, 4.34, 3.80 largemouth 4.36, 5.28, 3.49. Can you guess??? Stay in touch with the bubba page, all trophies will be given out at the annual Bubba Bassin Banquet.

Coming back for sure next year, Madison and David Tsao, winning a free entry for the annual sweetheart tournament, which we hope will be again on the original water, Massabesic.

Beth and Greg are making plans for next year’s sweetheart trail and we are hoping for a return to the same venues. Keep your fingers crossed that the state will allow us that luxury. Been a wonderful year, Beth and Greg did a great job. You can see that at every single tournament, where daughters and fathers, wives and husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends etc, had a wonderful time sharing stories, smack and fishing. Smiles ear to ear, can’t ask for more than that.

All the above remarks are mine and mine alone. No has forced me or paid me to lie / cheat / steal or tell the above stories. They are true to the best of my (and the ladies) knowledge.