On Sunday April 17, the Watershed Bassmasters held their 3rd Annual Poppa J Memorial opening tournament to kick off the 2016 season. Mother Nature was cooperative, giving us beautiful spring weather conditions. The fish appeared unimpressed though as the day proved to be very tough.

Out of 16 anglers participating, only 3 five fish limits were brought to the scales. Timmy Thompson's live wells accounted for 2 of the limits and were good enough to secure the 2nd & 3rd place positions. Tim had 7 keepers and culled-up to a weight of 9.28lbs. All fell victim to a Deep Shadow Rap jerkbait.

Following a one year sabbatical, Mike Iannucci kicked in the door to announce his return with a weight of 11.59 lbs. Good enough for 2nd place and less than 4oz. out of first, Mike’s mixed bag of 5 fish came from a combination of jerkbaits and hair jigs. He also accredited much of his success on Sunday to the fact that his guide had him around fish for the majority of the day. (Although it is not against the rules to hire a guide on tournament day, we might want to close that loop)

But in the end, the day belonged to Greg Menchen. His 11.79 lb. bag of smallmouth was enough for the victory. Greg reported only 5 bites all day with 2 of them coming in the last hour of the tournament.  At the weigh in he explained how he caught his fish despite the slow bite. Greg is very good at using his electronics (as obsolete as they are) and very early in the day determined the fish were not active. He had practiced for half a day on Saturday catching only one fish so he knew it was going to be a “slow go”. Jerkbaits and soft plastics were used to catch his fish but the real key was dealing with the slime coated weeds that seemed to be all over the lake. Greg said he had to make multiple casts in an area looking for a hard bottom and was constantly either getting hung up or cleaning gunk from his baits. Total concentration in dealing with the frustration helped to keep his head in the game.

Greg’s bag was anchored by a 4.01lb smallmouth that just edged out Jordan Catala's 3.97lb fish for the day's lunker.

We would also like to welcome aboard a couple of WBM “rookies” that made their club debut at Candlewood. Rick Faubert and Rob Lopez. Both accomplished anglers in their own right, they look forward to learn and share some fishing knowledge with the rest of the team. Next up is East Twin Lake on Sunday May 1st.