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| FishTails |
Weather was a key factor at Burnsville Sunday
[April 22, 2002] - By Chris Lawrence
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| A rain-soaked crowd gathered for the weigh-in at the 2002 WVBF Burnsville
Buddy Trail Tournament April 21. |
2002 WVBF Buddy Trail
Tournament #2 of 6
April 21, 2002
Burnsville Lake
There's a line from the movie "Forest Gump", in which he notes he saw just about every kind of rain there
was while serving in Vietnam. Anglers in the second leg of the West Virginia Bass Federation Buddy Trail can now
say the same thing. The April 21st event included fat rain, skinny rain, big rain, little rain, pretty rain, ugly
rain, rain that came straight down, rain that came sideways, and rain that actually came up instead of down. Tournament
conditions were rainy-stupid is as stupid does.
As miserable as conditions were at Burnsville, they could have been far worse-fishermen needed to think only of
the Sutton tournament two weeks earlier to find a comparison that made you appreciate the conditions a little more.
What made matters harder to stomach may have been the 80 and 90-degree weather in the day's preceding the tournament.
By Sunday, most patterns that anglers had hammered out in practice were blown up and it was time to start from
scratch. Rain is something every trail team has to deal with-but few would argue it's easier to deal with if you're
catching fish.
Ed Bryan and Tim Issacs couldn't argue with how the day started.
"I caught the big one on the first cast." Said Issacs.
The big one was a 5lb-2oz largemouth that anchored the day for the long time friends.
"After that we never got another bite, and we were getting a little worried until this afternoon. We picked
up a few more." Says Bryan.
Bryan and Issacs put together a 15lb-6oz stringer to best the field of 87 boats. The tandem caught their fish on
lizards and tubes in 10-to-12 feet of water.
Without question there were big fish caught at Burnsville, but putting several together proved tough. David and
Ray Vincent scored the tournament lunker with a 6lb-13oz monster that not only won big fish honors, but the single
fish also placed the brothers in the money.
Second place finishers Steve Ingram and Jeff Jones admit things came together nicely considering they weren't sure
which way to go.
"We really didn't have a pattern figured out." Says Jones, "We caught mostly short fish early, the
keepers didn't start coming until about noon."
Jones and Ingram relied on plastics in 12 feet of water to bring them a solid second place bag with six fish weighing
12-2.
"We should have had 16 pounds, we lost numbers 7, 8, and 9-all good fish."
Always tough Alan Fluharty and Lester Marsh scored a third place finish with 9-00.
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| Hot coffee with a side of crankbait was the order for this competitor
following a long day in the cold and rainy weather. |
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| A nice Burnsville largemouth is weighed in. |
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| David and Ray Vincent scored the tournament lunker with a 6lb-13oz
monster that not only won big fish honors, but the single fish also placed the brothers in the money. |
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