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| FishTails |
Smallmouth Pattern Gives Ohio Team Bass Festival Victory
[June 11, 2002] - By Chris Lawrence
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| Butch and Cindy Fulks. |
(St. Mary's) - When your trying to win the biggest bass tournament in West Virginia, it pays to show up with a
plan. For many of the nearly 300 anglers in the 2002 West Virginia Bass Festival, that plan was erased at the pre-tournament
meeting. Numerous fishermen had located bass along the walls of the various lock chambers dotting the Ohio River.
"During the pre-fish I went in there and had 14 pounds in 45-minutes." Said Bob Harkness of Elizabeth,
West Virginia. Harness and partner Buddy Davis finished second with 20lbs-4oz. "For some reason this year,
those fish have really been stacking up on those areas. When they put it off limits it hurt a lot of people."
WV Bass Federation President John Burdette announced the new rule to those gathered for the pre-tournament meeting.
"It's been put off limits by the Corps of Engineers." Says Burdette; "It's actually been a law for
a long time that you can't fish in there, but in the past they've always looked the other way. Now they've decided
to enforce it for safety."
Given the state of the world today, most believed the aftershocks of September 11th played a role, but in reality
a collision between a barge and boat on the Allegheny River in the Pittsburgh District in late May played the bigger
role.
"They say as you come out from behind that wall against the bank, you're pulling right into the path of boats
coming out of the pleasure boat chamber." Said Burdette, "They were afraid somebody was going to get
hurt."
Those who didn't have their fishing hopes dashed with the new rules may have seen their pre-fishing zapped by heavy
rains that elevated water levels for the first day of the two day affair.
Father and son duo Mark and Dave King of Ohio say the water level helped their decision.
"With the water up, we were hoping the largemouth bite would be off and the smallmouth wound be on."
Said Mark King. "We were pretty confident in a smallmouth pattern we'd located."
Confidence had to be soaring since they took a gamble and ran 70-miles to Pike Island.
"We had a spot we'd found in pre-fishing that was about 50-yard long and we worked it all day. The water was
up and we found them in a bank full of rocks. We caught about 15 pounds on Saturday, but Sunday was a struggle."
The difference says King, and many other anglers, who were hooked into the same general pattern, were water levels.
"When we got there Sunday we knew we were in trouble." Noted King, "The places we'd been catching
fish were out of the water. We managed to catch four, but that was it."
Those four proved just enough to preserve the win for the two with just over 22-lbs to lead all anglers in the
two day affair. King says he and his dad used their go-to bait to score the large stringer and eke out the four
bites from Saturday.
"It's a custom hand-poured bait a guy makes for me in Columbus. It's kind of a Reaper in a pumpkin color,
only darker."
Harkness and Davis, the second place finishers, were stung by the high water from day one.
"We couldn't buy a bite in the areas we pre-fished," says Harkness, "They just weren't there or
they weren't biting."
The tandem relied on years of experience in fishing the mighty Ohio to carry them along with a little luck. Like
the Kings, Harkness and Davis headed up river in search of smallmouth and finally found them in a way many of us
only dream of.
"We knew a spot on the Ohio side where we've caught fish before, but they weren't there." Explains Harness,
"The current was so swift we were drifting and fighting the trolling motor. We rolled into a slack water area
where there was a break in the current and caught one."
Motoring back above the area, another drift produced another keeper and the Wirt County pair had discovered their
"honey-hole."
"They were just laying in there like stocked trout! We caught 7 in there on Saturday and 13 on Sunday. We
even caught 'em like trout. Throw that tube into the current and let it drift in there and you'd get bit."
It wasn't a perfect weekend, but dang near it. Harkness and Davis broke off two fish, at least one of which showed
itself to be two-pounds plus. Any one of those may have put them over the top.
"I was pleased to death." Says Harkness; "We'd never caught a limit at the festival. It was the
best one we ever had."
Ohio anglers John Womeldorf and Tony Waugh nailed down third. Butch and Cindy Fulks of Sistersville, West Virginia
caught a five-pound smallmouth as the tournament lunker.
"It was a really good tournament." Noted Burdette, "Our volunteers did a great job and the anglers
were really good at cooperating. We started every morning at 6:30 after everybody was in the water and ready to
go."
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| Mark King and his partner. |
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